I graduated high school this week. The words feel heavy and surreal, as if I shouldn't be typing them; as if there's nothing I could have ever been than a child. I've spent the entire week looking backward, into a past that seems like it belongs to someone else, despite its striking familiarity, which is … Continue reading Christina Rossetti // Up-Hill
Tag: words
What first drew me to Natasha Oladokun's poem was the last stanza, read out of context: and God is both the table and the hunger,/ and I am both the bullet and the gunner. It paints a vivid mental image to anyone who has oscillated between embracing, resenting, and seeking comfort in their (sometimes one-sided) … Continue reading Natasha Oladokun // Saturday Night Special
In Transparent Things, God-Sized Hole, Dana Roeser equates the absence of divinity not only with aimlessness and lack of purpose, but also with a kind of translucence, with psychologically induced invisibility. She clings to the small, insignificant possessions, longing for something to keep her grounded in reality, the clutter that keeps me bound to this … Continue reading Dana Roeser // Transparent Things, God-Sized Hole
Mary Oliver is one of the poets I keep closest to my heart. She is a meticulous observer of the natural world: all sorts of wild animals, from kingfishers and owls to foxes and snakes, come to life through her words. She is a reminder that the world we live in is to be cherished, … Continue reading Mary Oliver // The Swan
Using Pia Arke's exhibition Arctic Hysteria, Lesley Harrison writes an ode to nakedness and vulnerability. Arctic Hysteria refers to the trauma that Greenlandic women experienced when the men of their colony went hunting, which is also the core of Lesley Harrison's poem: it's about escaping codependency and learning to live as yourself, to claim your … Continue reading Lesley Harrison // Nude
Cosmic longing and a homesickness for the unreachable are key themes in Louise Glück's poetry. Telescope is centered around a moment of quiet, at night, on the cold hill, it's an immersive reflection upon human life on the macroscopic scale. Glück uses the intimate second-person pronoun you to make the reader visualise the discrepancy between … Continue reading Louise Glück // Telescope
Ilya Kaminsky's Deaf Republic is a story of civil disobedience through silence. The dark shadows of oppressive soldiers loom over his poems, the gunshots are deafening, the city streets reek of human death. And amidst all that, Alfonso and Sonya - the two main characters of the first act - are allowed their moments of … Continue reading Ilya Kaminsky // While the Child Sleeps, Sonya Undresses
How do we connect to our own souls after altering them so violently so as to fit inside stifling social norms? Why do we do that, anyway? Why are we so willing to do anything to guard this immense gap between who we appear to be and who we really are? Tracy K. Smith's Shadow … Continue reading Tracy K. Smith // Shadow Poem
archive of longings 