#112: life is a brief, brief thing
Art by Suzanne Valadon
Poems of Power by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
I know not whence I came,
I know not whither I go;
But the fact stands clear that I am here
In this world of pleasure and woe.
And out of the mist and murk,
Another truth shines plain.
It is in my power each day and hour
To add to its joy or its pain.
I know that the earth exists,
It is none of my business why.
I cannot find out what it's all about,
I would but waste time to try.
My life is a brief, brief thing,
I am here for a little space.
And while I stay I would like, if I may,
To brighten and better the place.
Other poems I enjoyed reading this week:
"To love.
To be loved.
To never forget your own insignificance,
To never get used to the unspeakable violence
and the vulgar disparity of life around you.
To seek joy in the saddest places.
To pursue beauty to its lair.
To never simplify what is complicated
or complicate what is simple.
To respect strength, never power.
Above all, to watch.
To try and understand.
To never look away.
And never, never to forget."
-Never To Forget by Arundhati Roy (from The End of Imagination, 1998)
"I could never have dreamt that there were such goings-on
in the world between the covers of books,
such sandstorms and ice blasts of words,
such staggering peace, such enormous laughter,
such and so many blinding bright lights,
splashing all over the pages
in a million bits and pieces
all of which were words, words, words,
and each of which were alive forever
in its own delight and glory and oddity and light."
-Notes on the Art of Poetry by Dylan Thomas
"Soon I’ll have another
season to offer you: frost soft
on the window and a porthole
sighed there, ice sleeving the bare
gray branches. The first time you see
something die, you won’t know it might
come back. I’m desperate for you
to love the world because I brought you here."
-from First Fall by Maggie Smith
Recommended Listening:
Hurry Slowly: A Call for Rest & Tenderness
Bob Dylan :: Pretty Good Stuff
Tame Impala - Is It True (Four Tet Remix)
Links of the Week:
FaceTime portraits by Tara Anand
In India, Women Artists Are Making Salient Work During the Pandemic (my first piece for Hyperallergic is up. India represent! :D )
#10. Poetry in Digital Spaces (I had a chat with Anjali Menon of the newsletter Six Impossible Things on The Alipore Post and my own writing)
The Chocolatier for the Hip-Hop Ear Japan-based artist lito leaf art carves tiny scenes onto tree leaves This is my newsletter #8: Bertrand Aznar (Bertrand talks about his love for François Truffaut and how cinema influences his art)
Artists I've discovered this week: Jūra Gric, Peter Uka, Virginie Morgand
The Alipore Post Spin-A-Yarn
I've been remembering what a fun writing activity spin-a-yarn is, how someone begins a story and it goes somewhere completely different with others' inputs. As a social experiment, I invite you to write a line for a children's book I'd like to co-write with the Internet, which I will later illustrate as @ro.doodles once I create the storyline.
If you like the idea, do send me a line for the story here! There are already 87 responses collected, and narrative ideas playing out in my mind!
New on the Website:
"some days i avoid the world and gaze at the sky on my roof, other days i saturate myself with numbers and statistics of covid-19 and check-in on everyone. on all days, i push myself to find stillness, within and outside. i don’t know what these images can provide except for maybe solace."
-from Quarantine Stillness by Shravya Kag
"The fragrance of tea and a Malayalam song blaring on the Railway station speaker would welcome us. The sights, smells and sounds of the station would engulf me as we would step out of the train. Tea , sandalwood, jasmine and the distinct fragrance of Cuticura talcum powder would hit me like a hurricane. This cornucopia of smells would make my father very happy." -from Fireflies by Sandeep Narayanan
-as part of an ongoing collaboration with Speaking Tiger, I picked my favorite poems from Anupama Raju's debut collection Nine. Read the poems here.
"If I can't go out, why don't I go inwards?
I don't need to put on my best clothes today
I don't have to plaster on a smile
When it's only me here
And I finally have the chance to know,
It was only me, all along."
-from Inwards by Ayushi Aruna Agarwal
“The daily routine of most adults is so heavy and artificial that we are closed off to much of the world. We have to do this in order to get our work done. I think one purpose of art is to get us out of those routines. When we hear music or poetry or stories, the world opens up again.”
-Ursula LeGuin
GIF by Mia Page
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