bristokeswrites

[bristokeswrites]

The fact the uncanny valley exists is terrifying. Being scared by things that look almost human but aren’t. Other animals do not have this. That means that at some point in our evolution, running away from things that looked almost human was advantageous enough to be imprinted on our genetics.

#i....yo. #inspo

[bristokeswrites]

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Look buddy, i’m just trying to make it to Friday.

#made it!! 🤩 #levity

[bristokeswrites]

“Please, let him be soft. I know you made him with gunmetal bones and wolf’s teeth. I know you made him to be a warrior a soldier a hero. But even gunmetal can warp and even wolf’s teeth can dull and I do not want to see him break the way old and worn and overused things do. I do not want to see him go up in flames the way all heroes end up martyrs. I know that you will tell me that the world needs him. The world needs his heart and his faith and his courage and his strength and his bones and his teeth and his blood and his voice and his– The world needs anything he will give them. Damn the world, and damn you too. Damn anyone that ever asked anything of him, damn anyone that ever took anything from him, damn anyone that ever prayed to his name. You know that he will give them everything until there is nothing left of him but the imprint of dust where his feet once trod. You know that he will bear the world like Atlas until his shoulders collapse and his knees buckle and he is crushed by all he used to carry. Dear God, you have already made an Atlas. You have already made an Achilles and an Icarus and a Hercules. You have already made so many heroes, and you can make another again. You can have your pick of heroes. So please, I beg you– he is all that I have, and you have so many heroes and the world has so many more. Let him be soft, and let him be mine.”

— Please, let him be happy ( j.p. )

#other people's writng

[bristokeswrites]

“spells:”

See the moment for what it is. Feel the bite of the present as it cuts across your skin, like the razor-sharp edges of shark teeth as they puncture and purify your veins.

Drink your grief like a shot, like gin burning against the velveteen linings of your throat, like a wave of heat crashing and breaking above the curls crowning your head, pulling you deep below indigo crests until you’ve taught yourself to swim.

Let the salt and water fill your nostrils, your lungs, anchoring you like sandbags fastened around your ankles, guiding you to the sea floor so the urchins and starfish might adorn your dress with pearls;

so that you might glimpse Aphrodite waltzing among the reefs, gilded and glamorous, offering gills in exchange for your heart, promising life among the trenches, bartering breath inside the sediment solidifying into wet, glittering stones,

marking ends and beginnings: a rock-bottom bed fit for empresses, sunken chests of gold, and cowire-shell-covered sirens.

- Bri Stokes, 2021.

#writeblr #writing community #poetry community #poem #am writing #writers and poets #writers on tumblr #bipoc writers #bipoc poets #queer writers #queer poets #female writers #female poets #creative writing #dark academia #excerpt from a book i'll never write #grief #depression #loss #breakups #heartache #acceptance #stages of grief #bri stokes #poetry #new poets society

[bristokeswrites]

“There is a language of kisses, of verses and of mouths. Where the word is not enough and the only valid translator is the feeling …”

— poetry-siir ©  By Ousía Poética

[bristokeswrites]

[bristokeswrites]

300 Followers!

Yaaasss! 😭 This is the best Pride Month gift a bisexual could ask for! Haha 😂

Thank you all so much for following, sticking by me, engaging with my content, engaging with ME, and leaving such lovely feedback on my work. I started this Writeblr just shy of two months ago, and I NEVER anticipated that I’d get so much love for it in such a short span of time :)

I appreciate all of you so much. This place, and its creators, inspire me. You guys make me want to laser-focus on my art, each and every single day, and to be as open and honest in my creativity as I can while doing so. This community has really helped me push through some very dark times that have unfolded in my life recently; it’s helped me stay focused, committed; to post my writing as regularly as I can, and to regularly engage with other writers on the platform, too. I’ve met some really lovely people along the way. I could not be more grateful for it.

Thank you for being a part of this with me ❤️

#writeblr #writing community #am writing #writers on tumblr #writers and poets #creative writing #update #candid #about me #bipoc writers #bipoc poets #queer writers #queer poets #female writers #female poets #poetry community

[bristokeswrites]

A Cause for Pause

I’ve been speeding

Through green lights

At 90mph,

A shuddering blur

Shooting down

A 3000 mile highway

With such abandon

I barely saw

Yellow in time.

I am sidling the line

Of broken conversation,

Smoking through

Sporadic nights

Light with truth

And consequence,

Staying fed

With only

Tiny bites

Of gratification,

Fantasy unable

To keep need at bay.

I extend

One empty hand

Past the fogged window,

Meeting the cold dark

With five pleading fingers,

And there I hang

Outstretched and wrung,

Chasing shadows

For creature comfort.

No red in sight,

Yellow the light stays

And we cruise

To the blues

As slowly

As we can afford

Without stopping.

#other people's writng

[bristokeswrites]

After all… I’m just a girl writer, standing sitting in front of a boy their novel, asking him it to love her finish itself.

- Notting Hill Plotting Still

[bristokeswrites]

So, uh... I’m back. Again.

A few weeks ago, I’d given y’all an update and mentioned how work had become suuuper crazy, so I’d taken a little Tumblr break, but that I was back, and all was right again in the Universe, yaayy... and then I just straight up dipped again, lol.

Well... here I am! Surprise! 😂

In all seriousness, I AM back. The most recent break was due to a serious of familial crises.

