#dearest creature

[integratedcane]

Soufflé by @lottiedaze!

[dwellordream]

God made nothing in vain. All herbs have purpose. Pollinated by bats (which tickles!) we ripen the mind. Sip our bitter milk. Smoke these leaves and shepherd the immense. This blossom, when swallowed, makes cowards eloquent. Haze of consolation robs grief of her sting. Everything drips and merges. Phosphorescent radiations overtake you. The banal becomes ecstatic. Everlastingness pours forth. Wrapped in a flame-colored cloud, swaddled in mirth and trembly tenderness toward earth, one prefers not to stir from this cave. God is a substance, a drug. These erotic shocks, this blizzard of images, this ambiguous wink is his. Man is only a weed in these regions.

Amy Gerstler, “Chant of the Hallucinogenic Plants” in Dearest Creature

[benttulips]

I can't get you out of my mind tonight; the corner of the sofa where you sat is haunted for me by your presence, the whole flat seems full of you.

Vita Sackville-West, from a letter to Virginia Woolf written c. November 1926

[autobiography-de-rouge]

“Advice from a Caterpillar”

“Chew your way into a new world. Munch leaves. Molt. Rest. Molt again. Self-reinvention is everything. Spin many nests. Cultivate stinging bristles. Don't get sentimental about your discarded skins. Grow quickly. Develop a yen for nettles. Alternate crumpling and climbing. Rely on your antennae. Sequester poisons in your body for use at a later date. When threatened, emit foul odors in self-defense. Behave cryptically to confuse predators: change colors, spit, or feign death. If all else fails, taste terrible.” 

― Amy Gerstler, Dearest Creature

[illlleaf-blog]

Poem from: Dearest Creature By Amy Gerstler

[dwellordream]

Chew your way into a new world. Munch leaves. Molt. Rest. Molt again. Self-reinvention is everything. Spin many nests. Cultivate stinging bristles. Don’t get sentimental about your discarded skins. Grow quickly. Develop a yen for nettles. Alternate crumpling and climbing. Rely on your antennae. Sequester poisons in your body for use at a later date. When threatened, emit foul odors in self-defense. Behave cryptically to confuse predators: change colors, spit, or feign death. If all else fails, taste terrible.

Amy Gerstler, “Advice From a Caterpillar” in Dearest Creature

[supergraphicultramoderngirl3]

will never ever get over how Virginia called Vita “dearest creature”

[dwellordream]

Dear, I can’t subsist on this diet (really more of a fast—celery seed and a soft word every other month) any longer. Is that blood on your pillowcase or another girl’s lipstick? I want you to know, I’ve had such unalloyed joy over the past several decades, smelling your hair and petting your sweat-beaded feet while you were asleep. It was far sweeter than I ever thought possible. But my ancestors are welling up in me now and keep nudging me toward the door. Bells are rung, harps are played: recessional music.

Amy Gerstler, “Dusk” in Dearest Creature