then the voice of a dove calls

To the New Year With what stillness at last you appear in the valley your first sunlight reaching down to touch the tips of a few high leaves that do not stir as though they had not noticed and did not know you at all then the voice of a dove calls from far away in itself to the hush of the morning so this is the sound of you here and now whether or not anyone hears it this is where we have come with our age our knowledge such as it is and our hopes such as they are invisible before us untouched and still possible W.S. Merwin rachel // 22 // blooming slowly. student/writer/artist/thinker/dreamer

[homoidiotic]

ven diagram ideas: one circle says gays. one circle catholics. in the middle it says “sexual guilt and dramatic aesthetics”

[cemeteryseven]

[gaymattmurdocc-deactivated20190]

@lifeguardsleeping

[untouched-possible]

can somebody who cares make the third circle “jews” and put “candles and hats” with catholics and “sarcasm and hollywood” with gays

[mellowmagpie]

viggo mortensen’s appeal as aragorn is 70% the voice, 25% the scene where the wild horse saves him from drowning, 12% hair, 8% ‘the beacons are lit!’, 3% swinging around the broken blade, 1.03% spitting soup back into the bowl on a windy day, .3% the way he speaks elvish (which mostly fits into the voice, but its elvish so its special), and .0004% when he kicks the orc head and screams

[dachosmin]

This is blatant “smoking a pipe with his hood on in Bree” and “shoving the double doors of helm’s deep open” erasure and I will not stand for it.

[free-parking-blog]

Timm Ulrichs

[tacheia-deactivated20150301]

Calypso’s island is magical. It supplies every possible demand Odysseus might have for food, drink, clothing, sex, companionship or conversation. He has only to pay over the coin of his self. His entire self. Calypso wants Odysseus body and soul. She wants everything about him. Physical, moral, and verbal. She wants the work of art that he has made of his own human being. And she wants it for all time. She promises to immortalize him.

When he rejects the transaction she’s baffled. Why would anyone choose to abandon a consumer paradise where he could live forever with a ravishing divinity? Odysseus’s answer is: “I know you’re a goddess and bigger and better looking than my wife, for you are deathless and ageless while she is a mere mortal, and yet, I prefer Penelope and what I really long for is the day of my return.” Odysseus’s answer sets up a calculus. He measures the infinite days and infinite pleasures of Calypso against the single day of his homecoming and the mortal attractions of his wife. The infinite comes up lacking.

Neither Odysseus nor Homer ever tells us exactly what the infinite lacks. That is, we never get an objective description of Penelope. We do not know if she is dark or fair. Odysseus no where itemizes the qualities that make her more desirable than a goddess. What becomes clear in the final stages of the poem however as husband and wife engage in a so called recognition scene that extends from Book XVII where Odysseus shows up in disguise at Penelope’s house to Book XXIII where she falls weeping in his arms and calls his name is that these two people are a match for each other in wits and ambiguity.

We watch Her throughout the six books seduce him by the simple tactic of never letting him know what she’s thinking. She dangles herself. She dangles the prospect of homecoming before him in a series of tantalizing interactions. She gives him clothing, a meal, a bath, a bed in the courtyard and several deep conversations without ever letting on whether she’s recognized him or not. Scholars still disagree on where exactly in the poem she decides Odysseus is Odysseus and she should welcome him home. Penelope’s power is the power of a meaning withheld.

—Anne Carson on the distinction between selling and selling out

[justsomeantifas]

That photo of the two immigrant children sleeping behind the caged fence that’s been circulating around these past few days is from 2014. This is why it’s so offensive when you tell us that the anti-immigrant policies, the violence, the deportations, the detention centers, and the separation of families wouldn’t exist or would be “kinder and more compassionate” under the corporate left. It doesn’t matter who is in power when our families are ripped apart. This “you should’ve voted for Hillary” bullshit is so infuriating when you’ve seen what happens under both parties. I think a lot of you ultimately don’t give a shit in the long run and will be back to comfortably ignoring what happens in our communities as soon as Trump is gone. And those who do care need to realize that the two-part system is never going to look out for us. Why should we trust either side when we’ve seen these policies expanding for decades - it didn’t just reach this point over night.

[untouched-possible]

sorcerers, sorcerers always give themselves away

[thenordroom]

A vibrant home in Yorkshire | photos by Sandra Baker

Follow Gravity Home: Instagram - Pinterest - Facebook - Bloglovin

[fevergut]

My son and I are getting kicked out, please help!

4/3/2018

Hi, my name is Bee, I’m 23 and a single mom. I suffer from C-PTSD, and my son and I are losing our home.

