Miserable

So I thought,
let’s make a resolution and a promise.
The situation can be miserable
but let’s not make myself miserable.
Let’s not insult myself.

-Park Jimin, BTS (Vlive)

“Argument” – Nayana Nair

The essays I have written
on the wretchedness of this world,
they are merely an argument,
a poor argument,
the only argument I can give
when I am confronted
by the wretchedness of my own soul,
the blood on my own hands,
the weight of shame on my conscience,
and my inability to change.

(Quote from manga Oyasumi Punpun)

Bitter Wind

“Forsythia“, Billy Collins

I would rather not look around the next
corner of the year to see how this will die,
its light going out,
its bare, arching branches
waving like whips in the bitter wind.

So I sit facing the past,
letting my feet dangle over the wall,
beating time against stone with my heels,
as the the long gray clouds roll over me.

Prayer

“A Memory“, Saeed Jones

“…men begging for rain, rent,
and reasons to remain…”

Nothing to Say

“Hostility“, Arturo Islas

“There is nothing to say. We add insight
To injury like clowns who pound each other
With clubs, screaming and laughing all the while
To hide the maimed and dangling limbs.”

Effort makes you

Period

As I finish the last line of a poem,
my ballpoint pen, whose ink ran out,
collapses, completely exhausted, on the blank page.
Have a good rest.
I will mark the period with my tear.

–‘A Gentle Cow’ by Oh Sae-young

What ultimately counts

There is the narrow sliver of women who are held up as beautiful, and then there are the reminders that ultimately what counts is on the inside, though for those of us less genetically blessed it’s especially important that we make sure our insides really sparkle.

–Liz Kay

A Word is Enough

“Religion- freedom- vengeance- what you will,

A word’s enough to raise mankind to kill.”

-Lord Byron

Nowhere

“The people of the world run about excitedly as if they

were going to miss the yearly, royal, sacrificial feast,

or as if they were going to be the last one

to climb a high tower on a beautiful spring day.

I alone remain quiet and indifferent.

Unoccupied by worldly cares,

I move forward to nowhere.”

-Lao Tzu