Ashe Vernon's Blog, page 107
February 11, 2016
Hi Momma Ashe I'm glad you've found a soft love and I think your poem about it has helped me figure out how to say 'I love you' for the first time. My heart tends to bruise like an over ripe pear but your words always find ways to make me feel strong
I think it’s brave to love when you’re soft that way. It takes so much courage to throw yourself into a thing that can hurt you. But it’s so worth it, when it does go right. I’m proud of you, little dove. I hope all that love comes back to you a hundred times over.
casually crying while reading Amanda Palmer’s The Art of Asking, last nightno big deal
casually crying while reading Amanda Palmer’s The Art of Asking, last night
no big deal
February 10, 2016
"If I keep writing poems about you
and no one ever knows that you read them,
are they still..."
and no one ever knows that you read them,
are they still self-indulgent?
I mean, a tree falling in a forest, right?
How do I tell the nonbelievers that love
only ever made sense in poetry, or
that our unraveling was one
of the most romantic things
that’s ever happened to me?
When am I supposed to stop talking about it?
How many ripples in the lake do I create
if I skip stone after stone after stone
and all of them sound like your name?”
- QUESTIONS by Ashe Vernon (via latenightcornerstore)
"My heart likes to start fights with
the inside of my ribs where everyone loses.
For weeks, my..."
the inside of my ribs where everyone loses.
For weeks, my lungs have been
purple punching bags. My stomach
is being polished into a wood panel floor.
I’m selling tickets to my own heartbreak.
Blood and broken noses are what put
bodies in the seats.
These are real bar brawls, ladies and gentlemen.
Nothing is staged, here. Sure,
there have been a few–
accidents.
The kind of hits you don’t get back up from.
But that’s the price of business, isn’t it?
And don’t you want a show?”
- THE PRICE IS GOING UP by Ashe Vernon
February 9, 2016
"I should have asked you to get on the plane.
Sometimes, this thing we had seemed all
daydream and..."
Sometimes, this thing we had seemed all
daydream and hearsay.
It was so
poetic
to love in two different cities:
three thousand miles between us.
It was so
safe.
I am less ashamed than I thought I would be
to admit that I was afraid.
When your mother kicked you out,
I wrestled with my own trembling conviction:
kept trying to bring myself to ask you
to move in with me, down South.
But daydreams don’t sign leases, and
it seemed like so much to ask.
I didn’t want to be
just another person
demanding more
than you knew how to give.
I stayed quiet.
I offered you a couch to sleep on, but
that’s not what I meant. Or,
it is what I meant, but
I was too scared to say the rest.
I should have asked you to get on the plane.
Now, I just hope you can forgive me
that I didn’t.”
- NO MORE CRYING IN AIRPORTS by Ashe Vernon (via latenightcornerstore)
Coming in 2016!
Psssst… we are super-stoked & grateful to share some of the books that will be coming out from @wordsdancemag in 2016:
- To Break the Heart of the Sun by @williamtaylorjr
- A Field of Blooming Bruises by @schuylerpeck
- Why I’m Not Where You Are by @bhalbers
- Hungry by @alonesomes
- The Goddess Songs by @5000letters
- No Matter the Time by @madgirlf
- Before the First Kiss by @latenightcornerstore & @tristamateer
- Our Bodies & Other Fine Machines by @wondersmithinc
GET EXCITED!! WE ARE! xox
February 8, 2016
"I still remember how you called me your girl in poetry.
This was a few months before you
boarded a..."
This was a few months before you
boarded a plane that wasn’t pointing towards me and
I didn’t ask you to change direction.
You had something you had to finish,
a boy whose love hadn’t broken you yet.
But you called me your girl
and I went all pop rocks and pink fireworks.
I’d have bloomed in the palm of your hand
If you’d asked me to.”
- AFTERTHOUGHTS by Ashe Vernon (via latenightcornerstore)
How would you suggest a struggling writer begin to gain recognition?
Persistence, mostly. Try to keep in mind that every writer you’ve ever heard of had to work from the ground up, so you shouldn’t get discouraged if you’re not seeing the kind of following you’d like. You need ten followers before you can have twenty. You need twenty before you can have a hundred. You have to start somewhere. Post as much work as you can as often as you can. The recognition will follow.
In the mean time, focus all your energy on the work. Remember, the work is always what matters. The work matters the same amount, whether the number of people reading is fifteen or fifteen hundred, the work is always valuable. Practice. Learn. Get better.
Recognition will come. What you need most is patience and a love of your art.
I finally told my brother i was bisexual. And he didnt immediately hit me with a bible. My god fearing brother still loves me, and i wouldnt have even admitted it to myself without your words. Bless you and everything you are x
I’m so proud of you. So, so proud. I know how hard it can be to come out to the people you love and the people who you are most afraid will judge you. You are brave. You are valid. You always, always deserve to be loved.
February 7, 2016
"One of my mother’s coworkers is
the kid who molested me in high school
and I don’t like that he is..."
the kid who molested me in high school
and I don’t like that he is still within arm’s reach
of the women in my family.
His name comes up at Christmas dinner
and I grit my teeth.
He was not supposed to stay so long
in my story.
He was supposed to be exit wound.
Bad dream. Aftertaste.
When they talk about cutting your abusers
from your life, they don’t talk about what do to
when he and your mom share the same nine-to-five.
And I know he talks to her, like he’s got nothing
to be ashamed of.
Like he shouldn’t have been on hands and knees
begging her forgiveness from day one.
And I wonder if he ever asks about me, or
if men like him even care about the ones
they’ve left in their aftermath.
But I am not what he did to me.
I can’t erase him from my story, but I’m
writing him into the margins. He will be
a footnote in my history.
His mouth will never again dirty my name.
He will go faceless into a future
that does not know him
and does not want him.
Getting away with it is not
the same as innocence. I
will never say his name
again.”
- FOOTNOTE by Ashe Vernon (via latenightcornerstore)