Yesterday (4/2/2018), my roommates handed me a notice that terminates our housing agreement. My son and I, due to their family issues, need to leave/be gone by the 30th of this month. Prior to moving in on the stated date (10/23/2017), my son and I were homeless for a month after being evicted from our previous home that we shared with my mom and brother. My grandma allowed my mother to move in with her, but my family does not want to help otherwise. We were couch hopping, staying with friends, or my grandma would take my son in and I would have to sleep in the car. We live in the suburbs of Chicago and the winter was very cold.

Currently, we have no place to stay and have bad credit due to my dad, but my mother is trying to use her tax return to pay off some debts so we can find a place to stay by April 30th. That’s where we need your help.

My mom and I both have credit scores in the 500’s and the lowest credit score needed to rent an apartment or townhome is 650. We need to stay in the area for work, and the cheapest townhome we could find is $1,349 a month. In order to get In to the townhome, we need to pay 2 months rent, plus a $70 background check each for both her and I. Below is the townhome cost, and my credit score.

The combined cost of the background check and 2 months rent is $2,838.

Currently, we only have $1,000 and we need to use that to pay off a few bills she has in order to raise her credit score. My mom works 3 jobs And none of them pay very well. My mom is a teacher’s aid for disabled students in an elementary school, she cleans houses, and she works part time at Kohl’s. Due to harassment by my ex, and parenting full time, it has been difficult to find a job. However, I am supposed to start at a childcare place on the 15th for $9/hr from 11 am to 4 pm.

None of these incomes combined will be able to make enough to get into a place on time, so we are coming here to ask for help to raise $3,000. The full $2,838 will be for the home, and the extra $62 will be for emergencies or food, but is not necessary.

Currently, all I have to accept donations is squarecash and PayPal, though I can only provide my PayPal through private message, as it has my legal name attached to it and I need to keep this anonymous as I can.

Please consider donating, or even just reblogging this will help. I can give my personal Tumblr to anyone that asks for it, and more proof, and any other information you need to the best of my abilities, through private message. This is the only way I can ask for help, so please spread this around! I will add donation totals to this post as I go.

Squarecash/cash app: $beesleeps

Paypal: through private message

[fevergut]

Thanks to 3 donators so far, together they have raised up $250/$3000!

We can take the first step and submit background checks!

[fevergut]

Hey, just a reminder we only have 22 days to raise enough money for my mom and son and I to get into the apartment! Please donate if you can, and if not, please spread this around

[fevergut]

We haven’t had any extra donations since the last update in this post last week, we only have a short amount of time to make at least the $2,838, and when I start my job in childcare I wont be getting paid until the 27th. We could really use the help, please please please help us.

[fevergut]

4/14/2018

We received another $30 donation, and we are at $280/$3,000!

Every cent counts, thanks to those donating and those spreading the post around!

[fevergut]

I recently got a venmo! I am @beesleeps on venmo

[fevergut]

Hey, only a little under 2 weeks until we’re out, even if we don’t make the goal, we could really use as much as we can get! Please please consider donating, and if you cant, please reblog!

[fevergut]

Hey guys on a lighter note, my uncle loaned us a little over a $1,000 and my mom saved up some as well, plus the $250 already donated brings the total amount that we have to $1,500, knocking the amount we need to make this payment from $2,838 to $1,338.

Please spread this updated post around!

[fevergut]

We got another $50, we only need $1,288!!

[sashayed]

Poetry as Insurgent Art [I am signaling you through the flames]

I am signaling you through the flames.

The North Pole is not where it used to be.

Manifest Destiny is no longer manifest.

Civilization self-destructs.

Nemesis is knocking at the door.

What are poets for, in such an age? What is the use of poetry?

The state of the world calls out for poetry to save it.

If you would be a poet, create works capable of answering the challenge of apocalyptic times, even if this meaning sounds apocalyptic.

You are Whitman, you are Poe, you are Mark Twain, you are Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay, you are Neruda and Mayakovsky and Pasolini, you are an American or a non-American, you can conquer the conquerors with words….

Lawrence Ferlinghetti 1919

[microsff]

Poem: I lik the form

My naym is pome / and lo my form is fix’d Tho peepel say / that structure is a jail I am my best / when formats are not mix’d Wen poits play / subversions often fail

Stik out their toung / to rebel with no cause At ruls and norms / In ignorance they call: My words are free / Defying lit'rate laws To lik the forms / brings ruin on us all

A sonnet I / the noblest lit'rate verse And ruls me bind / to paths that Shakespeare paved Iambic fot / allusions well dispersed On my behind / I stately sit and wave

You think me tame /   Fenced-in and penned / bespelled I bide my time /   I twist the end / like hell

* “lik” should be read as “lick”, not “like”. In general, the initial section on each line should be read sort of phonetically.

