patron saint of [error: not found]

cosmic joke without a punchline call me emry | 25 | they/them

[firstfullmoon]

Robert Wood Lynn, “There is Only One Ocean”

[cidham]

amir khusrow (1253–1325 CE)

[cherepashkadrabbles]

This is back on my dash! And listen, I love to see Amir Khusrau getting appreciation, but this translation ignores a lot. The original rhymes! And scans! And does playful things with register! And conveys a tone of affectionate banter between the two speakers, not least because it has them both addressing each other as sakhi (translated above as “girl”) in the last two lines. I think taking some liberties with line order is worth it to preserve more of the rest—and I think there’s a better translation of sakhi. And so:

He only visits once a year, I splurge big on him when he’s here, His kisses make my tastebuds tango. Who, bitch, your man? Nah, bitch, a mango.

[seekingstars]

HOW’S THAT HOUSE THAT RAISED YOU? - Lev St. Valentine

[havingapoemwithyou]

Solitude by Franny Choi

[heartpdf]

[werewolf-transgenderism]

[feral-ballad]

Tawanda Mulalu, from Please Make Me Pretty, I Don't Want to Die: Poems; “Clarity”

[havingapoemwithyou]

Earl by Louis Jenkins

[flamingkorybante]

My friend worked with the People With AIDS Coalition in 1990 and found this while cleaning out some old folders. I can't stop thinking about it.

[dogrotpdf]

how’s that house that raised you?

[wizardarchetypes]

not to be corny but I think I once wrote an emo poem about all of this hold on.

[wizardarchetypes]

I wrote this exploring the voyeurism of grief and the way people think those who suffer and are marginalized are somehow favored and rewarded, the way marginalized people need to make their suffering palatable for it to be acknowledged. i was never quite happy with it after reworking it like 10 times so it's unfinished as far as i'm concerned, but i guess an unfinished poem is still a poem, against its will (and mine)

[arterialtrees]

Cool for You: A Novel by Eileen Myles

[inloveforevr-deactivated2025041]

[lena-oleanderson]

also a poem from the new, unreleased collection. very possibly my own all-time favourite.

[greatestlittlegiant]

always thinking of that “i couldn’t stop wasting time” quote

[greatestlittlegiant]

song of the summer!!

[allloversbetray]

"to the bone" by Dorothy Allison

[apoemaday]

Old Man Eating Alone in a Chinese Restaurant

by Billy Collins

I am glad I resisted the temptation, if it was a temptation when I was young, to write a poem about an old man eating alone at a corner table in a Chinese restaurant.

I would have gotten it all wrong thinking: the poor bastard, not a friend in the world and with only a book for a companion. He'll probably pay the bill out of a change purse.

So glad I waited all these decades to record how hot and sour the hot and sour soup is here at Chang's this afternoon and how cold the Chinese beer in a frosted glass.

And my book — José Saramago's Blindness as it turns out — is so absorbing that I look up from its escalating horrors only when I am stunned by one of his gleaming sentences.

And I should mention the light that falls through the big windows this time of day italicizing everything it touches — the plates and teapots, the immaculate tablecloths,

as well as the soft brown hair of the waitress in the white blouse and short black skirt, the one who is smiling now as she bears a cup of rice and shredded beef with garlic to my favorite table in the corner.