- Excerpt From the Gentle Version by Sylvie

Yesterday was a bad day, my apartment was too quiet. Too empty. There was nothing, nothing.

Then suddenly I was turning on lights and they were the perfect shade of yellow and the music from my little speaker hit me so hard I almost cried in the kitchen and those socks I bought kept my feet warm and my warmed-up tortellini were so good with the scrapes of my mom's pesto.

I listened to Billie Eilish and Hozier and The Neighborhood and suddenly they were just people.

Sometimes I lay in bed terrified that I'll stop feeling. Yesterday was not that day.

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

People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.

— Iris Murdoch, A Fairly Honourable Defeat” (Chatto & Windus in 1970) (via Thoughts)

I love soulmates but also this-

The poetry in this is that it's from 2021, and the user deactivated.

this year will be wonderful. you will meet new people who will feel like sunlight. someone out there will be lucky enough to meet you. you will see breathtaking views. you will learn so much knowledge from your studies and gain so much wisdom. there will be bad days but you will heal and start again in the morning. you will discover what makes you happy. you will fill up journals with scribbles and messy drawings. you will feel low and make mistakes but they will help you become a stronger person. you will pick up new things that give your life meaning and you will pour your heart into it. you will find songs that speak to you more than anything else in the world. you will grow. this year is waiting for you and it’s beautiful.

Jennifer Saunders, from “When the Guest Speaker Told Us“

The panels of the staircases are soft with cobwebs, but nobody seems to mind.

Hiroshima

Der den Tod auf Hiroshima warf Ging ins Kloster, läutet dort die Glocken. Der den Tod auf Hiroshima warf Sprang vom Stuhl in die Schlinge, erwürgte sich. Der den Tod auf Hiroshima warf Fiel in Wahnsinn, wehrt Gespenster ab Hunderttausend, die ihn angehen nächtlich, Auferstandene aus Staub für ihn.

Nichts von alledem ist wahr. Erst vor kurzem sah ich ihn Im Garten seines Hauses vor der Stadt. Die Hecken waren noch jung und die Rosenbüsche zierlich. Das wächst nicht so schnell, dass sich einer verbergen könnte Im Wald des Vergessens. Gut zu sehen war Das nackte Vorstadthaus, die junge Frau Die neben ihm stand im Blumenkleid Das kleine Mädchen an ihrer Hand Der Knabe, der auf seinem Rücken saß Und über seinem Kopf die Peitsche schwang. Sehr gut erkennbar war er selbst Vierbeinig auf dem Grasplatz, das Gesicht Verzerrt von Lachen, weil der Photograph Hinter der Hecke stand, das Auge der Welt.

--Marie Luise Kaschnitz

Danez Smith, from "summer, somewhere"

Do you know what I hate? What I'm really, really angry at?

We're not allowed to express love.

And it pisses me off.

Yes! That boy in my class looks stunning in that green sweater! I gaze in awe at the way my friend looks like an urban goddess at midnight drenched in street lights, surrounded by dancing teenagers at a party in the theatre parking lot! Another one looks like dawn and summer fields fell in love with her! I adore the way my classmate dresses like a punk fairy, with dirty blonde braids reaching to her hips and grazing her red leather jacket! The boy who lends me his eraser has the most fantastic sense of humour, the way he looks down for a second before he grins!

I love herb gardens! And perfume oils! Old books and fantasy novels! Dope-ass boots paired with a nice coat and conservative scarf clashing with my pink hair! I love poems! And jasmine tea!

I love how the old Vietnamese lady runs the best soup bar in town. How excited my seat neighbour gets over fancy notebooks. I love it when a fellow teenage girl hesitantly smiles back at me across the street.

Why is she hesitant? Because there's that ever-lasting question. Is this the socially designated response? Am I supposed to react differently? Am I supposed to react at all? Wouldn't it be "cooler" to ignore me?

Is it weird when I tell a boy I hardly know that he looks epic in that sweater? Is it over the top when I tell that girl in my French class how cute her boots are every time she wears them? Is waving at people I barely know but I get a happy vibe from bad?

Is it wasteful and expensive that I love perfume and essential oils? Is me wearing my mother's expensive coat with leather boots and purple hair childish? Is my idealism and wide-eyed hope to be laughed at?

We're not allowed to express love.

I had so much of it.