Ashe Vernon's Blog, page 164
August 15, 2015
"What they don’t tell you
about the gentle ones,
is how we keep all our hurts in cages,
and line them..."
about the gentle ones,
is how we keep all our hurts in cages,
and line them up like circus attractions
on the inside of our own chests.
We carry the weight of them,
and call it surviving.
.
What they don’t tell you
about the ones who grew up
walking tightropes,
is that we only look so graceful
because we never learned
how to climb down
and we call this
remarkable.
.
What they don’t tell you
about the illusion
is that I am as much lion
as I am lion tamer.
And I got good at inflicting pain
the same way I got good
at soothing it.
This, we call unfortunate,
but inevitable
and sure.
.
What they don’t tell you
about the gentle ones
is how raw we all are,
just below the surface:
how the roar of the crowd
feels like a city burning;
how we love like immolation;
how we leave nothing but dust
in our wake.
.
We call this
poetic justice.
What they didn’t tell you
about us
is that we’ve learned so well
that we only have to be cruel
once.”
- The Gentle Ones by Ashe Vernon
latenightcornerstore:
Hey, darlings! So here’s the thing,
money is really tight right now [hooray...
Hey, darlings! So here’s the thing,
money is really tight right now [hooray moving to a new city, boo job hunting in a new city] and it would honestly mean the absolute world to me if you could buy one of my books. You’d be helping me pay rent AND you get poetry out of it. What a deal, right?
Not to mention, I put so much heart into this little baby. So you’d be getting to put a little chunk of my insides up on your shelf. Gross, right? Right. So
y'know
consider clicking here to purchase my little book baby. It would mean a lot to me.
August 14, 2015
"Two months in and all you know
is your new medication
makes your hands shake.
Twenty-four years..."
is your new medication
makes your hands shake.
Twenty-four years old,
and you’re finally starting to understand
that calling a place home
doesn’t make it feel like one.
Yesterday, you learned how to change a tire, but
you still don’t know
how to love someone without
cracking your ribs open
and spilling through the fault lines,
like some kind of natural disaster.
You’re pretending if you keep laughing
you won’t have to admit
you’re afraid;
pretending like love’s gonna
solve all your problems;
pretending you’ve got it all together
when you don’t have it at all.
You have made so much
out of so little–
you built yourself tall
on the backs of every person
who told you you couldn’t.
You flew your colors in a war zone–
made it back wounded and alive.
You have done everything you know how,
and it means something
to have tried.”
- Twenty-Four by Ashe Vernon
The human experience is not one-size-fits-all.
The human experience is not one-size-fits-all.
Can you write something about having a terminal illness. I'm very sick right now and I would just like to read something I can relate to that doesn't end up being a cute love story in the end.
I don’t know if this is what you’re looking for, but I have this poem that might be it. It’s the closest thing I have.
While what I had wasn’t terminal, I am very familiar with chronic pain and chronic illness. And I have lots of intolerance and allergies to medicines that make severe illness even harder to navigate. That being said, what I’ve been through doesn’t compare. This poem is the closest I have. I hope it can give you what you’re looking for.
"When you’ve got depression
the way I’ve got depression,
there are days where it can be..."
the way I’ve got depression,
there are days where it can be hard to feel
much of anything.
So when you find something that makes you happy,
that makes you scared, that breaks your heart,
or turns you on–you hold on to that.
You never shut up about it.
Even if that means writing NC-17 fanfiction
about two fictional characters who
are never going to meet, because through them
you can feel a kind of electricity
that you’ve lost in your own relationships.
Sometimes, it’s watching an actor’s entire filmography
(yes, even the shitty, B horror flick from 2003)
all because they’ve got a nice smile and
it makes you happy to see them
happy.
Sometimes, it’s wrapping yourself in a blanket
and sobbing to pieces over a single line of
Fall Out Boy lyrics
that becomes your saving grace.
Sometimes you have to feel by proxy.
Sometimes watching a movie
for the 100th time
is the only thing
that makes you feel
okay.”
- some thoughts about fandom and depression by Ashe Vernon
if you don't mind me asking, why did you switch publishers?
It’s not really “switching” publishers, because I haven’t left Words Dance! But my contract with Words Dance and amanda-oaks (who I adore with all of my being) was non-exclusive and I was approached by clementinevonradics about publishing with her press. I’ve always loved WAYP’s mission statement and admired the writers they’ve published and Clementine is an absolute inspiration, so I was ecstatic to be given the opportunity to be published alongside them.
I’m still very much a part of Words Dance, and Amanda is an absolute delight to work with. I’m just lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to sign on with TWO phenomenal publishing houses, in the last year.
Hey, darlings! So here’s the thing,money is really tight right now [hooray moving to a new city, boo...
Hey, darlings! So here’s the thing,
money is really tight right now [hooray moving to a new city, boo job hunting in a new city] and it would honestly mean the absolute world to me if you could buy one of my books. You’d be helping me pay rent AND you get poetry out of it. What a deal, right?
Not to mention, I put so much heart into this little baby. So you’d be getting to put a little chunk of my insides up on your shelf. Gross, right? Right. So
y'know
consider clicking here to purchase my little book baby. It would mean a lot to me.
latenightcornerstore:
destielpasta:
I’m so excited to have...
I’m so excited to have received this, it came at the perfect time! Thank you so much, latenightcornerstore for such beautiful beautiful poetry.
You can buy my book, or any of six (beautiful!) mini posters of my work at the WAYP store!
August 13, 2015
"The girls who love you
keep slipping through your fingers
after of all this talk
of how sure you are..."
keep slipping through your fingers
after of all this talk
of how sure you are that
they deserve better.
This is how you push women
out of your life with mouthfuls
of good intentions.
You know what you’re doing,
but they were always
so beautiful and so kind,
and you never believed
you could love them right.
Not when you loved like the
rusty joints of rattling traincars.
You’ve never had hands like
a midsummer sunset, but god—
you loved a woman who did.
She was too much for you.
Too real, too alive.
She kissed the crickets
from your lungs, and you
forgot how to speak in the face
of her fearless quiet.
Like handspun glory,
like the divots in a hardwood floor—
her skin was soft and dark and holy,
and you were lying
when you said
you didn’t love her
anymore.”
- But You Leave Them, by Ashe Vernon
