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Making amends (panel 1 and 2).

— nothingbutloveforyou

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.

self portrait against bed wallpaper by Richard Siken

Neville Goddard, from The Power of Awareness

Text ID: The whole of creation exists in you, and it is your destiny to become increasingly aware of its infinite wonders and to experience ever greater and grander portions of it.

mary oliver, from the deer

award-winning palestinian children's illustrator baraa awoor writes:

"what use is it to be an illustrator of children's books when the world has sentenced the children of your country to the death penalty, to vanish, to genocide?"

some of baraa's illustrations:

this is an illustration for youssef, whose mother is remembered running desperately into the hospital asking if anyone had seen a "small white boy with beautiful curly hair, his name is youssef," a description which was remembered by millions when she finally identified his body:

this illustration is for young omar, who was hugging his little brother and teaching him how to repeat the shahada after him (a prayer spoken by muslims before their death) as he lay on his hospital bed:

"we want a new year that doesn't kill us or our children, we want it a year without blood, without screaming, without pain, we want a new attempt to get our lives back, or something that resembled our life, even if life is a lie we still cling to it, return life to us—a new year's card unlike any other year:"

Lately, not a single day has passed without the Armenian phrase "cavd tanem" [ցավդ տանեմ], directly translating to "Let me take away your pain", crossing my mind. A phrase filled with such deep devotion and yet, it's uttered daily and graces simple everyday conversations. In a sentence, it simply replaces the name of the addressee.

"Vonc es, cavd tanem?" - "How are you, [let me take your pain away]?"

"Cavd tanem, jur kberes?" - "[Let me take away your pain], could you bring me a glass of water?"

Such abundance of love that miniature rivers of it effortlessly flow into the most pedestrian pathways!

oh september, how you have my heart.