“The moon is honey on the mouths of madmen”
— Guillaume Apollinaire, from Claire de Lune; Alcools: Poems (tr. by Donald Revell), 1913
Aleksey Tolstoy, from “It chanced”; A Book of Russian Verse (ed. by Cecil Bowra)
I am more a fool for thinking, wiser for feeling, as if my head had ever the chance of hiding this from me
Elizabeth Bishop, The Complete Poems 1927-1979; from 'The Moose'
when I say “everyone’s on their own timeline”, I mean it.
there’s no right age to learn something by. there’s no right age to be settled down, to move out of home, or to start your own family. there’s no right age to start working, if you work at all. there’s no right age to graduate.
life isn’t a series of boxes you need to tick. do things at your own pace. slow down if you need to. it’s okay.
I was a gifted child. Until I wasn't. I was the golden girl. Until I couldn't burn anymore.
My parents expected me to build wings of gold and fly further than anyone could ever try. I don't blame them, having a child to raise is like sculpting a clay pot, you can shape it the way you like, paint it the colour you fancy. To raise a child is to play God. To raise a child is to be God.
But to be a child is to fall, to make mistakes, to fail. The thing about being too bright at an early age means you burn out by the time you're 16 and suddenly the world around you becomes more gray and terribly, terribly lonely. The fire is never warm enough, nothing is ever enough. And one day you find yourself begging to a godless sky, begging for a new spark.
I was a gifted child once. I was the golden girl. And one day, I burned out.
-Ritika Jyala, excerpt from The world is a sphere of ice and our hands are made of fire
Tuesday, 28th September 2021
My reality is shaped in colours; a painting blurred in depths of hues, brushed by a wandering silence.
On Existence and the Human Experience.
Joseph Campbell, “Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth”, Ep. 4, “Sacrifice and Bliss” / Louise Glück, “Snowdrops” / Ellen Bass, “The Thing Is” / @obeliskandmetronome / Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov” / Maggie Stiefvater, “Blue Lily, Lily Blue” / Eve L. Ewing, “Testify”
—Ocean Vuong.
—May Sarton.
Thirteenth Night: Malvolio’s Revenge
Much Ado 2: Kill Claudio
The Merchant of Menace
As You Don’t Like It
The Scary Wives of Windsor: The Fall of Falstaff
The Tempest 2: Hurricane Miranda
Richard III 2: Back from Bosworth (feat. zombie Richard)
A Midsummer Nightmare: Attack on Titania
Historian, writer, and poet | proofreader and tarot card lover | Virgo and INTJ | dyspraxic and hypermobile | You'll find my poetry and other creative outlets stored here. Read my Substack newsletter Hidden Within These Walls. Copyright © 2016 Ruth Karan.
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