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oxford | 1.12.19

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it’s my time of the year again 🍂

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if you are feeling uninspired in regards to writing and/or any creative endeavour or generally just wanting to read someone writing passionately about something then i highly suggest ‘coming to writing’ by hélène cixous. i’ve been in a really awful “my life is over / i am such a failure / nothing is interesting anymore” mood lately & re-reading this has given me a lot of hope & excitement in life again

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Natural History Museum - London, November 2019

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bitches will bring a million things to do on a train ride or long car trip and then spend the entire time looking out the window and daydreaming. i’m bitches

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being an eldest daughter is just [writes a poem about private and intimate moments in your mother's life because she's inadvertently passed those moments down to you and you can't put them down] [writes a poem about your father's anger and your own simultaneous sympathy for and anger at him] [writes a poem about loving your siblings and cracking under the weight of it] [writes a poem about being unable to run away]

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a list of my favourite 2019 reads (in no particular order)

‘view with a grain of sand: selected poems,’ wisława szymborska

‘the complete collected poems of maya angelou’

‘art objects,’ jeanette winterson

‘by grand central station i sat down and wept,’ elizabeth smart 

‘seam,’ tarfia faizullah 

‘play it as it lays,’ joan didion

‘war of the foxes,’ richard siken

‘midwinter day,’ bernadette mayer

‘in the pines,’ alice notley

‘death is not an option,’ suzanne rivecca 

‘the dead and the living,’ sharon olds

‘the melancholy of anatomy,’ shelley jackson

‘edinburgh,’ alexander chee

‘the woman destroyed,’ simone de beauvoir 

‘monster: poems,’ robin morgan

‘how we became human,’ joy harjo

‘ayiti,’ roxane gay 

‘our andromeda,’ brenda shaughnessy

‘second childhood,’ fanny howe

‘the lady in the looking glass,’ virginia woolf

‘the journals of joyce carol oates’

‘mathilda,’ mary shelley

‘flame & shadow,’ sara teasdale

‘go tell it on the mountain,’ james baldwin

‘stag’s leap,’ sharon olds

‘hyperdream,’ hélène cixous

‘devotions,’ mary oliver

‘the center cannot hold,’ elyn r. saks

‘sexing the cherry,’ jeanette winterson

‘the bloody chamber,’ angela carter

‘on earth we’re briefly gorgeous,’ ocean vuong

‘flesh wounds,’ virginia l. blum

‘the journals of joyce carol oates’

‘selected poems of frank o’hara’

‘the dream of a common language,’ adrienne rich

‘on beauty,’ zadie smith

‘the four chambered heart,’ anaïs nin

‘gravity and grace,’ simone weil

‘selected poems of anna akhmatova’

‘collected poems of t.s. eliot’

‘decreation,’ anne carson

‘collected works of susan sontag’

‘collected works of virginia woolf’

‘the woman destroyed,’ simone de beauvoir 

‘garments against women,’ anne boyer

‘the love of a good woman,’ alice munro

‘her body and other parties,’ carmen maria machado

‘the hour of the star,’ clarice lispector

‘good bones,’ margaret atwood

‘collected poems of sylvia plath’

‘selected works of joan didion’

‘devotion,’ patti smith

‘veil and burn,’ laurie clements lambeth

‘grief lessons,’ anne carson

‘the collected poems of audre lorde’

‘erosion,’ jorie graham

‘the empathy exams,’ leslie jamison

‘the beauty myth,’ naomi wolf

‘selected works of sarah kane’

‘waiting,’ marya hornbacher

‘sane,’ marya hornbacher

‘stigmata,’ hélène cixous

‘a field guide to getting lost,’ rebecca solnit

‘keith haring journals’

‘written on the body,’ jeanette winterson

‘night sky with exit wounds,’ ocean vuong

‘crush,’ richard siken

‘haruko / love poems,’ june jordan

‘bluets,’ maggie nelson

‘the collected poems of lucille clifton’ 

‘complete poems of mariannne moore’

‘poems and prose,’ christina rossetti

‘the gentrification of the mind,’ sarah schulman 

‘power politics,’ margaret atwood

‘a girl is a half-formed thing,’ eimear mcbride

‘one secret thing,’ sharon olds

‘the silent woman,’ janet malcom

‘the white book,’ han kang

‘braiding sweetgrass,’ robin wall kimmerer

‘not vanishing,’ chrystos

‘sinners welcome,’ mary karr

‘cat’s eye,’ margaret atwood

‘zami / sister outsider / undersong,’ audre lorde

‘sula,’ toni morrison 

‘we sinful women,’ rukhsana ahmed

‘the house on mango street,’ sandra cisneros 

‘blood and guts in highschool,’ kathy acker

‘unbearable weight,’ susan bordo

‘rhapsody in plain yellow,’ marilyn chin

‘the hunger moon,’ marge piercy 

‘trash,’ dorothy allison 

‘the cocktail party,’ t.s. eliot

‘love lessons,’ alda merini

‘selected poems of marina tsvetaeva’

‘disorder,’ vanesha pravin

‘a strangers mirror,’ marilyn hacker

‘human acts,’ han kang

‘dearest creature,’ amy gerstler

‘when my brother was an aztec,’ natalie diaz

‘second childhood,’ fanny howe

‘when the ghosts come ashore,’ jacqui germain

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Tomas Transtromer, from"Streets in Shanghai“ Bright Scythe

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How to Save Your Own Life, Erica Jong

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Head of a Dog, 1876, Edouard Manet

Medium: oil,canvas

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Mar Atlántico, 1889, Jose Maria Velasco

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The Intoxication of Wine, ca. 1780-90, by Clodion (Claude Michel)

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"Forgive me, for all the things I did but mostly for the ones I did not."

Francis Abernathy

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School moodboard

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Sara Mrad “Nostalgic Romance” spring 2020 couture

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Charles-Amable Lenoir (French, 1861-1940)

Love’s Whisper (detail)

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secret santa is something that can actually be so personal