#Lisa Olstein: Dear One Absent This Long While

[oflights]

Dear One Absent This Long While

It has been so wet stones glaze in moss; everything blooms coldly.

I expect you. I thought one night it was you at the base of the drive, you at the foot of the stairs,

you in a shiver of light, but each time leaves in wind revealed themselves,

the retreating shadow of a fox, daybreak. We expect you, cat and I, bluebirds and I, the stove.

In May we dreamed of wreaths burning on bonfires over which young men and women leapt.

June efforts quietly. I’ve planted vegetables along each garden wall

so even if spring continues to disappoint we can say at least the lettuce loved the rain.

I have new gloves and a new hoe. I practice eulogies. He was a hawk

with white feathered legs. She had the quiet ribs of a salamander crossing the old pony post road.

Yours is the name the leaves chatter at the edge of the unrabbited woods.

Lisa Olstein

[extollingtheeveryday]

Lisa Olstein // "Dear One Absent This Long While"

[violettesiren]

It has been so wet stones glaze in moss; everything blooms coldly.

I expect you. I thought one night it was you at the base of the drive, you at the foot of the stairs,

you in a shiver of light, but each time leaves in wind revealed themselves,

the retreating shadow of a fox, daybreak. We expect you, cat and I, bluebirds and I, the stove.

In May we dreamed of wreaths burning on bonfires over which young men and women leapt.

June efforts quietly. I’ve planted vegetables along each garden wall

so even if spring continues to disappoint we can say at least the lettuce loved the rain.

I have new gloves and a new hoe. I practice eulogies. He was a hawk

with white feathered legs. She had the quiet ribs of a salamander crossing the old pony post road.

Yours is the name the leaves chatter at the edge of the unrabbited woods.

Dear One Absent This Long While by Lisa Olstein

[typewriter-worries]

Dear One Absent This Long While, Lisa Olstein

[ Text ID: Yours is the name the leaves chatter / at the edge of the unrabbited woods. ]

[havingapoemwithyou]

dear one absent this long while by lisa olstein

[bushdivingbushranger]

dear one absent this long while lisa olstein 2006 it has been so wet stones glaze in moss everything blooms coldly i expect you i thought one night it was you at the base of the drive you at the foot of the stairs you in a shiver of light but each time leaves in wind revealed themselves the retreating shadow of a fox daybreak we expect you cat and i bluebirds and i the stove in may we dreamed of wreaths burning on bonfires over which young men and women leapt june efforts quietly ive planted vegetables along each garden wall so even if spring continues to disappoint we can say at least the lettuce loved the rain i have new gloves and a new coat i practice eulogies he was a hawk with white feathered legs she had the quiet ribs of a salamander crossing the old pony post road yours is the name the leaves chatter at the edge of the unrabbited woods............................................

[womens-art]

Lisa Olstein, "Dear One Absent This Long While" from Radio Crackling, Radio Gone

[bucketsof-moonbeams]

It has been so wet stones glaze in moss;

everything blooms coldly.

I expect you. I thought one night it was you

at the base of the drive, you at the foot of the stairs,

you in a shiver of light, but each time

leaves in wind revealed themselves,

the retreating shadow of a fox, daybreak.

We expect you, cat and I, bluebirds and I, the stove.

In May we dreamed of wreaths burning on bonfires

over which young men and women leapt.

June efforts quietly.

I’ve planted vegetables along each garden wall

so even if spring continues to disappoint

we can say at least the lettuce loved the rain.

I have new gloves and a new hoe.

I practice eulogies. He was a hawk

with white feathered legs. She had the quiet ribs

of a salamander crossing the old pony post road.

Yours is the name the leaves chatter

at the edge of the unrabbited woods.

- Dear One Absent This Long While by Lisa Olstein

[kafk-a]

Yours is the name the leaves chatter at the edge of the unrabbited woods.

Lisa Olstein, “Dear One Absent This Long While” from Radio Crackling, Radio Gone

[firstfullmoon]

Lisa Olstein, from “Dear One Absent This Long While” 

[text ID: June efforts quietly. I’ve planted vegetables along each garden wall

so even if spring continues to disappoint we can say at least the lettuce loved the rain.]

[angelellipsis]

Frank O'Hara, from Selected Poems // Charles Wright, "Still Life with Stick and Word", Chickamauga: Poems // Abbott Fuller Graves, In bloom // Vera Brittain // Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood // John Burroughs // Eugène Grasset, La Belle Jardinière // Lisa Olstein "Dear One Absent This Long While", from Radio Crackling, Radio Gone // Arnold Lobel, Toad and Frog

[mculibrary]

All You Need Is Love Challenge!

Love has been the topic of all forms of art throughout the ages; and for our first ever challenge, we’ve pulled together some favorites to inspire stories about our beloved MCU characters!

A very special thank you to all those who shared content that means a lot to them for us to include: @ozarkthedog​​, @thecornerlot​​, @wayward-blonde​​, @adorecevans​​, @a-little-counter-esperanto​​, and @sidepartskinnyjeans​​ - your help is so appreciated!

