#gadfly chats

[gabrielgadfly]

gabrielgadfly: Alas. You go out in search of kisses, I'm going out in search of a bagel. And by "going out" I mean to my kitchen and by "bagel" I mean a donut.

alonesomes: Ah, a sugar bagel, as I like to call it.

May your search be more fruitful than mine, good sir.

gabrielgadfly: ...

someone ate the last donut before I got there.

alonesomes: oh...my god

we're both shit out of luck, then

gabrielgadfly: apparently. :(

I kinda want to write angsty poetry about my missing donut now.

alonesomes:

alas, my pastry

has been taken

from its plate

I miss it with a

fever

and am seething,

now,

with hate

boom

gabrielgadfly: you're good at that.

alonesomes: thanks. I spent like, 2 minutes on it

gabrielgadfly: It shows. You are truly among the elite of poetkind. The angst is real, and you used the word "alas," which we all know is a vital word for poets.

alonesomes: Alas is part of the trials we all go through. The secret ones. You can't be a Tumblr poet until you use it

[gabrielgadfly]

Hi kiddos. I’ve had four cups of coffee and a kentucky bourbon and pecan cupcake. I’m hyper as shit. How are you?

[gabrielgadfly]

Mr. Gadfly, I just want to say I really love your work. I write poetry too but I don't think it's any good and I'm scared to show it to anyone. Do you have any advice so I can get better? I really want to get published someday...

Man, y’all gotta stop calling me “Mr. Gadfly.”The first time you show your poetry to someone is one of those “pull the bandaid off” moments. You just have to do it.And truth is, when you do, you’re probably going to get one of two responses. They’ll give you a noncommital response because they don’t really care, or they’ll gush praise on you that seems overdone and insincere.Don’t let either of these responses ruin you. Every writer gets them. After you get them and you get over the jitters of showing your work to people, you go back to your grindstone and you write something new, something better. And you show them that too.You keep doing this until the ones who don’t care start to take notice of you; you keep doing this until the ones who gush overwrought, insincere praise start quieting down and REALLY reading what you have to say.But really, I’m getting ahead of myself. If you really think your work isn’t any good, then make it better. Study the writers you admire and discover why you love their work. Study writers you hate and discover why you hate them. Write more poetry, read more poetry, and repeat until you go from thinking “my poetry isn’t any good” to “my poetry is alright” to “my poetry is pretty decent” to “fuck you, my poetry is awesome.”

[gabrielgadfly]

Hecate 🔮🌙

Hecate: What do you think of magic?Oh, I believe in the most pervasive kind of magic. It often gets overlooked. It’s not flashy – there’s no fireballs or love charms or invisibility cloaks.It’s the kind of magic that happens when strangers in a bus stop laugh together because they all got caught in the same freak rainstorm, or when a rookie doctor pulls off a risky procedure that saves a young mother’s life, or when a tired, overworked postman finds a happy little letter addressed to him in the mailbox of 103-B Anderson Street.It’s magic like a handwritten note tucked into the pages of a library book that says “Hey stranger, I hope you enjoyed this book as much as I did.” It’s magic like your overbearing, emotionally-distant, hardass father secretly has a moment where he tells the guys on his construction crew “Look at this painting that my daughter made.” It’s magic like a kid standing up for his bullied classmate, or women on a subway car calling out a creepy fuck perving on a teenage girl and protecting one another.I like human magic like that.

[gabrielgadfly]

40!

40. What are the best ways for someone to show you they love you, or care about you (not necessarily romantically)? That is, what makes you feel loved?I know I often sound obsessive and everyone has such fatigue from being marketed at 24/7, so I hope this doesn’t come across as gimmicky advertising, but my poetry is my baby. My poetry is the chronicle of everything and everyone I have ever loved, of every hurt I have ever felt, of every fear and dream and desire I have ever had. It’s the single most effective way I’ve ever been able to teach my soul to connect with other people, to extend to them the compassion and love and comfort I want to give them.I can’t account for the hours sunk into my art, for the lost meals and lost sleep because there was an important poem that I needed to write because one of you told me you were hurting and I wanted to make you feel better. Maybe that sounds kinda pretentious. I think all poets are a little pretentious, but it’s what I can give you of me, you know?If you love and care about me, spread my poetry. I get such warm fuzzies when someone sends me a message and tells me they sat down with a friend or loved one and read my poetry together. Send me messages telling me how my poetry helped you in a dark spot or made you smile or laugh or made you sad.If you love me, love my poetry. Draw or make things based on my poems, even if you don’t feel like your art skills are up to snuff and I will gush so much adoration on you for it. Transform my poetry -- make it into cross-stitch and watercolors and graffiti and jewelry and photographs. Send me pictures of it written or tattooed on your skin or on your lover’s skin or on walls in random public places, if my poetry inspires you to do those things. Tell your teachers and classmates and students about it.

[gabrielgadfly]

How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?

Ask @jayarrarr; her tongue haswhittled down more than one manwith a Tootsie Pop and herbayonet blue eyes.(for reference: x)

[gabrielgadfly]

Another another! How 'bout 50?

What is a question you are secretly hoping you’ll be asked? (It doesn’t have to be on this list.) Answer it.I really liked question 34: A wealthy stranger offers you $100,000 to found your own non-profit organization. What will your organization do?$100,000 isn’t really a lot of money as far as non-profits go, but I think I’d like to use it to create an after-school poetry program for kids who are recovering from abuse and trauma; a safe, nonjudgmental place where kids can process and write about the scary, fucked up things they’ve been forced into, and maybe find some healthy, expressive ways to cope.

[gabrielgadfly]

28 and 29 (I am greedy)

28. Describe your favorite method of flirting.I alternate dirty jokes with suggestive and beautiful poetic wooing until someone’s underwear comes off.

29. How do you know when you are in love with someone? If you’ve ever fallen out of love with someone, how did you know your feelings had changed?When I fall in love with a person, everything just falls into place. There’s no rough spots, no burrs on the wheel to snag and falter the motion of our love. The gaps in me are filled by them; their gaps by me. When I’m with someone I’m in love with is the only time I don’t have an unsettled sense of “something is not right” gnawing on the back of my neck.I don’t think I’ve ever fallen out of love with anyone I was truly in love with. There have been plenty of women I’ve thought I loved -- but I also have a bad habit of confusing love with a persistent need to be helpful to broken people who can’t quite love back.