Kaveh Akbar, From “Despite My Efforts Even My Prayers Have Turned Into Threats“

“Do you love him? I don’t know. I believe he is my fate.”

— Anne Carson, excerpt of “TV Men: Akhmatova (Treatment for a Script); AKHMATOVA’S MARRIAGE (1910) HAS LITTLE EFFECT ON HER”, in Men in the Off Hours

“He looks at me with the softest eyes that I have ever known.”

— C.H (via canadiemrps)

Angela Carter, from The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories; “The Bloody Chamber”

a little much for everyone

heather havrilesky // florence welch // yorgos lanthimos // steven meisel // lorde // taylor swift

on love and devotion

unknown // richard siken, litany in which some things are crossed out // hera lindsay bird, I KNEW I LOVED YOU WHEN YOU SHOWED ME YOUR MINECRAFT WORLD // warsan shire // clementine von radics, the next time we talk on facebook // amal el-mohtar and max gladstone, this is how you lose the time war // k.c. cramm, christmas eve forever

when arctic monkeys sang “I wanna be your vacuum cleaner, breathing in your dust” and when the lumineers sang “damn your wife, I’d be your mistress just to have you around” and when hozier sang “if I was born as a blackthorn tree, I’d wanna be felled by you, held by you” and when son lux sang “if you need to, you can break me too, please just take me with you” and when of monsters and men sang “I’ll be the blood if you’ll be the bones, I’m giving you all” and

on soulmates

f. scott fitzgerald / friedrich nietzsche / florence and the machine / andrea dworkin / kiersten white / euripides / audre lorde / phillip pullmann / bob hicok

“Like any unloved thing, I don’t know if I’m real when I’m not being touched.”

— Natalie Wee, from “Lonely,” Our Bodies & Other Fine Machines (AMAZON / GOODREADS)

“Love has something to do with the notion of being seen — the opposite of invisibility. The invisible, the unwitnessed, the unacknowledged, the isolated, the lonely — these are the unloved. Loving attention illuminates the unseen, escorting them from the frontiers of lovelessness into the observed world. To truly see someone — anyone — is an act that acknowledges and forgives our common and imperfect humanity. Love enacts a kind of vigilant perception — whether it is to a partner, a child, a co-worker, a neighbour, a fellow citizen, or any other person one may encounter in this life. Love says softly — I see you. I recognise you. You are human, as am I.”

— Nick Cave, The Red Hand Files Issue #103

ghada al-samman // little women, louisa may alcott // howl’s moving castle, hayao miyazaki // the inferno, henri barbusse // the book thief, markus zusak // a letter to louise webb, charles bukowski // anastasia, don bluth & gary goldman // primer for the nuclear age, rita dove // san francisco poems or letters to jack, cathy linh che // night and day, virginia woolf