#86 - Stay home, Stay safe
Art: Anselm Kiefer
When Death Travels by Clint Margrave
No one makes him
take his shoes off at security
or asks to see his boarding pass.
There are no bags to check
because baggage is strictly for the living.
No windows on the plane
because there’s nothing to see.
No seatbelts because
there’s nothing to impact.
The flight attendants
attend to nothing.
And though there are delays,
there are never any cancellations.
No one greets him at the gate
or holds a sign with his name.
No one is happy to see him.
Other poems I read this week:
"I’ll sit at the window
Where it’s safe to say no.
Won’t go out, won’t work
For a living, will study the clouds
Becoming snow."
-a poem by Fanny Howe
"The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful
Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time."
-from The Mower by Philip Larkin
"I once read that if you think long enough
about something, you yourself start to take
on the characteristics of that thing. Maybe
I should think of a crowd having a great time.
But I am thinking about you again. We are
having a great time, only I’m feeling sentimental."
-from Loneliness by Scott Cohen
"Once upon a time,
When women were birds,
There was the simple understanding
That to sing at dawn
And to sing at dusk
Was to heal the world through joy.
The birds still remember what we have forgotten,
That the world is meant to be celebrated."
-When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams
"I'm trying to make music from the sound
I hear outside my window, a siren
Coming and bleeding away, a girl's voice
Just beneath it—notes my flesh
Would somehow claim as music—
But I keep trying to make
Something else, something, if possible,
Less discordant than its chords of realities."
-from A Song Composed from Forgetting by A.Van Jordan
"Give me weapons
of minute destruction. Let
my words turn into sparks."
-from The Birthday of the World by Marge Piercy
Art: Oluf Wold-Torne
Things to see:
-The Bagley Wright Lecture Series on Poetry
-Virtual Museum & Gallery Tours
-How to Stream the Animal Kingdom From Your Sofa + All Aboard: The Sleigh Ride
-Creative Live's free wellness classes
-Mark Cousins' virtual course to learn film in 40 days
-Leonard Cohen on Preparing for Death
-Live! (a series of talks on Instagram)
-Drone Portraits Of People Stuck In Quarantine
Things to do:
-Wendy Macnaughton's drawing lessons
-Book readings by Oliver Jeffers
-Brooklyn Art Library's 28 Day Challenge
-LUNCH DOODLES with Mo Willems
-Answer these questions (it's a whole lot of them)
-Download DotsBot: Phone backgrounds made by a bot
-Recite a poem for #International Poetry Circle
-Be Square
-Cj Hendry's Squish Paintings
-Liz Climo's downloadable coloring book
Things to read:
-Yuval Noah Harari: the world after coronavirus
-Resisting the Tug of Home Amid Coronavirus
-On the delight of taking one’s time
-Social Social Distance Club (subscribe now!)
-A Letter from F. Scott Fitzgerald, Quarantined in the South of France
Things to hear:
-How to Live Through This (must hear)
-The Bagley Wright Lecture Series on Poetry
-Four Tet's new album Sixteen Oceans
-Home Cooking (an aptly timed new podcast by Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirway)
-Jeevan Antony's gorgeous album Sounds of Himeya
-Audible is offering free books for kids
I hope you don't get overwhelmed by this mail. With the total shutdown underway for the next three weeks, or possibly even longer, I didn't want to hoard these links (or essentials for that matter). Also, thank you to everyone who was a part of The Alipore Post Online last Saturday. It was one of the most inspiring days I've ever experienced in this lifetime, and for that, I am grateful.
Be gentle with yourself, do steam, and stay home. Also, if you feel like reaching out, just reply to this mail.
-Rohini :)
GIF by James Thacher
“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”
-George Bernard Shaw