A day late due to delays on trains travelling back from holiday, but I’m sure that you’ll find it worth the wait – a drop-in by Flight of the Dragonfly’s latest talent, Maria Cohut. A boring poem no one will want to readWrite me a poem about how it hurtshow you force a smilewhen talking …
“You can’t post this here”: The story of a poem
"We don't do politics here.""Personally, I don't support any particular ideology." These are two phrases I've frequently heard when issues connected to discrimination have come up. Most recently, the first was shouted at me by a very irate building manager who affected not to understand why her migrant-background neighbours might feel upset by the Prime …
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Crying in bookstores, thinking of borders
Today, I teared up in a bookstore. Today, I bought a book because the first two paragraphs of its final chapter made me feel like crying. I picked it up and leafed through it to kill time, and because the title, Borderlines, caught my eye. I picked it up with some cynicism, wondering what this …
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Existential anxiety
Eugène Carrière, Sleep (1897). Source: National Gallery of Art As a child, for many years, I used to have this experience at regular intervals: I'd wake up from a deep nightime sleep or a brief daytime nap, suddenly very alert, my heart racing, with a strong and unshakeable feeling that I had something very important …
Who do you think I am?
A litle over two years ago I was writing about my struggle with people's assumptions about me in my adopted country. In that blog post, I was reflecting on the pitfalls of the not-so-innocent "where are you from?" question that many migrants like me face when they open their mouths to speak. The culprit? Doubtlessly …
NaPoWriMo/ GloPoWriMo 2019: Day 29
I can't believe that I have almost reached the end of this year's poetry-writing challenge! Tomorrow, I'll have to find a way to celebrate, but for now, here's my next-to-last poem of the month! Once more, I followed the daily prompt, which suggested that we write a meditative poem. Mine is inspired by my uneasy …
NaPoWriMo/ GloPoWriMo 2019: Days 25–28
Playing catch-up again, because this is my life. 😀 Sometimes it feels like a juggler walking a thin rope through fog. Anyway, here's my "debt" of four poems! For day 25, I wrote a poem about stained glass, for which I have a very healthy (I do assure you!) obsession. Stained Glass Whom do these …
NaPoWriMo/ GloPoWriMo 2019: Day 24
Today, the optional prompt suggested that we get inspired by an encyclopaedia in writing our poems. And since this is the very Encyclopaedia Vanitatum – the encyclopaedia of worthless, transient things – the prompt fit like a glove. And so today's poem was written sub specie aeternitatis – considering timelessness. Sub Specie Aeternitatis Gromphadorhina portentosa Dionaea muscipula Achatina …
NaPoWriMo/ GloPoWriMo 2019: Day 23
Today's prompt encouraged us to write a poem about an animal, which was an excellent excuse for me to to write about a cockroach for the first time! I dedicate this one to my patient hissers, Kafka and Rilke. The Cockroach He burrows, searching for the trail left him by his ancestors, alive with the warning …
NaPoWriMo/ GloPoWriMo 2019: Days 19 to 22
Hold on tight, fairies and sprites! Today, to catch up on my NaPoWriMo backlog, much neglected after three full days of travel and uproar, I give you four poems born out of a sleep-deprived brain! For day 19, a poem about states of emergency. Emergency Measure This is not a drill: gather your thoughts and …
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Encyclopaedia Vanitatum 