Melissa Perri Smith's Blog, page 3

An ekphrastic exercise in poetry

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Brussels, Belgium) 1560

What is a poem but an attempt at being seen?

Goodness/Power

To leave my side is to leave

behind the necessary strategies

for survival. I tell you this now

in a place where the waves swallow

the folly, swallow the hubris of

man. Wave-thick endless, holy

land caressed by the hoof of an

ass. The sun is a sickness that eats

away, you, you are a hollowed thing

that I hold as an example. It is as

the Israelites left Egypt—it is...

The End of Winter

Today it will snow, and the city will shut down, and I will watch and laugh. How curious to exist in a climate like this, to watch the place I call home crumble because of a storm, minor or otherwise.

My bones know that it is the end. They ache to be snapped into seeds. I am always writing about death and rebirth, about how my teeth will redden into the skin of an apple and how you will swallow my remembrance with reverence.

In a month and a few days, our bodies will be ripe for harvest. The skies...

I can only write about being depressed so many times before it gets tiresome

Later today, I will weep, and you will laugh, and there will be a moment where our mirth combines, and you will remember my line about misery.

What is Lexapro but escitalopram in italics?

My mother asks about your job and I laugh and I laugh and I laugh.

Write like you’re famous, and one day, you will be.

Write like someone’s reading, and one day, they will be.

Is this poetry or a confessional?

Adams Memorial. National Park Service.

Later today, there will be a moment when I remember a man who fucked m...

Dissent. Dissent. Dissent.

For the sake of compliance, let’s keep this poetic.

Which is not to say that poetry is compliance. For the sake of safety, let’s keep this ambiguous, which is to say, up to interpretation, because fear is too big a motivator when one’s livelihood depends on the oppressor.

Have I gone too far already?

I won’t pretend I’m someone important. I’m not, and I have not, and never will be, nor do I wish to be. But there are things I can say and things I cannot. Please understand this ambiguity. Call me a c...

On the Predisposition to Devotion

Of those who’d been devout before their loss, some struggled with the task of remaining so, while others gave up their devotion without a second glance. Of those who’d never been devout, some felt their position had been validated, while others were faced with the near impossible task of becoming devout now.

— Ted Chiang, “Hell is the Absence of God”

Photo by Aaron Burden from Unsplash.

“I’m an atheist. Years of studying international relations and its intersection with world religions have convinc...

Creating a Daily Writing Schedule

If you read my last post, then you know I’m trying my darndest to follow through on some ambitious writing goals for 2025. Setting those goals is great and all, but making sure you have the structure and resources to succeed is imperative.

Historically, I’ve been bad at that. I probably will still be bad at that. But, baby, I’m trying.

Omg, you’re here? Enter your email address.

I was scrolling through Instagram the other day when I came across Ursula K. Le Guin’s daily schedule (supposedly—someone...

New Year, New Me (or all that fatuous nonsense)

Hey! I know what you’re thinking—is Melissa really on that “New Year, New Me” bullshit? If you’ve read the title, obviously. I am. Welcome to my existence as a living stereotype.

You know what? That’s okay. I like the optimism. I am painfully cynical otherwise, and why shouldn’t I set some goals for 2025? Positivity and all that. I also want to be evil and spiteful this year, but it would behoove me to put some more “helpful” or “healthy” goals on that list. Which is what I did! But, in the inter...

Another meaningless Substack post!

You know how they say you have to be consistent to hustle and make a living without having a real job? Yeah, this is why I’ll likely never make a living and will continue to stare blankly into the void of incoherence.

Photo by @ajny from Unsplash.

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Jokes (?) aside, I just wanted to hop on here and say hey. Do I have anything to actually say? Not really. I’m working on my thesis for my MFA, which ...

The Freewrite Smart Typewriter: A birthday/Christmas/anniversary present for the ages

Picture this. You’re sitting at your desk. Your fiance is playing NBA 2K in the background, someone is shouting about “ball handling,” and you snicker to yourself while you stare at the blank Word document blinking on your screen.

“Ball handling,” you write, and then you wonder if there’s supposed to be a hyphen between those two words so you open a new tab and google if there’s supposed to be a hyphen between “ball” and “handling.”

You discover there are many options for ball handling. It may be ...

"Descending" and "Nameless"

Photo by Galina N from Unsplash.Descending

For the last time, I cannot say

goodbye. What pity! What

remorse for the moments that mean

so much and so little.

I am flustered by the fact I woke

wondering if it was all worth it.

Of course, it isn’t, and I eradicated

meaning by naming a nameless

thing, by giving ending power over

me. I am nothing if not an

ocean to fall into. I am slow

descent, I am the hellish ending

you so despise. I have given name to that,

too, as if y...