#64 - the end of bad days
Art by the lovely Mouni Feddag
Marcus Aurelius by Bianca Stone
Sometimes I wake up in the night
with a terrible headache, my mouth
blackened; a ghost looking for valuables
in the debris, I turn on a battery-powered
light, clipped to a book, I write things down
in the spirit of Marcus Aurelius
who said the finest bottle of wine
is just grape juice, passing through the liver,
no matter the beauty of a frothing glass,
or a night of big Truth-seeking, never recalled;
the importance of putting something bittersweet
into our mouths, turning it around and around
on our tongues, attaching to it, our missions,
our purpose—in the end
we are all just filters, not even
as beautiful as the plainest bird
or as zen as the meanest deer tick,
nothing is given over to, nothing new is lit.
So often it is this. I wake up, urgent, fatalistic,
with the taste of nectar on my boughs.
I replay on a loop my one stoic consistency,
my middle of the night vow,
that I will start tomorrow
the essential dismantling
of what I live.
Other poems I enjoyed reading this week:
"We document & we
drama. We demand &
we flow, fold & hang
loose. We measure &
we moan, mourn & whine
low. & we live, and we
breathe. & some of the time,
we don’t." -from What Do We Do - Now by Ellen Hagan
"It could happen any time, tornado,
earthquake, Armageddon. It could happen.
Or sunshine, love, salvation.
It could, you know. That’s why we wake
and look out––no guarantees
in this life.
But some bonuses, like morning,
like right now, like noon,
like evening." -Yes by William Stafford
"What I could not know then
was how being a sifter
would help me all year long.
When bad days came
I would close my eyes and feel them passing
through the tiny holes.
When good days came
I would try to contain them gently
the way flour remains
in the sifter until you turn the handle.
Time, time. I was a sweet sifter in time
and no one ever knew." -from Sifter by Naomi Shahib Nye
"I went into a restaurant
Lookin’ for the cook
I told them I was the editor
Of a famous etiquette book
The waitress he was handsome
He wore a powder blue cape
I ordered some suzette, I said
“Could you please make that crepe”
Just then the whole kitchen exploded
From boilin’ fat
Food was flying everywhere
And I left without my hat" -Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream
Recommended Listening:
Penguin - Michael Hurley (one of my new favorite little tunes)
Podcast: Writer and Geek
The Water - Johnny Flynn & Laura Marling
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Soundtrack (what a fabulous show!)
Links of the Week:
One Look (reverse dictionary)
Devendra Banhart :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Instagram Lovin': Kutte Ka Baccha
Noopur Choksi (Bangalore, come check out her art exhibition tomorrow evening at Champaca!)
“I'm a curious person who wants to understand why things are what they are; to take full advantage of how things work and visually explain complex processes in a simplified manner.”
-Traceloops
I had the pleasure of interviewing animator Traceloops (Matthias Brown) about his fascination for knowing how things work, the love for making GIFs, what he looks for in collaborators, and more. Read the full interview here.
Sorry for the 5-day delay in sending out this newsletter edition. The flu got me, and I was bedridden. The good news is that after a week of fighting the fever, I emerged victorious. The bad news is that I haven't properly slept in days, and my head feels like it's going to explode. If anybody here has suggestions/tips to fall asleep and get my old sleep cycle back, please SEND HELP!
Thank you.
-Rohini