“Love has something to do with the notion of being seen — the opposite of invisibility. The invisible, the unwitnessed, the unacknowledged, the isolated, the lonely — these are the unloved. Loving attention illuminates the unseen, escorting them from the frontiers of lovelessness into the observed world. To truly see someone — anyone — is an act that acknowledges and forgives our common and imperfect humanity. Love enacts a kind of vigilant perception — whether it is to a partner, a child, a co-worker, a neighbour, a fellow citizen, or any other person one may encounter in this life. Love says softly — I see you. I recognise you. You are human, as am I.”
— Nick Cave, The Red Hand Files Issue #103
love in the time of cholera, gabriel garcía márquez // carmilla, joseph sheridan le fanu // letter of testimony, octavio paz (trans. eliot weinburger) // planet of love, richard siken // the queen of carthage, louise glück // excerpt from a letter to fanny brawne, john keats // little weirds, jenny slate // clarification, franz wright // sonnet lxvi, pablo neruda (trans. ilan stavans) // gone: poems, fanny howe.
— 1. anton chekhov, “the seagull” 2. the musketeers (2014) 3. the mountain goats, “no children” 4. luther (2010) 5. emily bronte, “wuthering heights” 6. crouching tiger hidden dragon (2000) 7. christina rossetti, “the convent threshold” 8. it’s okay to not be okay (2020) 9. my country: the new age (2019) 🖋️ nuanced translation of this quote 10. princess mononoke (1997)
“I don’t know how to stay tender with this much blood in my mouth”
— Ophelia, Act IV, Scene V
“question: how do you make a monster stop feeling so monstrous? you give her something she can hold in her palms without crushing. you give her something sweet and tell her to keep it. you wipe the blood from her hands. you say her name, over and over, like an absolution. you forgive her. you forgive her. you forgive.”
— whatever it takes
@roach-works // Melissa Broder, "Problem Area" // Mary Oliver, "The Return" // @annavonsyfert // Koyoharu Gotouge, Demon Slayer // Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance // David Levithan, How They Met and Other Stories // Tennessee Williams, Notebooks
“Alleyways are a coffin–– this city is become my tomb. I am ghost: nameless, soon to be forgotten, another statistic for articles. Here lies NO-ONE, NO-BODY, child in an adult’s body. Heartless, warm, harsh/gentle, innocence stripped away too soon. Here lies a childhood. Alleyways are a coffin–– this city is become my tomb. Little child, lost: Another faceless child swallowed in the belly of a beast.”
— unmarked graves. (CNS)