wintryblight

[wintryblight]

hello, dear! how are you doing? I came back to Tumblr after a long time and immediately thought about you. I love your blog so much. how wonderful it it's to be able to read so many beautiful poems in only one place. if you don't mind, can you share one of your new favourites poems? you always have amazing suggestions to us!

I hope you are doing ok. I don't even know your name, but today, just in a couple of hours, I'm going to pray for you. I'm not a religious person, but I like to pray anyways. I think we all can use a good amount of positive vibrations and nice thoughts. Have a nice week darling!

hi stranger. thank you for your incredibly kind words, the time you took out of your day to say this to someone whose name you don't know. i appreciate your presence & thank you for praying for me! though i'm not religious myself, i have asked some people to pray for me & my loved ones before, and i often talk to nonhuman entities--trees, bodies of water, ghosts. i find the idea of appealing to forces beyond our perception (& often comprehension) comforting.

i am doing ok, more or less--insanely busy, which is why i have temporarily abandoned this project. but! i just finished a writing project of my own that's taken a lot of my time and energy, so i am trying to make time this blog again, because curating it is a very rewarding exercise. in the meantime, here are some poems i have loved lately:

Tracy K. Smith, "Ash" | Strange house we must keep and fill. / House that eats and pleads and kills. / House on legs. House on fire. House infested / With desire. Haunted house. Lonely house.

Amy Woolard, "Laura Palmer Graduates" | Look up & smile. What does it matter / That the stars we see are already dead.

Sharon Olds, "I Go Back to May 1937" | you are going to do things / you cannot imagine you would ever do, / you are going to do bad things to children, / you are going to suffer in ways you have not heard of, / you are going to want to die.

Michael Prior, "Wakeful Things" | Love, how inelegantly / we leave. How insistent we are to return in one form / or another.

Wendell Berry, "A Meeting in a Part" | In a dream I meet / my dead friend.

Sally Wen Mao, "Close Encounters of the Liminal Kind" | Once I met a boy on the overnight train. / I asked: Have you ever wondered / who walks across these fields / at night? Who has the nerve / to breathe that ghostly air?

Mary Karr, "VI. Wisdom: The Voice of God" | Ninety percent of what’s wrong with you / could be cured with a hot bath, / says God through the manhole covers, / but you want magic, to win / the lottery you never bought a ticket for.

#poetry #web weaving #reading list #compilation #wendell berry #mary karr #sally wen mao #michael prior #sharon olds #amy woolard #tracy k. smith #recommendation

[wintryblight]

it’s been a while. hope you’re well. hope you’ve enjoyed poems. love.

it has been a while. thank you stranger. i have enjoyed many poems & i hope you have, too.

[wintryblight]

Hello! I'm in love with your blog! I struggle with my queerness and intense waves of loneliness and was wondering if there are any poems with similar themes? i hope you have a great day and tysm :)

hi & thank you for your support of this blog! here are some poems about queerness, & here are some about loneliness. here are some more that deal with the experience of contending with both. hope you have a lovely day too & enjoy reading!

Ocean Vuong, "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" | For hunger is to give / the body what it knows / it cannot keep.

Emily Dickinson, "With a Flower" | I hide myself within my flower, / That, fading from your vase, / You, unsuspecting, feel for me / Almost a loneliness.

Richard Siken, "Snow and Dirty Rain" | The way you slam your body into mine reminds me / I'm alive, but monsters are always hungry, darling, / and they're only a few steps behind you

Maggie Nelson, "bluets (excerpt)" | Last night I wept in a way I haven't wept for some time. I wept until I aged myself.

Chen Chen, "Race to the Tree" | I was 13 & it was night & all night I stared / at the moon from my tree, willing myself to think / not of them, but of how it would taste / to kiss

#poetry #compilation #web weaving #richard siken #ocean vuong #emily dickinson #maggie nelson #chen chen #reading list #recommendation #queerness #loneliness

[wintryblight]

Question, how do you find these poems? Are there certain websites you find particularly helpful.

i get to read a lot of poetry due to the nature of my study/work, so usually when i get an ask i have a feel for which poet/collection to begin searching. i also maintain a very meticulous tagging system on this blog so i have a good sense of which poems belong to which themes & the primary subjects of certain poets. aside from that, i find the poems i share on the sites from which i source the links, so academy of american poets, poetry foundation, etc

[wintryblight]

Hello darling! I hope you are ok! You have such a beautiful heart and mind, I know it just by seeing you interact with your followers and putting so much effort into this blog. Such a getle soul. I hope you can be truly and freely happy!

I wanted to know if you have any poems about fire, flames... Something like love and fire mixed, but that's just an extra. Anything with fire is good!