The story goes as follows:

My great-grandmother, who is 100 years old and has Alzheimers, recently had to be moved into an assisted living facility because her mental health reached a point where she just could not be without 24 hour care anymore. She’s been hallucinating, etc. At one point, she even left the gas on on the stove overnight (thankfully, no one was hurt, but still, it was terrifying), so we absolutely HAD to get her help. 

Dealing with everything associated with that kinda took a toll on me spiritually. It’s hard to watch a family member reach a point mentally where they no longer recognize you, or can’t remember your name, etc. Not to mention - I have an Aunt (her daughter) who has been stealing from my great-grandmother while she’s in and out of these states (not quite sure what else to call them; these are periods where my great-grandmother is simply “not there” psychologically), trying to collect money from her, and obsessively attempting to become her Power of Attorney. It has, in many ways, utterly torn the family apart. 

So my mother, cousins, grandmother and I have been devoting a lot of energy towards keeping her protected and ensuring that all of her finances are squared away and secured, safe from HER OWN DAUGHTER. Tbh, I’m disgusted. I’ve always heard of this kind of thing happening in families when someone starts to age or gets sick, but I never dreamt that it would happen in mine. It’s heartbreaking. 

Anyway. My great-grandmother had a successful, drama-free move. Obviously, we toured different facilities and made sure to select a very humane place for her. It’s really more like an upscale apartment complex than a stereotypical “old people’s home.” And she’s having a wonderful time there. They even have a centennial club, so I’m hoping she can make some new friends.

So overall, things have reached a place of stability, at least for the moment, so I knew I immediately had to hop back on this account. I appreciate you guys sticking around. Like I said - I’m VERY sensitive to the most random changes within myself/my environment/what have you, and sometimes that sensitivity can truly take me out and put me in a massive funk. And when that funk settles over me, it is... DEBILITATING in terms of my ability to socialize. It’s not healthy, but often my reaction to this is to self-isolate. I’m working on that.

So I’m still sorting through your notifications, and I PROMISE I will get to all of them. Thank you for your patience, understanding, and love. You’re incredible spirits ❤️

#writeblr #writing community #am writing #writers on tumblr #updates #candid #about me #long-ass post

[bristokeswrites]

“clouds:”

The world behind my eyes is primal, ceaseless in its fire, devouring thickets and glades, shrill and shrieking, like the wails of a banshee bleeding out on a godless road.

There’s a ghost just beneath my skin-- not mine, but yours, pushing up and out through my throat, my eyes, spilling hot, furious tears onto concrete altars, onto holy texts and shrinking candles, as hypnotic and reductive as the phases of the Moon.

I try to let the ache float by, up and away, baptized as a dove curling through a careful breeze. I envision your face in passing clouds; invoke the memories of your skin. Your sweat. Your tongue.

I get lost in Otherworlds, in lightning-washed liminal spaces. I feel you everywhere, so deeply, dementedly wedged within my blood that I’ve forgotten how to feel anything else, how to have anything else, how to live and want and wonder and be.

You are a specter in shadow; as voracious as a parasite, as glorious as the sun swallowed up by an eclipse, as inevitable as a curse laced up inside a velveteen bag of pearl-dusted tricks.

- Bri Stokes, 2021

#writeblr #writing community #poetry community #poem #am writing #writers on tumblr #writers and poets #new poets society #dark academia #excerpt from a book i'll never write #creative writing #bipoc writers #bipoc poets #queer writers #queer poets #female writers #female poets #heartbreak #relationships #depression #obsession #loss #introspection #bri stokes

[bristokeswrites]

[bristokeswrites]

cant b a wizard if ur bi. if ur bi ur a bizard

i was about to delete this until i read the last part and started nodding

#levity #im a bizard

[bristokeswrites]

“underwater:”

Sunlight washes trumpets and shadows of dawn onto fish scale treetops, onto palm leaves rattling and swaying under wistful tides of cautious Spring. And in the unwritten kiss of days yet to come, there is hope, as insistent as the rhythmic pulse of drums, as wild and sparkling as a flash of gold on the bank of a river, singing secrets far too ripe to waste, teasing rot out of brilliant, unsung edges, beaming down from sapphire archways into crevices reclaimed, onto bare feet swaying gently through woodland, chanting hymns in Calliope’s name.

- Bri Stokes, 2021.

#writeblr #writing community #poem #poetry community #dark academia #new poets society #creative writing #excerpt from a book i'll never write #am writing #writers and poets #writers on tumblr #bipoc writers #bipoc poets #queer writers #queer poets #female writers #female poets #spring #nature #palm trees #california #hope #joy #optimism #bri stokes

[bristokeswrites]

in case no one’s told you yet, you feel exhausted and hungover and sometimes even sick after panic attacks/meltdowns/flashbacks/dissociative episodes/etc. because of very real chemical processes that are involved in your nervous system activation and de-activation during those times. it’s chemical dump effects, and no, you SHOULDN’T be able to just brush it off and feel and act normal. you’ve got a bunch of physical things that got activated and that all has to wind down. It’s not in your head, it’s very physical, and you need to work WITH your body during the after-periods instead of trying to curb stomp it. be gentle to yourself, okay?

[bristokeswrites]

my brain feels like it’s on fire and my stomach hurts because i can’t stop laughing every time i see these two tweets

#I'm cackling wtff #levity

[bristokeswrites]

why not both?