#poetry nation

[firenaition]

thinking about what zuko means to azula and weeping. he's a traitor but he's your brother. he held you when you were born. he's banished for being too weak to hurt your father and you learn to hate his goodness. he is somewhere in the world carrying your eyes. he misses your absent mother more than he loves you but that is the price you pay for being the one who stayed. he never grants you this same kindness. you are faster and deadlier and better but it doesn't change the fact that your brave big brother used to tell you stories of dragons every time it stormed because you were so afraid of the thunder. he is the only one who understands what it means to bear the brunt of your bloody inheritance. he crumbled under the weight of it, but you stayed. you always stay. he is half of you. you hate being betrayed.

you don't love him. he's your big brother. who could you possibly love more?

[taylornation]

Attention tortured poets. 🤓🤍

This is our month! AKA: National Poetry Month and the birth month of THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (ahem, an entire album of new poetry). Pre-order, pre-save, pre-add, pre-cry, etc. now!

[plasmapop]

28/04/24 • catullus 51 translated via the international code of signals

BC 1 Can you communicate with the aircraft? NE 5 You should proceed with great caution; hostile vessel sighted NH 1 Are you clear of all danger? EA Have you sighted or heard of a vessel in distress?  ZL Your signal has been received but not understood. QF I cannot go ahead MBP Onset was sudden.  PG 2 I am dazzled by your searchlight. Extinguish it or lift it. [IB 4 The extent of the damage is still unknown.]  MHB Tongue is dry. YS I am unable to communicate… DV 1 I am adrift. MBE The whole body is affected. IX Fire is gaining.  FD 1 My position is indicated by rockets or flares. PG I do not see any light. EP I have lost sight of you. MY 2 It is dangerous to proceed on present course. AE 1 I wish to abandon my vessel, but have not the means. GC 2 I have searched area of accident but have found no trace of derelict or survivors

[asoftepiloguemylove]

BUT WHO COULD LOVE ME? I AM OUT OF MY MIND // IVAN & TILL

pinterest // VIVINOS Alien Stage, "ROUND 6" (via youtube) // Anne Sexton Complete Poems of Anne Sexton, "The Papa and Mama Dance" // Fall Out Boy Hum Hallelujah // VIVINOS Alien Stage, "ROUND 6" (via youtube) // Ernest Hemingway The Garden of Eden // Florence + the Machine Grace // Elliot Wake Black Iris // The National Daughters of the Soho Riots // VIVINOS Alien Stage, "ROUND 6" (via youtube) // Mitski I Guess // Adam Silvera They Both Die at the End // Lorde Writer in the Dark // VIVINOS Alien Stage, "ROUND 6" (via youtube) // Margaret Atwood Cat's Eye // Chris Abani Dog Woman // VIVINOS Alien Stage, "ROUND 6" (via youtube) // Warsan Shire Souvenir, "Our Men Do Not Belong to Us" // VIVINOS Alien Stage, "ROUND 6" (via youtube) // Louise Glück Faithful and Virtuous Night

[godsopenwound]

Georges Bataille, Erotism: Death & Sensuality

[lyrical-swift]

Taylor Swift - Down Bad

[thoughtkick]

But sometimes you make a choice in that moment and you know in your heart it’s going to change everything.

Daydream Nation

[kvothes]

i dearly love all of these but they are not what i reach for first when teaching—i favor contemporary poetry!

[incidentalcomics]

Words of Wonder: Emily Dickinson Edition

To read some of Emily Dickinson's poems and a bonus comic, visit my newsletter:

[jstor]

April is National Poetry Month, and at JSTOR, we celebrate the boundless creativity that poetry inspires across various forms of expression. 🎨 📜

This month, we highlight the seamless blend of visual art and verse, featuring stunning prints by William Blake from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's open collection. Blake's work exemplifies the powerful synergy between poetry and imagery, reminding us that words and art are profoundly interconnected.

Images: William Blake. Songs of Innocence: Spring. [1789] printed ca. 1825. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

William Blake. Songs of Experience: The Tyger. [1794] printed ca. 1825. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

William Blake. Songs of Experience: The Angel. [1794] printed ca. 1825. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

William Blake. Songs of Innocence: The Lamb. [1789] printed ca. 1825. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[todayontumblr]

Monday April 17.

National Haiku Poetry Day.

