Charis

“And when they bombed other people's houses, we

protested
but not enough, we opposed them but not

enough. I was
in my bed, around my bed America

was falling: invisible house by invisble house by invisble house --

I tooka a chair outside and watched the sun.

In the sixth month
of a disastrous reignin the house of money

in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money,
our great country of money, we (forgive us)

lived happily during the war.”
― Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

“We all know how loving ends. But I want to fall in love with the world anyway, to let it crack me open. I want to feel what there is to feel while I am here.”
― John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet

“Ideas have power, and while those who support them often dismiss that power, those who fear them recognize they can change the world.”
― Rebecca Solnit, The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change

“I’m not afraid of love
or its consequence of light.

It’s not easy to say this
or anything when my entrails
dangle between paradise
and fear.

I am ashamed
I never had the words
to carry a friend from her death
to the stars
correctly.

Or the words to keep
my people safe
from drought
or gunshot.

The stars who were created by words
are circling over this house
formed of calcium, of blood

this house
in danger of being torn apart
by stones of fear.

If these words can do anything
if these songs can do anything
I say bless this house
with stars.

Transfix us with love.”
― Joy Harjo, The Woman Who Fell from The Sky: Poems