dev patel i love your soulful eyes and beautiful nose and long legs. please visit me in a dream. i will be standing in a field of tulips

love poem beginning with a yellow cab by José Olivarez

i love wearing jeans. i feel so beautiful. like bruce springsteen

Caribbean Style

Lily-Rose Depp behind the scenes of Nosferatu (2024)

Oh, okay. I see. You think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don’t know, that gaslight gatekeep girlboss meme, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you think modern feminism has been co-opted by corporations. But what you don’t know is that that meme is not from Instagram, it's not from Twitter, it's not from Tiktok, it’s actually from Tumblr. You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that in January 2021, Tumblr user missnumber1111 posted, "today's agenda: gaslight gatekeep and most importantly girlboss." And then I think it was a-m-e-t-h-y-s-t-r-o-s-e, wasn’t it, who reblogged it with an image of the phrase edited over a piece of "Live, Laugh, Love" wall art? And then gaslight gatekeep girlboss showed up in the feeds of eight different Twitter repost accounts. Then it filtered down through Instagram and then trickled on down into some tragic “alt side of Tiktok” where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that meme represents millions of notes and countless Tumblr users and so it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from Tumblr when, in fact, you’re wearing the meme that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of “stuff.”

Kim Addonizio, from "Onset"

Mary Oliver, from "Such Singing in the Wild Branches"

beautiful women will be like “i baked a cake” and you will say “oh ? what flavour is it” and they say well its a honey rosewater apricot pistachio cardamom vanilla fig jam earl grey poppyseed orange blossom extra virgin olive oil chiffon sponge soaked in raspberry elderflower champagne lipgloss pomegranate matcha ginger blueberry cherry blossom magnolia petal almond passionfruit persimmon syrup with whipped amalfi lemon limoncello ricotta goats cheese honeycomb black pepper bergamot lemon thyme lemon balm rosemary chantilly whipped cream cream cheese feta cheese italian meringue frosting . like ok. i want to spend the rest of my afternoons walking around inside your beautiful mind like a garden

do not raise a foul word against tofu in my presence

اللَّهُمَّ إِنَّكَ عَفُوٌّ تُحِبُّ الْعَفْوَ فَاعْفُ عَنِّي Allahumma innaka ‘afuwwun tuhibbul ‘afwa fa’fu ‘anni “O Allah, You are Most Forgiving, and You love forgiveness; so forgive me

The night-wind

In summer's mellow midnight, A cloudless moon shone through Our open parlour window, And rose-trees wet with dew. I sat in silent musing; The soft wind waved my hair; It told me heaven was glorious, And sleeping earth was fair. I needed not its breathing To bring such thoughts to me; But still it whispered lowly, 'How dark the woods would be! 'The thick leaves in my murmur Are rustling like a dream, And all their myriad voices Instinct with spirit seem.' I said, 'Go, gentle singer, Thy wooing voice is kind: But do not think its music Has power to reach my mind. 'Play with the scented flower, The young tree's supply bough, And leave my human feelings In their own course to flow.' The wanderer would not heed me: Its kiss grew warmer still: 'Oh Come!' it sighed so sweetly; 'I'll win thee 'gainst thy will. 'Were we not friends from childhood? Have I not loved thee long? As long as thou, the solemn night, Whose silence wakes my song. 'And when thy heart is resting Beneath the church-aisle stone, I shall have time for mourning, And thou for being alone.'

phoebe helander, "coffee," 2023, oil on wood