the empty envelope

"Every moment is a poem if you hold it right."

Thu, 09 May 2013 22:47:37 +1200

“Every moment is a poem if you hold it right.”

- Lauren Zuniga (via atomiclanterns)

"As a writer, I’m more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually..."

Wed, 08 May 2013 23:29:41 +1200

“As a writer, I’m more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually happened.”

- Kazuo Ishiguro (via pavorst)

Working on a poem guys. It’s called Tsunami.

Wed, 08 May 2013 17:28:53 +1200

Working on a poem guys. It’s called Tsunami.

You should post a poem

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:49:47 +1200

I really should.

draft after draft after draft. someone tell me to fucking post something.

Tue, 07 May 2013 01:55:34 +1200

draft after draft after draft. someone tell me to fucking post something.

"There are poems that arrive, fully dressed, ready for battle, right out of the head: it makes you..."

Mon, 06 May 2013 23:51:57 +1200

“There are poems that arrive, fully dressed, ready for battle, right out of the head: it makes you feel like Zeus, brain-birthing Athena. And then there are the majority of poems which arrive gradually, in fragments, or wrong-headed, or wrong-tailed, or wrong-bodied. I think that’s what makes a poet a poet: the discipline and talent to hammer out the work until it isn’t just fabric and mannequin: it’s wearing haute couture and is the life of the party.”

- James Allen Hall, on How a Poem Happens (via nps2013)

I wish I wrote like I used to.

Thu, 02 May 2013 05:50:06 +1200

I wish I wrote like I used to.

"You must write every single day of your life. You must lurk in libraries to sniff books like..."

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 03:54:39 +1200

“You must write every single day of your life. You must lurk in libraries to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. May you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.”

- Ray Bradbury (via fleurishes)

Meet Me In The Alleyway (a haiku)

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:34:09 +1200

When life gets heavy,

you revert to addictions

you thought you had beat.

Coffee As A Copycat (a haiku)

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 02:16:17 +1200

The coffee tasted

bitter this morning, as if

it stayed awake too.

Snapshots Of My Last Five Birthdays

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 01:30:28 +1200

18. Drive to school. See balloons taped to your locker. Give your friends lots of hugs. Turn in your homework and raise your hand; ask when the next assignment is due. Put your hair in a pony tail. Run in a track meet. Win first place. Go out to dinner with your parents. Eat a hamburger and fries. Talk about plans for college. Order the double-decker birthday cake. Eat the entire thing.

19. Wake up next to a boy you don’t really know. Reject the call when your parents ring. Spend the day with a bunch of college freshman who live in your dorm. Take the bus to the mall because you don’t have a car. Watch a girl with brown hair get her ears pierced. Hold her hand. Eat dinner in the cafeteria. Feel gross afterwards. Go to bed early because you don’t know what else to do. Dream of having long hair.

20. Stay up all night thinking about what you’ll wear the following day. Spend all morning pulling apart your closet. Wear the first outfit you tried on. Fake a smile all day. Constantly check your makeup in the bathroom. Cry on your way home from school because you just realized you forgot to wear eyeshadow. Eat dinner, late. Throw up the birthday cake in the downstairs bathroom so no one will hear. Have sex with your boyfriend so he’ll say he loves you. Try to feel pretty before you fall asleep.

21. Wake up in a foreign bed. Hear a sheep next to the bedroom window. Take a long shower. Drink two cups of tea for breakfast, skip lunch even though your stomach is grumbling. Walk around the town of Nelson. Remind yourself that you’re abroad. Climb a steep hill just so you can step inside an ancient church. Find forgiveness in a stained glass window. Listen to the rain.

22. Watch the sun rise from the comfort of your front porch. Drink a fresh cup of coffee. Smoke a cigarette. Or three. Think about your mother. Wonder what she’s doing. Listen to your housemates move about the house. Wonder if they’ll come out and find you. Hope they’ll just let you be. Spend the afternoon daydreaming, and the night actually asleep. Wake up with throbbing cheeks from smiling so much the previous day. Eat some breakfast and feel okay.

"It is likely I will die next to a pile of things I was meaning to read."

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:22:22 +1200

“It is likely I will die next to a pile of things I was meaning to read.”

- Lemony Snicket (via runa-lovegood)

Extensive Small Cell Carcinoma, Viewed In The Light

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 03:49:00 +1300

The cancer killed my grandmother at the age

of eighty-five. Extensive Small Cell Carcinoma.

Cancer of the lungs. Would it help if I told you

she smoked four packs a day up until she was

seventy years of age? Or would be unbearable

if I told you she never touched a cigarette in her life?

They say there’s nothing more powerful than

the strength of your DNA, and my grandfather

had a lit cigarette in his hand, every hour

of the day. Last night I stayed awake and

etched my grandmother’s name into my desk

drawer so she’d forever be tucked away, then

lit up a cigarette right there in bedroom and smoked

the sun awake. The smoke is still stuck in the room

trying to escape, banging on the windowpane

as if adhering to the glass was its only fate.

I’m thinking about my grandfather

and how he’s awake by sun rise.

This morning he’ll light up a cigarette

and wish for her to open her eyes.

myhertsgard: Ernest Hemingway with his cat“A cat has absolute...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 02:18:02 +1300

myhertsgard:

Ernest Hemingway with his cat
“A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.”

Regarding Change (a haiku)

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 00:56:00 +1300

Even the Buddha

stays awake some nights just to

point up at the Moon.

"What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that..."

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 00:40:46 +1300

““What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.”
― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye”

working on a poem about my grandmother. what a brave soul.

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 04:54:46 +1300

working on a poem about my grandmother. what a brave soul.

another envelope for theemptyenvelope

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 04:51:13 +1300

another envelope for theemptyenvelope

"Writing is something you do alone. Its a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but..."

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 04:27:00 +1300

““Writing is something you do alone. Its a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but don’t want to make eye contact while doing it.””

- John Green (via endlessfragments)

The Best Example Of Love Since The Beginning Of Time: (a haiku)

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 23:18:00 +1300

the moon cracks itself open

like an egg and bleeds itself dry

just so the sun has something nice

to stare at should it wake up

in the middle of the night.