#193: newness before the full moon 🍓 🌚
A mini edition of things I've enjoyed this week
Hello!
Since it’s a full moon tomorrow, and a strawberry moon at that, I decided to channel my lunar impulses and impulsively work on a totally fresh newsletter format.
But first, a moon poem:
…and an apt song to usher in the new moon:
on poetry
“Poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action.”
-Audre LordeTransformation by Adam Zagajewski
(Translated by Clare Cavanagh)
I haven’t written a single poem
in months.
I’ve lived humbly, reading the paper,
pondering the riddle of power
and the reasons for obedience.
I’ve watched sunsets
(crimson, anxious),
I’ve heard the birds grow quiet
and night’s muteness.
I’ve seen sunflowers dangling
their heads at dusk, as if a careless hangman
had gone strolling through the gardens.
September’s sweet dust gathered
on the windowsill and lizards
hid in the bends of walls.
I’ve taken long walks,
craving one thing only:
lightning,
transformation,
you.Why Bother by Sean Thomas Dougherty
Reconstructions is an infinite computer-generated poem.
A poet struggles for the just-right words to memorialise a past romance
new sounds
Asuna’s 100 Keyboards (A live music performance featuring over 100 toy keyboards)
you should watch
for the love of design
Occlusion Grotesque is an experimental typeface that is carved into the bark of a tree. As the tree grows, it deforms the letters and outputs new design variations, that are captured annually. The project explores what it means to design with nature and on nature's terms. (LOVE THIS!)
Minimator (A minimalist graphical editor)
Women In Type (Found on The Internet Index)
Fall in love with these 11 beautiful coffee makers that history forgot
LEGO Letterpress: Bird Species from The Netherlands Are Printed with Everyone’s Favorite Toy Bricks
learn something new today
“The caterpillar of the fruit-piercing moth has evolved a unique defense against potential predators: it overwhelms them with the sudden realization that they are but another drifting speck in a vast, beautiful, bewildering cosmos.”
-Arabinda Pal
things that make me sad
That I don’t live near the Kuju Flower Park, Japan.
It’s the end of an era as New York removes last public payphone
“I know the sadness will always replenish itself. There is no certainty in almost anything else….Surely, each small joy has an expiration date. I have touched the edges of them. I don’t know how to fight against this reality except for to write into these moments with urgency. With fearlessness and hunger.”
-from the essay On Joy by Hanif Willis-Adurraqib (via)
Announcement: Dear Jasmine Instagram Takeover
Dear Jasmine is a fortnightly column by an anonymous writer. A space you can call upon to ask for nudges, signposts and open a door to whatever ails your heart, to find a space to rest. For the past seven fortnights, Jasmine has been actively building a safe space for the questions we ask the universe, and there’s plenty more comfort and truth bombs coming.
I’m so happy to share that the lovely anonymous writer of the fortnightly column will be doing an Instagram Takeover on Saturday, June 18th, all day on @thealiporepost. Make sure to drop by!
Meme of the Week
Stay curious and inspired, dear reader. And feel free to write back to let me know what you thought of today’s newsletter format.
Reminder to howl at the strawberry moon tomorrow! 🐺
Much love,
Rohini
Love the new format, getting back to reading Alipore ah I feel alive after months :')) so grateful