Thank you so much for your hard work. You are so so valid. Your existence matters. Golden hearted human! Thank you for sharing so many beautiful things with us! So many beautiful things will happen to you too! Sending you all the love! Everything will work out ok? Stay safe and healthy.

hi anon. thank you so much for this incredibly kind message. i am so moved that someone would extend so much kindness to a stranger. i've had a tumultuous time & abandoned this blog for a while to tend to my other responsibilities, but i'm very glad i checked back in to find your message. thank you so much & here is a previous compilation with fire theme/fire imagery for love that i hope you'll enjoy. have a lovely day!

[wintryblight]

hi, hello, i think this blog is such a lovely space..

are there any poems you like about being kinder / less cruel to yourself?

thank you, i hope you have a nice day.

hello & thank you! here is a previous compilation on self-love/self-compassion, & here is a list of a few more. enjoy reading!

Naomi Shihab Nye, "What Changes" | Someday / we will learn how to live. All of us / surviving without violence / never stop dreaming how to cure it.

Mary Oliver, "Wild Geese" | You do not have to walk on your knees / for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. / You only have to let the soft animal of your body / love what it loves.

Linda Gregg, "The Letter" | I’m not feeling strong yet, but I am taking / good care of myself.

danez smith, "it began right here" | I am a house swollen with the dead / but I am still a home.

Wendell Berry, "Do not be ashamed" | When their light has picked you out / and their questions are asked, say to them: / "I am not ashamed."

#poetry #web weaving #recommendation #compilation #mary oliver #naomi shihab nye #linda gregg #danez smith #wendell berry #reading list #self compassion #self acceptance

[wintryblight]

hey, i love your blog!!! I am currently obsessed with that notion of hope that finds its way back into the heart after a week or a month or a year of crying and being miserable. that sort of mary oliver-esque awareness of the beauty of the world that persists beside sorrow. could you recommend some poems for that? thank u and have a good day <3

hi & thank you for enjoying my blog! here are all the compilations i've made under the "hope" tag & i think they all fit what you're describing here.

[wintryblight]

hello! hope you doing okay! i wanted to ask if you know any poems about loving in the rain or using rain as a metaphor for love, or just about rain and love together. thank you in advance <3

hello & i hope you're doing okay too! here is a previous compilation i've made about rain. enjoy reading!

[wintryblight]

are there any poems that absolutely consumed you when you first read them?

hi anon! i'm sorry it's taken me a while to get to your request. i've been dealing with a lot in my personal life so this project has taken a bit of a backseat. here are some poems that really struck me right upon my first read, and below are a few more. enjoy reading, & congrats on being the 100th post!

Megan O'Rourke, "Unforced Errors" | Heidegger: “Every man is born as many men / and dies as a single one.” / The bones in us still marrowful. / The moon up there, too, an arctic sorrow.

Kaveh Akbar, "Do You Speak Persian?" | I don’t remember how to say home / in my first language, or lonely, or light. / I remember only / delam barat tang shodeh, I miss you, / and shab bekheir, goodnight.

Steve Scafidi, "For the Last American Buffalo" | Because words dazzle in the dizzy light of things / and the soul is like an animal–hunted and slow– / this buffalo walks through me every night as if I was / some kind of prairie and hunkers against the cold dark

K-Ming Chang, "Closet Space" | Here / is my lung’s list of needs: how to hold water / like a woman & not / drown.

Jack Gilbert, "By Small and Small: From Midnight to Four A.M." | I wanted / to crawl in among the machinery / and hold her in my arms

William Brewer, "Resolution" | sometimes / you have to tell yourself / you’re the first person / to look out over / the silent highway / at the abandoned billboard / lit up by the moon / and think it’s selling a new / and honest life.

#poetry #recommendation #web weaving #compilation #reading list #william brewer #jack gilbert #k-ming chang #steve scafidi #kaveh akbar #megan o'rourke

[wintryblight]

Hi. Could you please help me to find the name of an audre lorde poem? Its about resistance and stars. The ending is abt being in streetlight. She name constellations in them. Looking up at the stars while taking out trash. Qi cannot find it. Thanks :)

hey, are you sure it's an Audre Lorde poem? you might have been unable to find it because i think the poem you're referring to is "Dead Stars" by Ada Limón. you can find the poem here.

[wintryblight]

hi! do you happen to know of any poems about grief or memories as a weight or a burden?

hi! i have made a LOT of compilations on grief that you can find here. enjoy reading!

[wintryblight]

Hello!! I hope you are doing okay and you don't have to reply if you are going through some tough times, but I hope it all gets better soon ❤. I love what you do and I was hoping I could ask you to find a few poems about love in simple things/actions. Like the poem about oranges 🍊. Thank you!!

hi & thank you for your kind words. i have made a compilation about loving simplicity & the mundane here. i also have this compilation here about the joy of sharing little things/acts with a loved one. enjoy reading!

