words are futile devices.

I believed that I wanted to be a poet, but deep down I just wanted to be a poem.

[petaltexturedskies]

Clarice Lispector, from "Gertrudes asks for advice" in The Complete Stories

[halogen2]

I THINK LOVE IS SOMETHING / THAT HAPPENS TO OTHER PEOPLE - Michael Gray Bulla

[mournfulroses]

Albert Camus, from a letter to María Casares featured in Correspondance, 1944-1959

[feral-ballad]

Donika Kelly, from Bestiary: Poems; “Catalogue”

[feral-ballad]

Donika Kelly, from The Renunciations: Poems; “Oracle”

[feral-ballad]

Aaiún Nin, from Broken Halves of a Milky Sun: Poems; “Tell me of the first time you were poisoned”

[mournfulroses]

J. M. Grosvalet, from her book titled "Sugar Spells," originally published in 2025

[mournfulroses]

Salma Deera, from a poem titled "War and Words," featured in Letters from Medea: Poems

[feral-ballad]

Tishani Doshi, from A God at the Door; “Survival”

[feral-ballad]

Vikram Seeth, from All You Who Sleep Tonight: Poems; “Across”

[headlightsforever]

Wendell Berry in The New Yorker. November 24, 2025.

[mournfulroses]

Sonya Vatomsky, from a poem titled "Spring Flowers," featured in Salt Is for Curing, publ. in 2015

[mournfulroses]

Rupert Brooke, from a poem titled "The Beginning," featured in The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke

[feral-ballad]

Kapka Kassabova, from Someone Else’s Life; “How to survive in the desert”

[feral-ballad]

Tishani Doshi, from Everything Begins Elsewhere; “Love Poem Disguised as an Elegy”

[mournfulroses]

Virginia Woolf, from a diary entry featured in The Selected Diaries of Virginia Woolf

[feral-ballad]

Kapka Kassabova, from Someone Else’s Life; “And they were both right”