R-u-maysa

A Nail the Evening Hangs On, Monica Sok

self portrait against bed wallpaper by Richard Siken

2025

you are allowed to have a moment to think before you speak

terrifying sincerity will demand from you the kind of composure and character you are seeking

practice asking yourself questions and answer them without seeking references or resources or answers that others gave

the difference between ritual and routine is faith, and the kind of faith you need to give to your habits—what they each mean to you— is something to be curious, reflective, intentional about. you are afraid that habits will sap your life of meaning, so give them meaning of their own

Lila (divine play)

novelty & magic are rivers, not reservoirs

“Shame thrives in silence, and wants more of it. The language of shame is silence. I wanted to incorporate silence, and silencing, into a poem, and was able to approximate that by blacking out language. What is unsaid becomes a visible absence—the hole I was writing around.”

— Leila Chatti, from an interview with Sneha Subramanian Kanta in Parentheses Journal, Issue 10 (via skgroutpoetry)

"what if things were different" is a poisoned well and drinking from it will kill you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it is my birthday today. as a gift to me, tell someone you know about palestine, but don’t just tell them about our death. tell them about our life, the way we crowd around to flip the maqlooba, the insistence that someone else eats first, the tatreez we’ve woven into the fabric of our history, tell them about the soap from nablus, the oranges from yafa, the olive oil. tell them about our poetry, our art, our folksongs. tell them that we were, and still are, human beings who bore witness to the worst parts of humanity but searched for compassion anyway.

Maggie Smith, from “Slipper”, Goldenrod

Wound is the Origin of Wonder, Maya C. Popa

Louise Glück, Poems 1962-2012

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