[wintryblight]

hello--thank you so much for this wonderful blog, it's helped me reconnect with so many poems i've lost over the years, what a gift! i wanted to know if you had any poems similar to Sometimes by Sheenagh Pugh; optimistic and determined about humanity? either way, cheers!!! <3

hi! i’m so glad to hear that i’ve helped you reconnect with old loves. i actually have made a few compilations on this theme, so please check out my “hope” tag here. i think you’ll find what you’re looking for. enjoy reading!

[wintryblight]

wondering if you had any favorite poems that use metaphors or imagery of fire/smoke/burning? like stuff that equates human experiences like love or personhood to fire?? or just good fire poetry in general? 🕯<3

hi! here are a handful of poems that uses fire/burning as a metaphor. enjoy reading!

Richard Siken, “Landscape with Several Small Fires” | I am the fire, says the fire. My body is a graveyard, / says the landscape.

Ada Limón, “After the Fire” | Funny thing about grief, its hold / is so bright and determined like a flame, / like something almost worth living for.

Yusef Komunyakaa, “You and I Are Disappearing” | She burns like a shot glass of vodka. / She burns like a field of poppies / at the edge of a rain forest. / She rises like dragonsmoke / to my nostrils.

Louise Glück, “Stars” | I was brave, I resisted, / I set myself on fire.

Rumi, “Fragment #862″ | I want a trouble-maker for a lover, / Blood spiller, blood drinker, a heart of flame, / Who quarrels with the sky and fights with fate, / Who burns like fire on the rushing sea.

Andrea Gibson, “I Sing The Body Electric, Especially When My Power's Out” | My mouth is a fire escape / The words coming out don't care that they are naked / There is something burning in here

Joy Harjo, “Everybody Has a Heartache: A Blues” | The famished spirit eats fire, poetry, and rain; it only wants love.

#poetry #compilation #web weaving #richard siken #Ada Limón #reading list #recommendation #rumi #andrea gibson #joy harjo #Yusef Komunyakaa #Louise Glück #fire

[wintryblight]

i just wanted to say thank you!!! i appreciate it’s hard when most of the asks are ppl asking u to do sth for them (and while most of them are polite occasionally u get a few that are a bit :/ )

i have discovered so many beautiful poems and poems which now have a special place in my heart because of you (AND I HAVE FALLEN IN LOVE!!! WITH MARY OLIVER)

you are a brilliant and wonderful and kind and thoughtful person, not because you are doing brilliant and wonderful and kind and thoughtful things—which you are—but bc you were always brilliant and wonderful and kind and thoughtful and always will be.

from the history by john burnside anon / water symbolism and lesbianism anon / anon who was your 50th post (i think?) / and anon from many more asks

hi anon! thank you so much & i’m sorry it’s taken me a while to respond.

i have been going through a lot in my personal life & had to take a break from this project. i really appreciate your kind words & i hope that i can continue to supply you & others with poetry that touch you in ways that regular words can’t.

i hope you stick around & discover even more poets & poems that you can fall in love with!

#misc

[wintryblight]

hey, first i wanted to say i love love love your page, i found so many new brillant poets to read because of you :)

i cant find this poem anywhere but since you've read Ada Limón, i was hoping you'd have the link to her poem "The good fight".

hi! thanks for supporting my project & i’m glad you discovered poets you enjoy. unfortunately i cannot find the poem you’re looking for, but here is a link to the pdf of Bright Dead Things by Limón, which contains this poem.

[wintryblight]

Ugh your recent ask. I literally only started following you today and I already can see how much work you put into this blog and how hard you work to find the poems. I really hope that anon was not trying to be a dick but it really doesn't sound like they were being nice either 😬 at any rate, I think you're really doing God's work. I've been trying to get into poetry and your blog is going to be super helpful for that. Keep doing what you love and share the joy of it with us. Don't let random people get you down and I hope you stay safe, happy and healthy 💕💕💕

hey anon! i really appreciate this message & thank you for the affirmation of what i do. i am so glad this blog has been helpful in getting you into poetry, & i want nothing more for this blog to spread the joy of discovering poems that resonate with you. most of the interactions i get here are super lovely like yours, & i’m sure that anon meant no malice. it’s unfortunate that tones can get lost especially online, & i’m not upset at whoever sent that message. i just wanted to get across that i work hard on this blog & deserve to be spoken to with consideration.

again, please don’t worry that one message “got me down” or anything! thank you so much for your kindness, & i hope you continue to stick around.

#misc