#You are Jeff

[nope-nora]

Richard Siken, “You Are Jeff” | Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch | R.F. Kuang, Babel: An Arcane History | Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story | Benjamin Alire Saénz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe | Maggie Stievater, Call Down the Hawk | Olivie Blake, The Atlas Paradox

[mydirtyvalentine]

if a ship can embody a richard siken poem-

[haleyincarnate]

You're in the car with a beautiful boy, and he won't tell you that he loves you, but he loves you. And you feel like you've done something terrible, like robbed a liquor store, or swallowed pills, or shoveled yourself a grave in the dirt, and you're tired. You're in the car with a beautiful boy, and you're trying not to tell him that you love him, and you're trying not to choke down the feeling, and you're trembling, but he reaches over and he touches you, like a prayer for which no words exist, and you feel your heart taking root in your body, like you've discovered something you don't even have a name for.

Richard Siken, Crush; "You Are Jeff"

[epaulando]

Consider the hairpin turn.

[balladofthe101st]

You're in a car with a beautiful boy, and he won't tell you that he loves

you, but he loves you. And you feel like you've done something terr-

ible, like robbed a liquor store, or swallowed pills, or shoveled yourself

a grave in the dirt, and you're tired. You're in a car with a beautiful boy,

and you're trying not to tell him that you love him, and you're trying to

choke down the feeling, and you're trembling, but he reaches over and

he touches you, like a prayer for which no words exist, and you feel your

heart taking root in your body, like you've

Richard Siken, You Are Jeff

[flight-of-the-wumbo-bee]

i hope no one has already done this lol

dead ringers (1988, dir. david cronenberg) | you are jeff (richard siken)

[derangedrhythms]

I will come back from the dead for you.

Richard Siken, Crush; from ‘You Are Jeff’

[absenthiium]

on want on shame

you are jeff, richard siken / drawn to you, woodkid / dante et virgile, william-adolphe bouguereau / creophagy, angelica alzona / birds hover the trampled field, richard siken/ true detective, s1 / "flesh and the mirror" from burning your boats: the collected short stories, angela carter / untitled, milton / "summer" from girls that never die, safia elhillo.

[a-poet-young-and-hungry]

THE MATE

“Who Am I?”, Les Miserables / “You Are Jeff”, Richard Siken / “Bad Religion”, Frank Ocean / The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt / “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”, Gordon Lightfoot / “Fear and Loathing In Mahwah, NJ”, Titus Andronicus / “Javert’s Suicide”, Les Miserables

[malaisequotes]

“You're in a car with a beautiful boy, and you're trying not to tell him that you love him, and you're trying to choke down the feeling, and you're trembling, but he reaches over and he touches you, like a prayer for which no words exist.”

You Are Jeff by Richard Siken

[dreamgirljune]

the last of us, episode 7 (2023) ➢ you are jeff, richard siken

[saint-bia]

the queer urge to fucking shoot myself because this poem is too beautiful and too realistic

[dig-with-it]

24

You’re in a car with a beautiful boy, and he won’t tell you that he loves you, but he loves you. And you feel like you’ve done something terrible, like robbed a liquor store, or swallowed pills, or shoveled yourself a grave in the dirt, and you’re tired. You’re in a car with a beautiful boy, and you’re trying not to tell him that you love him, and you’re trying to choke down the feeling, and you’re trembling, but he reaches over and he touches you, like a prayer for which no words exist, and you feel your heart taking root in your body, like you’ve discovered something you don’t even have a name for.

[haleyincarnate]

Richard Siken, Crush, "You Are Jeff"

[castielssuperhell]

You’re in a car with a beautiful boy,

and he won’t tell you that he loves you,

but he loves you.

And you feel like you’ve done something terrible,

like robbed a liquor store,

or swallowed pills,

or shoveled yourself a grave in the dirt,

and you’re tired.

[xwhitenoise]

–Richard Siken, "Cover Story"

Additionally, readers began to ask me if the poems were “true,” by which they meant, “Did they really happen?” which seemed both beside the point and also intrusive. I realized that if they thought poems were biographically accurate, then they could walk away, knowing I was just a sad little man.

The Doubling of Self: An Interview with Richard Siken