January 2011
1 tag
Elizabeth Gone
Anne Sexton
1. You lay in the nest of your real death, Beyond the print of my nervous fingers Where they touched your moving head; Your old skin puckering, your lungs’ breath Grown baby short as you looked up last At my face swinging over the human bed, And somewhere you cried, let me go let me go. You lay in the crate of your last death, But were not you, not finally you. They have stuffed...
Psalm 107:23-30
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their...
From "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
Samuel Coleridge
Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea! And never a saint took pity on My soul in agony. The many men, so beautiful! And they all dead did lie; And a thousand thousand slimy things Lived on; and so did I. I looked upon the rotting sea, And drew my eyes away; I looked upon the rotting deck, And there the dead men lay. I looked to heaven, and tried to pray; But or...
1 tag
Depression
Jane Kenyon
…a mote. A little world. Dusty. Dusty. The universe is dust. Who can bear it? Christ comes. The women feed him, bathe his feet with tears, bring spices, find the empty tomb, burst out to tell the men, are not believed…
The Suicides
Janet Frame
It is hard for us to enter the kind of despair they must have known and because it is hard we must get in by breaking the lock if necessary for we have not the key, though for them there was no lock and the surrounding walls were supple, receiving as waves, and they drowned though not lovingly; it is we only who must enter in this way.
Temptations will beset us, once we are in. We...
1 tag
Noon Walk on the Asylum Lawn
Anne Sexton
The summer sun ray shifts through a suspicious tree. though I walk through the valley of the shadow It sucks the air and looks around for me. The grass speaks. I hear green chanting all day. I will fear no evil, fear no evil The blades extend and reach my way. The sky breaks. It sags and breathes upon my face. In the presence of mine enemies, mine enemies The world is full of enemies....
Jerusalem Walked Thru War
Julia Vinograd Jerusalem walked thru war whistling for a pack of dogs barking like guns, whistling for a pack of guns barking like dogs to relieve themselves by firehydrants and spilled brains. “M16, you pretty little thing, wag your tail and do your business.” Jerusalem walked through war among crumpled bodies and stole their bloody clothes. “My lovers should always be...
“If you want to move your reader, write more coldly.”
– Chekhov
“You can’t learn from remembering. You can’t learn from guessing. You...”
– Sarah Manguso
Name: Katharine Elizabeth (very stately, don’t you think?) Gender: Female Height: 5’ 7” Age: 19 (nearly 20 asdlgkhalskgh) Eye Color: Brown Hair Color: Dirty blonde Virgin?: A virgin who can’t drive, that’s me Smoking?: No though unfortunately I’m not as squarely against it as I know I should be…cause it’s sexy…arghhhh Drinking?: Not...