Sometimes less really is more. And other times a lot less is a lot more. Which is why today, this Monday April 17, we are joining in the celebrations for National Haiku Poetry Day, as devised and implemented by The Haiku Foundation back in 2012. Because things don't get a lot more more for a lot less less than the old art of Haiku, in which a frog leaping in a pond, the profundity of a drop of few, the light of a candle, a blooming poppy, a howling wind, or the taste of rain can be distilled and expressed with such compelling and elusive intrigue—and such economy of words. These are works which require very little time at all in the act of reading, but sit and linger and echo for a long time thereafter. They resonate, in the truest sense of the word. Tumblr being Tumblr, the writing community here is home to more than a few talented Haiku poets, as you can see for yourself over at #haiku poetry. 

And Tumblr being Tumblr, of course, this community is home to one particular talent notable in the art of Haiku: @the-haiku-bot, a bot which, in their own words: "Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up." This is a bot that can prise moments of poetry from even the most innocuous post, and, we would contend, makes the perfect way to celebrate #haiku poetry and today's national commemoration. Trans sex? 17 syllables? Your aunt? Long rants? The Turing test? There is nothing—nothing—this mysterious little bot cannot accomplish. 

[garadinervi]

Langston Hughes, The Backlash Blues, Broadside No. 13, Broadside Press, Detroit, MI, 1967 [Broadside Press: Poetry to the People, Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. © Langston Hughes]

[schuylerpeck]

Woot woot!! It’s NAPOWRIMO time, babeeeyyy!! Pen a poem everyday for 30 days or browse around and write when you can—the choice is yours. ❤️ I’ve loved making prompt lists over the years and I’m excited to see what this years brings. Be silly! Write some bad poems! Write some okay poems! Enjoy ya’self. Love you. ❤️

instagram: hiitssky

[dontblamethewitches]

🎨 by the incredible alef vernon.

[asoftepiloguemylove]

i wanna make you fall in love as hard as my poor parents teenage daughter / she'll be the best you ever had if you let her

Sylvia Plath from a letter to Ann Davdiow-Goodman written 1951; Letters of Sylvia Plath, Volume I: 1940-1956 / Jeanette Winterson excerpt from Lighthousekeeping / Rosamund Hodge excerpt from Cruel Beauty / unknown / image: Angelica Alzona Intimacy (2012) words: The National Daughter of the Soho Riots (2005) / Tathève Simonyan A Prayer / @/FAUNTHEKiD (pinterest) / Victoria Chang Foghorn; Six poems / image: unknown words: Richard Siken excerpt from Crush / Hala Alyan I'm Not Speaking First

i. Sylvia Plath, letter to Ann Davdiow-Goodman

[ "I know I'll always think of you with something like hurt and nostalgia - and a great deal of love." ]

ii. Jeanette Winterson, Lighthousekeeping

[ "This is not a love story, but love is in it. That is, love is just outside it, looking for a way to break in." ]

iii. Rosamund Hodge, Cruel Beauty

[ "You fought and fought to keep all the cruelty locked up in your head, and for what? None of them ever loved you, because none of them ever knew you." ]

iv. unknown

[ "and you've cried once more because recognition feels like forgiveness, which is a burning furnace that can't stand on its own. love is a feast but you've learned to abstain. there is a sickness that follows the shame of giving with love only to be met with slaughter." ]

v. Angelica Alzona, Intimacy / The National, Daughter of the Soho Riots

[ Surrealist painting of a man and a woman kissing as their faces blend together. Red outlines of hands reach up around them. "BREAK MY ARMS / AROUND THE ONE I LOVE" ]

vi. Tatheve Simonyan, A Prayer

[ "Rage, that is love - rotten! / Rage, that is desire - rotten! / Rage! - like a prayer, unanswered, ricocheting from your ceiling and landing right onto your eyes, never quite reaching where it was meant to." ]

vii. FAUNTHEKiD

[ "being in close proximity to you / is being led to the slaughter / if that the lamb is aware is alive is accepting / if that the slaughter is love love love" ]

viii. Victoria Chang, Foghorn

[ "The great mystery / is whether I love you or / I just love mourning. / The absence of a laugh just / gone, and the air that fills it." ]

ix. unknown/Richard Siken, Crush

[ Silhouette of a boy looking downwards. Red streaks from the background spread outwards from the middle. "I'll be your / slaughterhouse, / your killing floor, / your morgue / and final resting" ]

x. Hala Alyan, I'm Not Speaking First

[ "Nothing's Freudian anymore. A cigar's a cigar. I want to love something / I want to love something without having to apologize for it. Please don't tell." ]

[kiisuuumii]

@kiisuuumii (the other side)