#annesexton

Anne Sexton (on the right) with Robert Frost (in the middle) as well as with Elizabeth Baker, Irene Orgel and George Lea at the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference in Middlebury College, Ripton, Vermont in 1959

HAPPY 97th BIRTHDAY Anne Sexton! RIP!

(9 November 1928, Newton, MA – 4 October 1974, Weston, MA)

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JUST ONCE

Just once I knew what life was for. In Boston, quite suddenly, I understood; walked there along the Charles River, watched the lights copying themselves, all neoned and strobe-hearted, opening their mouths as wide as opera singers; counted the stars, my little campaigners, my scar daisies, and knew that I walked my love on the night green side of it and cried my heart to the eastbound cars and cried my heart to the westbound cars and took my truth across a small humped bridge and hurried my truth, the charm of it, home and hoarded these constants into morning only to find them gone.

Today marks the 51st anniversary of Anne Sexton’s death! RIP!

(9 November 1928, Newton, MA – 4 October 1974, Weston, MA)

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"Even then I have nothing against life. I know well the grass blades you mention the furniture you have placed under the sun.

But suicides have a special language. Like carpenters they want to know which tools. They never ask why build."

–Anne Sexton, from “Wanting to Die”, written February 3, 1964; in: Live or Die (1966)

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Photo: Anne Sexton (c. 46 years old) photographed by Arthur Furst at her home in Weston, Massachusetts in summer 1974; featured in the book The Last Summer (2000)

Quando uma filha tenta suicídio

e a chaminé cai feito um bebado

e o cachorro arranca o própio rabo

e a cozinha enfurece a chaleira areada

e o aspirador engole o próprio saco

e a privada se afunda em lágrimas

e a balança do banheiro sopesa o fantasma

da avó e as janelas,

esses nacos de céu, passam como barcos

e a grama escorre pela entrada da garagem

e a mãe se deita em seu leito conjugal

e come o próprio coração feito omelete.

via http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/

You can read the whole story behind the tattoo on the website!

The tattoo belongs to Sarah Cook and was done by Jacob Hanks (Hanks Family Tattoo Co), The Dalles, Oregon, USA

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Today marks the 50th anniversary of Anne Sexton’s death! RIP!

(9 November 1928 – 4 October 1974)

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“I am a fortunate lady. I've gotten out of my pouch and my teeth are glad and my heart, that witness, beats well at the thought. Oh body, be glad. You are good goods.”

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Anne Sexton’s death! RIP!

(9 November 1928, Newton, MA – 4 October 1974, Weston, MA)

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Yes I try to kill myself in small amounts, an innocuous occupation. Actually I'm hung up on it. But remember I don't make too much noise. And frankly no one has to lug me out and I don't stand there in my winding sheet. I'm a little buttercup in my yellow nightie eating my eight loaves in a row and in a certain order as in the laying on of hands or the black sacrament. It's a ceremony but like any other sport it's full of rules. It's like a musical tennis match where my mouth keeps catching the ball. Then I lie on my altar elevated by the eight chemical kisses. –Anne Sexton, from “The Addict”, written "First of February 1966", (in: Live or Die, 1966)

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"I am, each day, typing out the God my typewriter believes in. Very quick.

Very intense, like a wolf at a live heart."

Anne Sexton