Warmth and Sun, Winters and grief- Everything we feel..
Dear readers,
The other day I was reading works of Post Modernist Poets- I was reading Thomas Dylan, Philip Larkin, and of course poets of sixties which covered Plath. The bizarre thing was as I read in detail about each poet, I related more of myself to each poet. The use of "I" in confessional poems related to mine as well that use of imageries, cubism, interpretation of syntax, art in their forms resonated with mine. The only problem was I could not understand how I am able to sit in all these writers' minds and thought processes. My analysis of each poem is entirely different than those already done and sold yet I knew what each meter, tone meant. Well, that's a charm of literature! I also watched a little bit of the 'Emily Dickinson' series and had mixed reviews about the show. This week has been about digging in depth more and more about their lives as I study for my degree.
I also bird-watched a lot more than before. Everything crossed the thresholds and a nervous breakdown had it all. That being said, I have curated a mindful newsletter once again, trying my best and trying with my sane heart to make a little space in your lovely heart and minds too.
I have collected a few quotes which I stumbled upon while going through my journaling notebook. These quotes are highly inspirational and keeps me grounded.
"Worry is a misuse of your imagination:"
"Feel the feeling but don't become the emotion. Witness it. Allow it. Release it."
"We didn't come here to live our lives for other people. We didn't come here to make other people comfortable."- Leor Alexandra
Fascination is the relation the gaze entertains—a relation which is itself neutral and impersonal—with sightless, shapeless depth, the absence once sees because it is blinding.
– Maurice Blanchot
Love after Love-
The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
Derek Walcott
Dolphin- Robert Lowell
My Dolphin, you only guide me by surprise,
a captive as Racine, the man of craft,
drawn through his maze of iron composition
by the incomparable wandering voice of Phèdre.
When I was troubled in mind, you made for my body
caught in its hangman's-knot of sinking lines,
the glassy bowing and scraping of my will. . . .
I have sat and listened to too many
words of the collaborating muse,
and plotted perhaps too freely with my life,
not avoiding injury to others,
not avoiding injury to myself—
to ask compassion . . . this book, half fiction,
an eelnet made by man for the eel fighting
my eyes have seen what my hand did.
Norman Rockwell
Don't Hesitate- Mary Oliver
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,
don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty
of lives and whole towns destroyed or about
to be. We are not wise, and not very often
kind. And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this
is its way of fighting back, that sometimes
something happens better than all the riches
or power in the world. It could be anything,
but very likely you notice it in the instant
when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the
case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid
of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.
Kindness- Naomi Shihab Nye
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.
For mental health-
Blessingmanifesting- free worksheets, guidance for anxiety
LINKS OF THE WEEK-
What is friendship and not marriage was the entire center of life?
Why were so many female artists airbrushed from history?
10 great films set in the jungle
Submit your art, poetry to a brand new stellar website- Nodmagazine
Get lost in the world of Manga artist Jiro Taniguchi
Affectionate breathing- ways for mindfulness
An activity worth doing:
Taking long walks – or even short ones! As boring and clichéd as it sounds, it’s a fantastic way to restore energy and calm the mind. And it’s a (medically proven) method for improving your overall health.
Watch-
The Persistence of Memory- a detailed mind of Salvador Dali in a few minutes
How to start new habits in 2022
How to become an early bird-
You met an old lover and all the memories are coming back
Listen-
1 Hour Calm relaxing Beatles track for studying or working-
Cozy nights
Thank you for staying put and reading through my newsletter.
Let me know how did you find this one? You can send me messages, emails, etc. I am open to Love and kindness.:
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Stay warm
Devika:)