(I think I made you up inside my head)

[shakespearesdaughters]

Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

[acknowledgetheabsurd]

Ah, what can I do to help you, to open all the doors, to shake off all the dust, to shine beside you! That's all for today, my darling. I'm a little tired, and I'm talking to you as my thoughts take me. At the moment, my thoughts are rather motley. A single line, gentle, firm, continuous and reborn: my love for you. Take it gently; it needs tenderness. I love you.

Maria Casarès to Albert Camus, Correspondance, April 21, 1950 [#283]

[whilehewasatsea]

My Sister, the Sun

The question in my head

When looking at all the pain we were given

Has always been why you?

Not why me or why us

I’d live it twice if it would only spare you

We hold ownership of all

The same memories, have walked

The same uneven ground

All our lives

But rather than

Looking at where my feet should land

My neck has been arched up,

Up all the way to you

Where you hold court over

This world that loves you

The branches and shrubs that bend

In towards your path just to hear

Every well thought out word

Wrapped like gifts that even

In my vanity I can say are priceless

And this is not to say anything

Has been easy for you

I know too well it hasn’t

It’s more to say that I admire you

For finding your strength even

When all of the lights were off

I know this because I have stumbled

In every way that you have conquered

And it is true that things can not grow

With no light

And so if you’ve ever wondered why

My life sits so entwined with yours

Know that you are your own sun

And whatever of your light was left

I reached for every

Chance I could

And so if you’re ever wondered if

The love you give is enough

Know that it’s grown me tall enough

To look down on all of the dirt

We started in

-M.R.

[geryone]

Good Girl and Other Yearnings, Isabelle Correa

[whilehewasatsea]

I’m lying on the floor, surrounded by things that mean nothing to everyone but mean everything to me. I count them all, fit each trinket into the memory that holds it, and try my best to feel full by the time I’m done. Meanwhile, the world outside moves by with flying colours. Meanwhile, I’m asleep and I’m dreaming and I miss the sound of the gun that means go. Can’t remember if I wanted to know when the running started to begin with. It’s safe here when the world is quiet, and I am content sitting still. But then the news starts blaring, mail is pouring in and you realize you’ve made a mausoleum of your own home. You open the windows, invite in a breeze and the dust stays settled, the air stays musty and still. They don’t do it to leave you behind, and their pity tastes like ashes on your tongue. I wonder if they can hear my joy for them from so far behind. All the moments you spent designing your own goal posts get toppled by the jealousy and buried by the irony. And you want to scream, want to cry out that you’re still here. That this lacklustre little life is as big and as bold as you said it would be. And more than anything, you want to believe that it could be true. That you don’t want the things you said you’d never need. That you don’t need to be wanted at all.

-M.R.

[mineralaccident]

never the selfish one

always silent, just wind in a crawlspace -

an old animal hiding from weakness.

in the corner your shadow practices the shape it will take without me -

I practice how to dance, rehearse the hollow sounds from empty rooms and become the house secret.

I collect what remains and fold myself smaller than the indent in your pillow -

in this museum, we arrange the quiet until it gleams like grief, perfectly preserved.

[weltenwellen]

Joy Sullivan, from “On Days I Hate My Body, I Remember Redwoods”, Instructions for Traveling West

[weltenwellen]

Joy Sullivan, “Anointing”, Instructions for Traveling West

[victoriaelyse]

[geryone]

Goatsong, Leila Chatti

[weltenwellen]

Joy Sullivan, from “Move to Oregon in July”, Instructions for Traveling West

[weltenwellen]

Joy Sullivan, from “Horse Girl”, Instructions for Traveling West

[weltenwellen]

Joanna Klink, from “Night Sky”, The Nightfields

[weltenwellen]

Joy Sullivan, “Before”, Instructions for Traveling West

[nixscriptum]

[weltenwellen]

Joy Sullivan, “Want", Instructions for Traveling West

[hopebe]

H.M.B | When you read this. . .