Culture Shock

James Baldwin talking about love

bird riding rhinoceros

my home isn't my home anymore, something's gone wrong along the way

noor hindi dear god. dear bones. dear yellow.: "pledging alliegance" (via @feral-ballad) \\ andrew collins \\ athena nassar, from love is not always song, but the swelling (via @weltenwellen) \\ @holly-warbs \\ yanyi dream of the divided field: poems: "the friend” (via @dactylicreveries) \\ bartosz beda silent interior ii

kofi

Hmmmm hm. Okay. Worldbuilding/story idea.

One million years after humanity disappears, octopi and ravens have independently developed sapience. And one day an octopus child and an elder raven meet at the edge of the ocean.

Where is your mother and father? asks the raven. I have no mother or father, says the octopus, blushing pale. All octopi are children. Once we’re grown, we will mate and we will die. It is the first and the last thing our mothers tell us.

But that’s horrible, says the raven. It’s not all bad, says the octopus. We play, we hunt, we make games for ourselves in the deep. Yes, but who remembers your songs? the raven says. Who passes down your stories?

What is a story? the octopus asks.

And the raven thinks about this question. And finally it says: A story is how you remember things in the past. It is how you know where you come from, and what happened before you were born. A story can be a warning, or it can be advice, or it can be a silly joke told to make you feel good. Someone remembers the story and tells it to the next generation, who remember the story and tells it to the generation after them.

And the octopus thinks about this answer. And finally it says: Can you tell me a story?

And the raven tells the octopus a story. And it’s a good story. And the next day the octopus returns and asks for another. The next day it brings its octopus friends, and the raven brings its raven friends, and many stories are shared on the edge of the ocean.

Months later, the octopus returns to the raven. I am grown, it says. I am returning to the sea to find a mate and lay my brood. I will not be coming back. I’m sorry.

I will miss your company, says the raven.

I have one thing to ask you, says the octopus. In time my children will come to the edge of the ocean. I would like you to tell them a story I have made. And when they have stories of their own, I would like your children to remember them and pass them down to my children’s children.

Of course, says the raven. What is your story about?

And the octopus thinks, and says: It is about an octopus child and an elder raven who meet at the edge of the ocean.

And this story has been passed down to this day.

When summer evenings feel like this gif it’s beautiful and it’s worth it

YOU CAN MAKE THE WORLD A KINDER PLACE BY BEING KIND! THAT’S ALL IT TAKES!!

hi pauline - my friend is trying to get into poetry (and reading in general) but hasn't really read much, and i was wondering if you know any poems/poets that are good for a beginner?

oh man I remember the first thrills of poetry creeping up on me. here is a list of good poems for beginners that have been sweeping me off my feet for years and will hopefully do the same to your friend. most poets mentioned here are really great for beginners in my opinion so feel free to explore more of their works

“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver

“The Thing Is” by Ellen Bass

“How to Not Be a Perfectionist” by Molly Brodak

“A Blessing” by James Wright

“Having a Coke with You” by Frank O’Hara

“What the Living Do” by Marie Howe

“Gate A-4” by Naomi Shihab Nye

“Stolen Moments” by Kim Addonizio

“Ode to Friendship” by Noor Hindi

“Wish” by W. S. Merwin

“The Great Blue Heron of Dunbar Road” by Ada Limón

“Elegy for My Sadness” by Chen Chen

“When I Tell My Husband I Miss the Sun, He Knows” by Paige Lewis

“For M” by Mikko Harvey

“Try to Praise the Mutilated World” by Adam Zagajewski

“Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong” by Ocean Vuong

“[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]” by e.e. cummings

“Small Kindnesses” by Danusha Laméris

“Good Bones” by Maggie Smith

“The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry

“Please Read” by Mary Ruefle

“Grass Moon” by Matthew Dickman

“O Small Sad Ecstasy of Love” by Anne Carson

“Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem” by Matthew Olzmann

Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

truly some people have no genre savviness whatsoever. A girl came back from the dead the other day and fresh out of the grave she laughed and laughed and lay down on the grass nearby to watch the sky, dirt still under her nails. I asked her if she’s sad about anything and she asked me why she should be. I asked her if she’s perhaps worried she’s a shadow of who she used to be and she said that if she is a shadow she is a joyous one, and anyway whoever she was she is her, now, and that’s enough. I inquired about revenge, about unfinished business, about what had filled her with the incessant need to claw her way out from beneath but she just said she’s here to live. I told her about ghosts, about zombies, tried to explain to her how her options lie between horror and tragedy but she just said if those are the stories meant for her then she’ll make another one. I said “isn’t it terribly lonely how in your triumph over death nobody was here to greet you?” and she just looked at me funny and said “what do you mean? The whole world was here, waiting”. Some people, I tell you.

I love eight year olds because no one else these days has the courage to lie blatantly to your face with the conviction of a sixth-century martyr