Over the last five years, I’ve made a renewed effort at writing, something I loved as a kid but let slip in favor of more practical pursuits. [Translation: I gave up what I really wanted in favor of what others wanted for me.] Having no idea what I’m doing, I’ve read a lot of books on writing and creativity, trying to avoid specifics on writing and storytelling mechanics in favor of tips and tricks on the creative process. This book caught my eye on Amazon, […]
Black girl poetic magic
Electric Arches is collection of poetry by Eve L. Ewing. Her poems muse on the black experience. She reveals painful moments of racism she encounters and add in handwritten font her imagined replies to the N-word. She writes odes to her musical heroes in “Appletree [on black womanhood, from and to Erykah Badu] and “On Prince”. Each poem describes how their music touched her soul. She uplifts the ordinary with her words adding a fantastical gloss of wonder. “so in this world, grease is a compliment, no […]
Mama’s real upset now.
In the first country I lived in we had these small packets of liquorice called GaJol. They were my favourite, because I like liquorice, but also because on the back of each packet was a small joke, a word play or a fancy quote. Sometimes I would tear one off and keep them, but most of the time I just read them and threw them away, and the ones I kept would disappear as well – into the cracks of furniture and pockets and books. […]
universal love and pain
I’m not exactly sure how Rupi Kaur became such a publicly praised and well-known poet, but the first time I read anything of hers was just a snippet on Instagram – which incidentally is what brought on the backlash. How dare this millennial poet use a millennial mode of social interaction to publicize her millennial words? The word instapoets may be descriptive – “young poets publishing verse primarily on social media,” says that Guardian article I linked to – but it also sounds so dismissive, so […]
Every woman adores a Fascist
I found this beautiful version of Ariel at Hebden Bridge, a little town just beneath the hill where Plath is buried at Heptonstall. Later I would later hike up there and see the two churches, the old one, burned down or deteriorated by time, and the new one that seemed dull to me compared to the expanse of a forgotten church. I didn’t know she was buried there so I walked right past her with her book in my bag. In the dullest of conclusion […]
Some Odes
Odes to Opposites by Pablo Neruda, Kenneth Krabbenhoft (translator), Ferris Cook (illustrator)
It has been a couple of years since I read any poetry, and the last time was also at the behest of the fine folks over at Book Riot and their annual Read Harder Challenge. I don’t know if I’m going to manage to complete this year’s challenge by the end of December – I know what books I am going to read for the remaining challenges, but I don’t know that I’ll be able to fit them all in. But I wasn’t going to […]
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