♠ "What joy there is in his wounds, forever fresh, the scars remaining in his body and continually crying out for mercy"
—Catherine of Sienna, The Dialogue translated by Susan Noffke

♠ "You ever think you could cry so hard
that there’d be nothing left in you, like
how the wind shakes a tree in a storm
until every part of it is run through with
wind? I live in the low parts now, most
days a little hazy with fever and waiting
for the water to stop shivering out of the
body. Funny thing about grief, its hold
is so bright and determined like a flame,
like something almost worth living for."
—Ada Limón, After the Fire

♠ "Hear me. Bear the weight of my voice and don’t forget—
things haunt. Things exist long after they are killed."
—Joshua Jennifer Espinoza, Things Haunt

♠ "Chorus: Woman, be sure your heart is brave; you can take much.
Cassandra: None but the unhappy people ever hear such praise."
—Aeschylus, Agamemnon translated by Richmond Lattimore

♠ "Princess, the age of some people can only be measured by the level of rot in them. And by that measure I’m ancient."
—Tennessee Williams, Sweet Bird of Youth

♠ "Understand that there is a beast within you

that can drink till it is

sick, but cannot drink till it is satisfied. Understand
that it will use the conventions of the visible world

to turn your tongue to stone. It alone

knows you. It does
not wish you well."
—Frank Bidart, The Third Hour of the Night

"When you have nothing to say,
set something on fire. A blurry landscape is useless."
—Richard Silken, Landscape with Fruit Rot and Millipede

"I confuse instinct for desire—isn't bite also touch?"
—Natalie Diaz, Wolf OR-7 from Postcolonial Love Poem

"You are shaking fists & trembling teeth.
I know:
you did not mean to be cruel.
That does not mean you were kind."
—Venetta Octavia, The Burning

"Rage, maybe rage would lift me up, make me stand, make me walk—"
—Marlon James, Black Leopard, Red Wolf

"all my grief says the same thing –
this isn’t how it’s supposed to be.
this isn’t how it’s supposed to be.
and the world laughs,
holds my hope by the throat,
says:
but this is how it is."
—Fortesa Latifi, The Truth About Grief

"I feel most like myself
when I am washing blood off my hands
in the shower; and I hope
whatever is eating you alive does it as slowly
as possible. I know it doesn’t sound like it,
but this is a love poem, this is a love poem,
this is a love poem

until it isn’t anymore."
—Trista Mateer

"Last year I abstained
this year I devour

without guilt
which is also an art"
—Margaret Atwood, from You Are Happy

"The only thing I remember from my
childhood is when you are scared make
yourself tall. I'm the tallest girl alive. I'm
the tallest knife. No throat can hold me."
—Dalton Day, the title poem of To Breathe I'm Too Thin

"Why does tragedy exist? Because you are full of rage. Why are you full of rage? Because you are full of grief."
—Anne Carson, Tragedy: A Curious Art Form

"To unchain, to set on fire, to send forth, to set more fires and unchain others – that’s the goal."
—Anne Sexton in a letter to Herbert Kohl, circa spring 1967, A Self-Portrait in Letters

"Stop punishing yourself for being someone with a heart. You cannot protect yourself from suffering. To live is to grieve. You are not protecting yourself by shutting yourself off from the world. You are limiting yourself,"
—Leigh Bardugo, King of Scars

"A girl in the shape of a monster
A monster in the shape of a girl"
Joan MacLeod, The Shape ofa Girl

"Wanna make a monster? Take the parts of yourself that make you uncomfortable—your weaknesses, bad thoughts, vanities, and hungers—and pretend they’re across the room. It’s too ugly to be human. It’s too ugly to be you. Children are afraid of the dark because they have nothing real to work with. Adults are afraid of themselves."
—Richard Silken, Black Telephone

"You don’t get to die
and be reborn the same.
You come back,
but you come back wrong.
This is the price you pay
for resurrection."
—Nathaniel Orion G. K.

"Another rule to good storytelling is
that no one wants a half-remembered
tragedy. You must know the width of
the knife and how it ruined you,
name the organs it kissed."
—Olivia Gatwood, Addendum II To No Baptism from Life of the Party

"I’ve polished this anger and now it’s a knife.
I’m hardened as a hunter ornamenting his cave

with the bones of the dead. I’m so sick
of history dragging behind me."
—Cathy Linh Che, Go Forget Your Father

The Gods Show Up, Michael Kinnucan

thinking about werewolves, headspace-hotel

Yves Olade on tumblr

♠ Three Rules, Feonix

♠ It Will Never Be a Lamb Again, dream-roth

♠ untitled, May

♠ LOSS OF INNOCENCE IS ALSO A LOSS OF PATIENCE., Nemo

♠ Large Canine Sculptures, Wendy Klemperer

note that some of these works may only touch on these themes while others have been more influential in fleshing out these feelings. my favourites are marked with an asterisk (*). those that i've been told i should check out but haven't for whatever reason are at the bottom marked with a caret (^).

some cool media

some cool media i haven't engaged with