Glass house tinkling Bring down a mountain of rocks Flesh out of new skin
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Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart: Poems by Alice Walker
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Nothing will penetrate your sorrow. Or your loneliness. This I know. And yet here I am singing a song about doors at the bottom of dark wells stuffed already with rats and corpses.
Here I am telling you that in reality and as improbable as it may seem: There is no (doorless) bottom to this life.
War is nothing but a militia of sharp teeth: wolves lapping up blood
Thanks as always for being a faithful reader of The Voracious Bibliophile. If you like what you see, please like, comment, follow, and subscribe to my email list to get notified of new posts as soon as they drop. You can also email me at fred.slusher@thevoraciousbibliophile.com or catch me on Twitter and Instagram @voraciousbiblog. Keep reading the world, one page (or pixel) at a time.
So many want to be blessed. I only want to kneel in a quiet room. To love what we have or not exist at all. Nothing to help me sleep. Only a scrap of paper slipped into my hand: Your body an ocean, a song without end. Votive candles flickering in the dark that made us larger than life: hip-thrust, back-arch, mouth-grip, you on top till we collapsed in the coiled springs that came to rest. A chair where you once sat. A bowl of fruit neither one of us would touch.
Bonus Graphic
The most resonant part of Vespers for me is the line, “Only a scrap of paper slipped / into my hand: Your body an ocean, a song without end.” So enthralled was I by that particular imagery that I made this little ditty, which I sincerely hope you’ll enjoy (Note: The image is a royalty-free stock image—I have simply added the words to the note in the center):
Thanks as always for being a faithful reader of The Voracious Bibliophile. If you like what you see, please like, comment, follow, and subscribe to my email list to get notified of new posts as soon as they drop. You can also email me at fred.slusher@thevoraciousbibliophile.com or catch me on Twitter and Instagram @voraciousbiblog. Keep reading the world, one page (or pixel) at a time.
***Note: I received a free digital review copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***
Is there anything that burns as bright in embryo or scars as deep in the aftermath as first love?
Is there anything that burns as bright in embryo or scars as deep in the aftermath as first love? I think Bella Mayo, the author of My Greenhouse, would be inclined to answer no. And I would be inclined to agree with her.
As we grow up we become jaded, conveniently forgetting the potency and primacy of the feelings we had when we were young and in love. I don’t believe there’s ever a time a person is more alive than when everything is blossoming for the first time—the first time you feel someone else’s lips on yours as well as the first time someone takes your heart and shreds it like so much dirty confetti.
My Greenhouse leaves no stone unturned and no leaf unfurled, showing that healing after heartbreak is indeed possible—even if you have to dig everything up and plant it somewhere else.
Mayo catalogs all of these feelings and presents them as a blueprint for moving on when the one you thought would never leave decides they can’t stay. My Greenhouse leaves no stone unturned and no leaf unfurled, showing that healing after heartbreak is indeed possible—even if you have to dig everything up and plant it somewhere else.
My Greenhouse: Poetry is due to be released on September 21st by Andrews McMeel Publishing and is now available to preorder wherever books are sold.
Thanks as always for being a faithful reader of The Voracious Bibliophile. If you like what you see, please like, comment, follow, and subscribe to my email list to get notified of new posts as soon as they drop. You can also email me at fred.slusher@thevoraciousbibliophile.com or catch me on Twitter and Instagram @voraciousbiblog. Keep reading the world, one page (or pixel) at a time.
If everything is nothing, you waltz alone my friend, you are the dance
Thanks as always for being a faithful reader of The Voracious Bibliophile. If you like what you see, please like, comment, follow, and subscribe to my email list to get notified of new posts as soon as they drop. You can also email me at fred.slusher@thevoraciousbibliophile.com or catch me on Twitter and Instagram @voraciousbiblog. Keep reading the world, one page (or pixel) at a time.
Why shouldn’t gay people be allowed to marry? Those against gay marriages say marriage should only be between a man and a woman. God…I of all people know that that doesn’t always work.
Elizabeth Taylor, receiving the Vanguard Award at the GLAAD Media Awards, 2000
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