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bingewatching will never come close to bingereading. there is nothing like blocking out the entire Earth for ten hours to read a book in one sitting no food no water no shower no bra and emerging at the end with no idea what time it is or where you are, a dried-up prune that's sensitive to light and loud noises because you've been in your room in the dark reading by the glow of a single LED. it's like coming back after a three-month vacation in another dimension and now you have to go downstairs and make dinner. absolutely transcendental

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Anne Michaels, from "Infinite Gradation," originally published in October 2017

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— Nizar Qabbani

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In another universe, I became a writer and lived the life I want.

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— fatima aamer bilal, from being unwanted is a language

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most infuriating comment I've seen on the internet was on some video I forgot what it was about but I think it was talking about petra in jordan or something and the commenter was like "this is why we need to take those artifacts to our museums where they can be appreciated because otherwise they will be destroyed by the wars there" and literally the blood boiled up to my head I honestly threw my phone away and had to go do something else for a bit. this was years ago. it is absolutely insane to me that there are people who exist out there who truly think this way and have no shame in it. they like our things and our culture but value their ability to "appreciate" them more than the peoples who made them and preserve them.

the oldest city in the world is in iraq and there were artifacts there that stood the test in time until fucking usa started a war there. reminds me of lebanon recently when israel bombed baalbek which is famous for old ruins dating back to phoenician and roman times.

westerners destroy our lands and steal our history and make up rules of "civility" based on what works for them then call us savages for "not maintaining our culture" or sometimes "not having" one but they somehow always want our things, completely ignoring the human factor and counting our lives as meaningless or disposable. fucking colonizers.

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Mural in Dublin, Ireland, in memory of the journalists killed by the IDF in Gaza over the past year

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i want romance. i want intimacy. i want the 2 am love making. i want consistency, loyalty. i want the random looks of admiration. i want to know you're just for me. i want date nights. i want love so pure and true. i want it because i can return it.

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 Fairy Glen, Isle of Skye, Inner Hebrides, Scotland

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— Vladimir Nabokov, Letters to Vera

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A quiet mosque in Palestine, 1926.

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— Mary Kate Teske

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he was attached to an IV drip and machines to keep him alive, and then they burned his tent with him inside along with his mother. Shaban Al Dalou was only 19. he was a computer engineering student. he was studying to save his family’s life and be able to evacuate them from gaza safely. but israel took that away from him, as they’ve been doing to all palestinians for the last eight decades. say his name. say their names. don’t stop talking about them.

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Empress Yamatohime, transl. by Kenneth Rexroth, from Written on The Sky; Poems from the Japanese