Written for World Poetry Day, March 21, 2018. When I had this idea earlier today, I thought it was the worst, most faux hip pretentious idea for a shallow demonstration of empty wordsmithing skill in poetry ever. So I had to try to write it. I mean, how often do you get to fuse the iambic dimeter of bredlik - one of the newest and most exciting verse forms - with the stately iambic pentameter of the classic sonnet?

[allthingslinguistic]

BREDLIK SONNET

[pervocracy]

Have I ever explained my thing about moose?

I’ve never seen a live one.  Ever.  I love going to zoos, I love going outside and watching wildlife, but it’s just never happened for me.  I’ve never been to a zoo with a moose, and even though I supposedly live right near moose habitat, I’ve never managed to run into one.  I drove up to northern New Hampshire with the hope of seeing moose and didn’t.  I went to Rocky Mountain National Park, asked the rangers where the moose lived, went where they said, and couldn’t find any.

There is a highway near my house with moose warning signs, and I’ve driven on it many times, at different times of the year and day, and… nothing.

I have tried so hard to see a moose and I don’t know why this is difficult but it’s becoming a quest.  I am going to see a goddamn moose.

Hopefully I’ll realize my dream in Alaska.  I’m planning to go to a wildlife park that has tame moose, so it really should happen, but I’m terrified that I’m under some kind of curse and the moose will be sick when I visit.  Or something.

I went to Cabela’s the other day to pick up some cold-weather clothes for my trip, and they had a taxidermy moose on display.  I stood there for a while, just taking it in, the size and shape and presence of it.  It was majestic in its way, but it was also a dead stuffed skin.

I want to do better than that.  I want to see a moose.

[untouched-possible]

once one of my camp counselors came to camp fresh off a road trip across canada. he had dreamed of seeing a moose on this trip but it didn’t happen; instead, at the end, his friend presented him with a moose antler headband and said, “jeff, if you don’t see a moose, be a moose.” 

he wore them all summer and the phrase became embedded in camp culture. friend, if you don’t see a moose, i urge you to be a moose!!! but i wish you good luck with your moose journey!

[lgbtlaughs]

Chris Fleming - I’m Afraid To Talk To Men

[nprbooks]

Photo by Eslah Attar/NPR

Tamora Pierce is a fantasy author who has been beloved for so long that all the editors and producers who worked on this story (YES ME TOO) – despite being over a decade apart in age – kept her books in their school lockers.

Though famed for her female knights and mages, she’s taken on her first male progagonist in Tempests and Slaughter, which begins the backstory of her popular character Numair. She tells NPR’s Scott Simon that that choice led to some interesting problems:

I’m kind of notorious for one thing in particular as a writer — I’m pretty straightforward about teenagers and sex … The thing was, in my first book, I had a girl disguised as a boy. And when you’re a girl disguised as a boy, going through puberty, the changes in your body become a major part of the plot. So I just stuck with it as I went on. And when I was working on this book, I got to a point and I went, “Oh my god, I can skip it, but that wouldn’t be right.” So I went to my writing partner, Bruce Coville, and first he laughed himself silly at me, but all those embarrassing little questions, he answered them for me. But it was important, it had to be done. I had to be as fair to the guys as I was to the girls. Which is one reason why I’m going back to girls after this is over. 

Find the full interview here. 

– Petra

[sashayed]

The Nurse Tree

Why waste away in a box when you could be a nurse tree? That’s what they call dead logs: mushroomeries of the woods. Your living room’s a wood of couches, books, and chairs. You’re dead not at all, but could you be preparing for things to grow inside the chest of the log you plan to become: cherished compost heap where heat turns the brown mess of feelings, sorry, that’s peelings, into comp-o- sition? For we who love our hands in dirt, a leaf skirt decomposing seems an ideal station between this life and next: I visit your room as on a forest walk. Passing a fallen log — is that you? —  I see a scarlet fungus cap pop up from friable bark.

Molly Peacock in Poetry, 2016

[elanormcinerney]

Ariana Reines | Save The World | Mercury

John le Carré | The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

Ingeborg Bachmann | Malina

John le Carré | The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

Alice Notley | The Descent of Alette

[untouched-possible]

[miniature-stigmata]

“The average American woman,” Nimoy writes, “weighs 25 percent more than the models selling the clothes. There is a huge industry built up around selling women ways to get their bodies closer to the fantasy ideal. Pills, diets, surgery, workout programs… . The message is ‘You don’t look right. If you buy our product, you can get there.’”

never forget that leonard nimoy helped create fat art and representation