Weekly Edition #34
Artwork: Towards Pleasure by René Magritte
I Have Not Lingered in European Monasteries by Leonard Cohen
I have not lingered in European monasteries
and discovered among the tall grasses tombs of knights
who fell as beautifully as their ballads tell;
I have not parted the grasses
or purposefully left them thatched.
I have not released my mind to wander and wait
in those great distances
between the snowy mountains and the fishermen,
like a moon,
or a shell beneath the moving water.
I have not held my breath
so that I might hear the breathing of God,
or tamed my heartbeat with an exercise,
or starved for visions.
Although I have watched him often
I have not become the heron,
leaving my body on the shore,
and I have not become the luminous trout,
leaving my body in the air.
I have not worshiped wounds and relics
or combs of iron,
or bodies wrapped and burnt in scrolls.
I have not been unhappy for ten thousand years.
During the day I laugh and during the night I sleep.
My favourite cooks prepare my meals,
my body cleans and repairs itself,
and all my work goes well.
Other poems I read this week: (Read the full poem in the link)
"The rain is speaking quietly,
you can sleep now.
Near my bed, the rustle of newspaper wings.
There are no other angels.
I’ll wake up early and bribe the coming day
to be kind to us."
"I am waiting to die
every day. It is okay. You are too. When it comes
I will not be ready. I am learning instead, a little bit
better, how to live. Come sunlight, the old Russian
wakes & whispers good morning through the small
crack of window. Dobroe utro, he murmurs toward
the plant, & the plant bows one near-purple & bulbous
tomato as if to greet him. It goes on like this, you
know." -As Light by Devin Kelly
"The third time my mother fell
she stopped saying she wanted to die.
Saying you want to die
is one thing, she pointed out,
but dying is quite another.
And then she went to bed." -The third time my mother fell by Jane Mead via Griffin Poetry Prize "If I dream
it will be of the smallest goat,
who despite her job, flinched
from most of the hands. Though
she let me touch her, she would not
eat from my palm. In my dream,
she’ll die of old age
and not boredom." -Petting Zoo by Nicole Homer "The worst pain I’ve ever felt
was looking at you, reach for me
through a video screen and I couldn’t
touch you; right then, I knew
what it felt like to die, a living
death—" -A poem from a father to his youngest son by Timothy TB
via Exo Comics
Recommended Listening: (Discoveries from Spotify)
Someday - The Growlers Good Guy - Julia Jacklin Prize // Reward - Good Morning Morning After - Ariel Pink & Weyes Blood
La Engañadora - Rubén González
Links of the Week:
Milanote: The ultimate moodboard maker
Textile Sculptures by Raija Jokinen
Letters In The Mail (I plan to start something similar in India :) )
British Library's collection of obscene writing goes online Write With Trees (somebody made a tree font!) The need to zine
Speaking of zines, I'm doing a Photo Zine Making workshop as part of the Chennai Photo Biennale at Madras Literary Society this Friday! :) Do come, if you're in town.
About the workshop: While zine making in itself democratises the process of making art and becomes a medium for self-publishing, the focus of the workshop will be to create personal narratives using one’s own photographs (they could be shot and developed by you, found photographs, from an archive or even from your own family collection).
Register here: www.instamojo.com/cpbfoundation/rohini-kejriwal-of-the-alipore-post