s

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Painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by William Carlos Williams

Tonight there must be people who are getting what they want.

I let my oars fall into the water.

Good for them. Good for them, getting what they want.

The night is so still that I forget to breathe.

The dark air is getting colder. Birds are leaving.

Tonight there are people getting just what they need.

The air is so still that it seems to stop my heart.

I remember you in a black and white photograph

taken this time of some year. You were leaning against a half-shed tree,

standing in the leaves the tree had lost.

When I finally exhale it takes forever to be over.

Tonight, there are people who are so happy,

that they have forgotten to worry about tomorrow.

Somewhere, people have entirely forgotten about tomorrow.

My hand trails in the water.

I should not have dropped those oars. Such a soft wind.

"1. What are the words you do not have yet? [Or, "for what do you not have words, yet?"]

2. What do you need to say? [List as many words as necessary.]

3. "What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence?" [List as many as necessary today. Then write a new list tomorrow. And the day after.]

4. If we have been "socialized to respect fear more than our own needs for language, and definition", ask yourself: "What's the worst that could happen to me if I tell this truth?" [So, answer this today. And every day.]

Adapted from "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action," collected in The Cancer Journals."

I haven't seen this circulating here on Tumblr, so I decided to make my own post.

last saturday, in Porto, there was a pride parade going down the street and this old man was standing there, by his front door, waving the portuguese flag. most people on the parade probably thought the same: old person waving the national flag? he's probably protesting against the parade, he's a nationalist of some sort.

then the old man called for that person to come near him. the whole parade stopped. everyone just.. stopped moving. they didn't know what to expect, and most expected the worst. and that person decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and approached the old man. and then... they traded flags, he hugged the person and then he waved the pride flag happily. everyone cheered him.

such a wholesome moment. 🥹❤️🌈

(tumblr doesn't let add videos to reblogs, apparently)

decided to post the full video from this story, in case the twitter post gets deleted.

the caption reads: "The most beautiful scene today"