Radio
How delighted you must have been,
radiant Apollo, when we learned to
transmute song into light
and back again.
Tag: poetry
“i want a word for the almost-home. that point where the highway’s monotony becomes familiar
that subway stop whose name will always wake you from day’s-end dozing
that first glimpse of the skyline that you never loved until you left it behind. what do you call the exit sign you see even in your dreams?
is there a name for the airport terminal you come back to,
comfortably exhausted? i need a word for rounding your corner onto your street,
for seeing your city on the horizon,
for flying homewards down your highway. give me a word for the boundary
between the world you went to see
and the small one you call your own. i want a word for the moment you know you’re almost home.”— there and back again, n.m.h.
Dramatic comic of Nael’s, Age 6 poem: The Tiger
Hey, literature folks. Have y’all noticed that people are using kennings again? I mean, sea pancake, danger noodle, sea roomba.
How’s that different from describing the sea as the whale-road or gannet’s bath?
THIS IS SO FUCKING AWESOME. I love kennings.
“Each passing day of spring brought more hours of daylight. We got suspicious when the sky stopped getting dark at all. The sun was rising before it had even begun to set on the far side of the sky. Someone was skimming hours off the day, saving all the nighttime for themselves.”
-QuietPineTrees
El vampiro / ICE
El vampiro torce la ley.
Como arroz, es blanqueado
de compasión. No llega
cuando prometas,
y entra sin permiso.¿Cuál depredador
se anuncia? El sanguinario
caballero lanza la voz;
dice que es policía,
vecino, amigo. Roba
tus padres y les transforma
en criminales sobre el papel.No es posible razonar
con el vampiro. La única solución
para él es clavar la estaca
en el corazon.The vampire loves the law.
Watch him count rice on the doorstep,
grain promises. He does not arrive
unless invited, or at least,
he does not come in.Like a predator, the sanguine
gentleman announces himself.
He has no need to throw his voice.
The doctrine of his castle
is orderly as stone;
he takes nothing
he is not authorized to take.The vampire is reasonable.
If you don’t want him
to steal your blood, simply
don’t answer the door.P.S. Raices Texas, New Sanctuary Coalition. Call your congresspersons and tell them it’s time to abolish ICE.
It had almost escaped my notice that it is now May, the month that dooms to a heartbroken death 99% of characters from folk ballads. So, if you suspect you may be a character from a folk ballad, for your own safety:
don’t fall in love, don’t go by the river, don’t go to the sea, don’t talk to sailors, don’t gamble, don’t ramble, don’t go North, don’t go North-West, don’t stand in the wind, don’t dance with anyone named Sally, Sue, Mary, Ann, or Barbara, don’t go to the pub (but if you do go to the pub at least don’t drink, and if you do drink at least pay for your own drink, and if you are absolutely broke and have to let someone else pay for your drink then at the very least do try not to forget to toast everyone you know whom you think might be there very loudly and possibly multiple times), don’t lend money, don’t borrow money, don’t wish you had more money, don’t make plans to make more money, don’t start working for a new employer, absolutely do believe anyone who says they will try to kill you, curse you, or maim you, absolutely do believe anyone who says you might die, turn down every invitation to go a-hunting, horse-riding, or a-courting, be wary of flute players you meet on your path, don’t dance with satanic men in black coats, don’t marry off your daughters to the first man who’ll have them, and don’t promise your true love any herbs you can’t readily plant and gather in your own garden.
There. That should just about cover you for 31 days. Heed the warnings and you may have a chance to last the month. Good luck.
Listen asshole. For every beginning, an end. For all that lives, a death. I’m not gonna bail out of adventure and fuck mothering magick because its ~dangerous~ or ~ill-adviced~. I shall face my demise with valor and piss and vinegar and reach Heaven through Violence. Just try and stop me you shit eating coward.
Come gather, ye tumblrmen that surf the wide net,
Come listen to the tale of sir Enochtopus’ death,
How cheerfully he marched out, one morn in early may,
And with a hey-down-a-down he met a wat’ry grave.‘Twas early in the morning, ‘twas early early May,
When our good Enochtopus set out for the bay,
He met a little lass, sweet and pretty as can be,
She stabbed him in the back and kicked him in the sea.But Enochtopus was unafraid to die, was unafraid to roam,
And with a hey-down-a-down, they hurried him back home.
He was still a-breathing, still a-singing down-a-down,
As they shovelled earth and sank him into the ground.Perhaps you have a mother, likewise a sister too,
Perhaps you have a sweetheart to weep and mourn for you,
But good and brave Enochtopus had vinegar and piss
And in heaven he sings down-a-down upon unbending knees.
Wanna make a monster? Take the parts of yourself that make you uncomfortable—your weaknesses, bad thoughts, vanities, and hungers—and pretend they’re across the room. It’s too ugly to be human. It’s too ugly to be you. Children are afraid of the dark because they have nothing real to work with. Adults are afraid of themselves.
Richard Siken, Editor’s Pages: Black Telephone (via weltenwellen)
i'll apple your turnover 