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“The poem does not come, but its place is kept set.”

— Franz Wright, from “Winter Entries,” Earlier Poems (Alfred A. Knopf, 2007)

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James Jean (Taiwanese-American,b.1979)

Treat, 2007

Acrylic on paper

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Hieu Minh Nguyen, from “Staying Quiet"

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Anis Mojgani, In the Pockets of Small Gods

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“You can’t remember what they did to you. Your loneliness isn’t welcome here, you know, but still you walk the dream-lit village, looking for someone gentle enough. There must be an animal trapped under your shirt, you think, because little claws scratch against your chest and you throb there, but you’re afraid to look because looking means remembering.”

— Sara Eliza Johnson, “Parable of the Unclean Spirit,” via the Academy of American Poets

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gripping my thighs with my nails about this

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markzagphoto

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Walnut shells cut in half.

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“You have so many autumns: so many selves, waiting to be shaken down.”

— Zhou Mengdie, tr. by Lloyd Haft, from “Nine Lives,” published c. May 1964

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September Affirmation (Don’t Be Afraid) by Keaton St. James

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Wallace Stevens, ‘The Dwarf’, The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens

[Text ID: “Now it is September and the web is woven. The web is woven and you have to wear it.”]

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“In [fairy tales], power is rarely the right tool for survival anyway. Rather the powerless thrive on alliances, often in the form of reciprocated acts of kindness - from beehives that were not raided, birds that were not killed but set free or fed, old women who were saluted with respect. Kindness sown among the meek is harvested in crisis”

— Rebecca Solnit, The Faraway Nearby. (via ohroses)

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tiana from princess and the frog inspired by this antique

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Marguerite Duras, from The Easy Life

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Kate Baer, from And Yet: Poems; “Idea”

[Text ID: “I will enjoy this life. I will open it like a peach in season, suck the juice from every finger, run my tongue over my chin. I will not worry about clichés or uninvited guests peering in my windows. I will love and be loved. Save and be saved a thousand times. I will let the want into my body, bless the heat under my skin. My life, I will not waste it. I will enjoy this life.”]

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jubilee procession in a cornish village, george sherwood hunter x

Paper lanterns in art, x

I. In the Garden by Vladimir Gusev

II. Japanese Lanterns by Luther Emerson van Gorder