“How much of the world must we pass through to arrive at ourselves?”

— — Natalie Wee, from “Listen I Love You Joy Is Coming,” Beast at Every Threshold
(via lifeinpoetry)

Hieu Minh Nguyen, from This Way to The Sugar: Poems; "My First"

[Text ID: I won't tell you how I survived the wreckage. / This story doesn't leave the ocean floor.]

Ijeoma Umebinyuo, from Questions for Ada; “Ada”

I wish I could peel
all my sadness in one long strip off my skin
& toss it in a bucket. No one would have to carry it.
It would just sit there & be punished.
It would just sit there & think about everything it’s done.

— Chen Chen, from “Elegy for My Sadness,“ published in Breakwater Review

Adrienne Rich, from Diving into the Wreck; “Song”