See below the cut for guidelines and prompts - we can’t wait to see what you do!

GUIDELINES

you do not have to follow us or be an author listed in the library to participate! all entries will be reblogged.

any character that has appeared in something from the mcu is fair game; this includes the netflix series characters and characters with cameos in recent movies!

you may choose up to three prompts - one from each section. beyond that, your setting, tropes, aus, etc are completely yours to control!

most prompts are framed around romantic love but you can take them in any direction you choose - fics about platonic love or familial love, for example, are more than welcome!

there is no cap on how many people can use a single prompt or how many times a character can be associated with a prompt; you do not need to message to claim any characters or prompts. just write your heart out!

given the library’s focus, this is a non-dark content challenge unless it’s content related to canon tropes for things like mafia aus (i.e. violence, crime, murder, etc) - in those cases, use your discretion for appropriate warnings!

both reader and oc fics are welcome. all pairings (or no pairing!) are also welcome, so long as they aren’t incestous or don’t pair underage characters with characters who are of age.

challenge end date: march 4. can’t finish by then? no worries! all submissions will be reblogged and added to the masterlist, but we will stop actively promoting the challenge after that date. we will also ask anyone who hasn’t already posted their entry to reach out to us after that date so we can keep track!

finally, be sure to tag us in your entries and include the tag “mcu all you need is love challenge” so we can find your fics for reblog. If you don’t see the fic reblogged after two days, please feel free to submit it as well!

PROMPTS

ARTWORK (titles are links)

watering flowers, wang xingwei

a foregone conclusion, lawrence alma tadema

untitled (perfect lovers), felix gonzalez-torres

a romance, santiago rusiñol

in bed, henri de toulouse-lautrec

le printemps (springtime), pierre-auguste cot

dance at series (l to r: bougival, country, or city), pierre-auguste renoir

the lovers ii, rene magritte

POETRY / QUOTATIONS / LITERATURE

“I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.” - love sonnet xi, pablo neruda

“The paper is full of every kind of blooming horror / And you sit wondering / what you're gonna do. / I got it. / Come. And be my baby.” - come, and be my baby, maya angelou

“I am not yours, not lost in you / Not lost, although I long to be” - i am not yours, sara teasdale

“I lean into the rhythm of your heart to see where it will take us. / We gallop into a warm, southern wind.” - for keeps, joy harjo

“I share my face with you / but love becomes a lie / as we suffer through split masks / seeking the other half-self.” - making it, audre lorde

“Don't leave now that you're here— / Stay. So the world may become like itself again.” - before you came, faiz ahmed faiz

“You cannot look in his eyes /Because your pulse must not say / What must not be said.” - to be in love, gwendolyn brooks

“We expect you, cat and I, bluebirds and I, the stove.” - dear one absent this long while, lisa olstein

“If equal affection cannot be, / Let the more loving one be me.” - the more loving one, w.h. Auden

“When love beckons to you, follow him, / Though his ways are hard and steep.” - on love, kahlil gibran

“In silence I have watched you / comb your hair. / Intimate the silence, / dim and warm.” - we have not long to love, tennesse williams

“my thoughts about you are frightening but precise/ I can see the house on the hill where we make our own vegetables out back / and drink warm wine out of jam jars / and sing songs in the kitchen until the sun comes up” - Sthandwa sami (my beloved, isiZulu), yrsa daley-ward

“love is more thicker than forget / more thinner than recall / more seldom than a wave is wet / more frequent than to fail” - "[love is more thicker than forget]", e.e. Cummings

“I’m a girl who’ll fall / damn near in love with gratitude and, well, he / was hot and generous and so the least/ that I could do was let him kiss me, hard / and soft and any way you want it” - bar napkin sonnet #11, moira egan

“She rolls her / eyes, but he’d once asked her / Am I your first lover? and she’d /  said, Could be. Your face looks / familiar.” - love explained, jennifer michael hecht

“Taste it once / And the spell of its enchantment / Will never let you be.”, a love song for lucinda, langston hughes

“Marriage is not / a house, or even a tent / it is before that, and colder: / the edge of the forest, the edge / of the desert” - habitation, margaret atwood

“One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.” -- the alchemist, paulo coelho

“I fancied you’d return the way you said, / But I grow old and I forget your name. / (I think I made you up inside my head.)” - mad girl’s love song, sylvia plath

“He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” — wuthering heights, emily bronte

”We loved with a love that was more than love.” — annabel lee, edgar allen poe

“You know how they say you only hurt the ones you love? Well, it works both ways.” ― fight club, chuck palahniuk

“I will always seek to make it summer for you.”  ― rule of wolves, nikolai lantso

“Others may forget you, but not I. / I am haunted by your beautiful ghost.”, untitled, yamato hime no okimi

“As for life’s tragedies, our love will defeat them. Love is the most effective cure. In the crevices of disasters, happiness lies like a diamond in a mind, so let us instill in ourselves the wisdom of love.” - Naguib Mahfouz

"In love there are two things: bodies and words.” - Joyce Carol Oates

"To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow - this is a human offering that can border on miraculous." - Elizabeth Gilbert

"Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time." - Maya Angelou

"Where we love is home – home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts." - Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr

"Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place." - Zora Neale Hurston

“I love her, and that’s the beginning and end of everything.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald

"There is always madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness."– Friedrich Nietzsche

“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.” -- Anais Nin

MUSIC - find all songs on the playlist here!

