Inexorable Frankness But Painfully Obtained. You Have Moments Of Reserve, Of Feeling You Are Violating

“Inexorable frankness but painfully obtained. You have moments of reserve, of feeling you are violating sacred intimacies, the secret life of your own being as well as of others. At moments I am willing to help you because of our common objective passion for truth. But it hurts, Henry, it hurts.”

— Anaïs Nin, from Henry & June; A Journal of Love: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin (1932–1934)

Whether you are alive or not makes all the difference. In Spanish, fish are peces till dead; then, pescados—one syllable from animal to meal, from subject to object. In death we’re reduced to the body’s usefulness: cow becomes meat, human becomes organ. But a dog remains un perro. A child can be nothing but a child.

Alicia Catt, “WHEN I PUT BLUEBEARD’S KEYS IN MY POCKET THEY STAIN MY DRESS & I HOPE YOU DON’T NOTICE,” published in Toad (via bluebeardsbride)

I know what you want: a burial inside me. Have you ever opened an apricot, warmed by the sun, and found worms?

Diana Marie Delgado, from “The Kind of Light I Give Off Isn’t Going to Last,” Tracing the Horse  (via bluebeardsbride)

when fleabag said, “with all the love i have for her. i don’t know where to put it now.” and when anne carson wrote, “you remember too much, / my mother said to me recently. / why hold onto all that? and i said, / where can i put it down?” and when mitski sang, “i don’t know what to do without you / i don’t know where to put my hands” and when donnie smith in magnolia (1999) cried, “i really do have love to give! i just don’t know where to put it!” and when emily dickinson once wrote, “we outgrow love, like other things / and put it in the drawer —”

medianeras (2011) dir. gustavo taretto

portrait of a lady on fire (2019) dir. céline sciamma / ways of seeing by john berger / jill soloway on the female gaze, TIFF: MASTER CLASS, 2016 / agnès varda in filming desire (2000) dir. marie mandy / colette (2018) dir. wash westmoreland