Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

this 🤓

when georges bataille wrote, “no greater desire exists than a wounded person’s need for another wound” & when gillian flynn wrote, “a child weaned on poison considers harm a comfort” & when ocean vuong wrote, “sometimes being offered tenderness feels like the very proof that you’ve been ruined” & when lisa m. basile wrote, “did you inherit a sickness? did you blame god? do you believe in god? do you believe in yourself? are you still on fire? did you ever put out the fire?” & when stephen a. guirgis wrote, “why didn't you make me good enough so that you could’ve loved me?”

September 11th, 2024 | Rereading the Lord of the Rings

I finished The Two Towers last night! Definitely very different from the Fellowship in terms of pacing, but I liked it too. All the characters are well fleshed-out now, very excited to start the Return of the King!

I came across this special folio of poets from Gaza published by peripheries (an annual publication by Harvard Divinity School’s Center for the Study of World Religions). It was published in 2021 and edited by Tayseer Abu Odeh and Mosab Abu Toha. You can read the seven poets here.

“If you knew you might not be able to see it again tomorrow, everything would suddenly become special and precious, wouldn’t it?”

— Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

mary oliver, from the deer

(I’m the crazy one who thinks that words reach people)

Anne Sexton, from ‘A Self-Portrait in Letters’ ⁠— W. D. Snodgrass, 11th January 1959

7 years ago while I was taking pictures this beautiful black cat appeared on the farm road where I was taking pictures and then slipped back into the weeds. It felt a little magical.