1960s

unchained melody, the righteous brothers

say a little prayer, aretha franklin

i want to hold your hand, the beatles

be my baby, the ronettes

i was made to love her, stevie wonder

piece of my heart, erma franklin

i can’t help myself, the four tops

bring it on home to me, sam cooke

these arms of mine, otis redding

walking after midnight, patsy cline

1970s

let’s stay together, al green

waiting in vain, bob marley

how deep is your love, bee gees

three times a lady, commodores

maybe i’m amazed, wings

wonderful tonight, eric clapton

after the love has gone, earth, wind, and fire

ain’t no sunshine, bill withers

your song, elton john

the first time ever i saw your face, roberta flack

1980s

a groovy kind of love, phil collins

the sweetest taboo, sade

careless whisper, george michael

saving all my love for you, whitney houston

woman in love, barbara streisand

i want to know what love is, foreigner

making love out of nothing at all, air supply

ain’t nobody, chaka khan

total eclipse of the heart, bonnie tyler

we’ve got tonight, kenny rogers and sheena easton

1990s

damn i wish i was your lover, sophie b hawkins

kiss me, sixpence none the richer

i’ll be there for you/you’re all i need to get by, method man

end of the road, boyz ii men

truly madly deeply, savage garden

dreaming of you, selena

mary jane (all night long), mary j blige

iris, goo goo dolls

hey lover, ll cool j

where does my heart beat now, celine dion

2000s

somewhere only we know, keane

save room, john legend

the limit to your love, feist

untitled (how does it feel), d’angelo

diary, alicia keys

yellow, coldplay

she will be loved, maroon 5

home, edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros

pretty wings, maxwell

you and me, lifehouse

2010s/2020s

work song, hozier

light my love, greta van fleet

say it first, sam smith

slow dancing in the dark, joji

love on the brain, rihanna

little things, one direction

hold me while you wait, lewis capaldi

love galore, sza

what a time, julia michaels and niall horan

love., kendrick lamar

first love / late spring, mitski

right where you left me, taylor swift

i won’t give up, jason mraz

love drought, beyonce

leave the door open, silk sonic

as the world caves in, matt maltese

she said, dvsn

just give me a reason, pink and nate ruess

when we were young, adele

still don’t know my name, labrinth

[wearevillains]

Loveless

Autumn by Short Round // No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai // Dear One Absent This Long While by Lisa Olstein // Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman // Ghost World by Daniel Clowes // The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo // Loveless by Alice Oseman // Fourth of July by Sufjan Stevens

[gaylord-nelson]

Absence

"Separation", W.S Merwin//Jenny Slate// "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous", Ocean Vuong// "I Still Love You Now And Then", Josh Ritter// The Beatrice Letters, Lemony Snicket// "Postmortem", Eduardo C. Corral// "Source Decay", John Darnielle// "Dear One Absent This Long While", Lisa Olstein

[fluttering-slips]

Dear One Absent This Long While 

It has been so wet stones glaze in moss; everything blooms coldly.

I expect you. I thought one night it was you at the base of the drive, you at the foot of the stairs,

you in a shiver of light, but each time leaves in wind revealed themselves,

the retreating shadow of a fox, daybreak. We expect you, cat and I, bluebirds and I, the stove.

In May we dreamed of wreaths burning on bonfires over which young men and women leapt.

June efforts quietly. I’ve planted vegetables along each garden wall

so even if spring continues to disappoint we can say at least the lettuce loved the rain.

I have new gloves and a new hoe. I practice eulogies. He was a hawk

with white feathered legs. She had the quiet ribs of a salamander crossing the old pony post road.

Yours is the name the leaves chatter at the edge of the unrabbited woods.

Lisa Olstein

[fatbeanbun]

Dear One Absent This Long While

Lisa Olstein

It has been so wet stones glaze in moss; everything blooms coldly.

I expect you. I thought one night it was you at the base of the drive, you at the foot of the stairs,

you in a shiver of light, but each time leaves in wind revealed themselves,

the retreating shadow of a fox, daybreak.

We expect you, cat and I, bluebirds and I, the stove.

In May we dreamed of wreaths burning on bonfires

over which young men and women leapt.

June efforts quietly.

I’ve planted vegetables along each garden wall

so even if spring continues to disappoint

we can say at least the lettuce loved the rain.

I have new gloves and a new hoe.

I practice eulogies. He was a hawk

with white feathered legs. She had the quiet ribs

of a salamander crossing the old pony post road.

Yours is the name the leaves chatter

at the edge of the unrabbited woods.