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movietonight · 1 year

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M*A*S*H "The Life You Save" // Mid-Term Break - Seamus Heaney (excerpt)

#mash #m*a*s*h #seamus heaney #charles emerson winchester iii #Charles going to lose his mind about this poem when it is published in the 60s #Macks Musings

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stairnaheireann · 29 days

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#OTD in 1939 – Birth of poet, Seamus Heaney, near Castledawson, Co Derry.

“Even if the hopes you started out with are dashed, hope has to be maintained.” –Seamus Heaney Seamus Heaney published his first poetry book in 1966, Death of a Naturalist, creating vivid portraits of rural life. Later work looked at his homeland’s civil war, and he won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature for his globally acclaimed oeuvre, with its focus on love, nature and memory. A professor and…

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#Belfast #Derry #Literature #Mossbawn #Nobel Prize #Queen&039;s University #Seamus Heaney #St Columb&039;s College

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poetictouch · 2 years

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Seamus Heaney reads from Ash Wednesday by T. S. Eliot

#T. S. Eliot #T.S. Eliot #TS Eliot #Ash Wednesday #Seamus Heaney #poem #poetry #Poetictouch

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rattyshipss · 2 years

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IMOGEN HEANEY GIVE ME ONE CHANCE

#f/o #self ship #self shipping #s/i #self ship community #self shipping community #romantic f/o #imogen heaney #heartstopper

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eddiediaaz · 1 month

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heartstopper's imogen heaney vs 9-1-1's evan buckley an ally, you say....mmhmm sure, sure....

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soracities · 1 year

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what are your suggestions for starter poetry for people who dont have strong reading/analysis backgrounds

I've answered this a few times so I'm going to compile and expand them all into one post here.

I think if you haven't read much poetry before or aren't sure of your own tastes yet, then poetry anthologies are a great place to start: many of them will have a unifying theme so you can hone in based on a subject that interests you, or pick your way through something more general. I haven't read all of the ones below, but I have read most of them; the rest I came across in my own readings and added to my list either because I like the concept or am familiar with the editor(s) / their work:

Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times (ed. Nick Astley) & Being Alive: The Sequel to Staying Alive (there's two more books in this series, but I'm recommending these two just because it's where I started)

The Rattlebag (ed. Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes)

The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry (ed. Ilya Kaminsky & Susan Harris)

The Essential Haiku, Versions of Basho, Buson and Issa (ed. Robert Hass)

A Book of Luminous Things (ed. Czesław Miłosz )

Now and Then: The Poet's Choice Columns by Robert Hass (this may be a good place to start if you're also looking for commentary on the poems themselves)

Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World(ed. Pádraig Ó'Tuama)

African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song (ed. Kevin Young)

The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing (ed. Kevin Young)

Lifelines: Letters from Famous People about their Favourite Poems

The following lists are authors I love in one regard or another and is a small mix of different styles / time periods which I think are still fairly accessible regardless of what your reading background is! It's be no means exhaustice but hopefully it gives you even just a small glimpse of the range that's available so you can branch off and explore for yourself if any particular work speaks to you.

But in any case, for individual collections, I would try:

anything by Sara Teasdale

Devotions / Wild Geese / Felicity by Mary Oliver

Selected Poems and Prose by Christina Rossetti

Collected Poems by Langston Hughes

Where the Sidewalk Endsby Shel Silverstein

Morning Haiku by Sonia Sanchez

Revolutionary Letters, Diane di Prima

Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved by Gregory Orr

Rose: Poems by Li-Young Lee

A Red Cherry on a White-Tiled Floor / Barefoot Souls by Maram al-Masri

Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky

Tell Me: Poems / What is This Thing Called Love? by Kim Addonizio

The Trouble with Poetry by Billy Collins (Billy Collins is THE go-to for accessible / beginner poetry in my view so I think any of his collections would probably do)

Crush by Richard Siken

Rapture / The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy

The War Works Hard by Dunya Mikhail

Selected Poems by Walt Whitman

View with a Grain of Sand by Wislawa Szymborska

Collected Poems by Vasko Popa

Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas (this is a play, but Thomas is a poet and the language & structure is definitely poetic to me)

Bright Dead Things: Poems by Ada Limón

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire,

Nostalgia, My Enemy: Selected Poems by Saadi Youssef

As for individual poems:

“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver

[Dear The Vatican] erasure poem by Pádraig Ó'Tuama // "The Pedagogy of Conflict"

"Good Bones" by Maggie Smith

"The Author Writes the First Draft of His Weddings Vows (An erasure of Virginia Woolf's suicide letter to her husband, Leonard)" by Hanif Abdurraqib

"I Can Tell You a Story" by Chuck Carlise

"The Sciences Sing a Lullabye" by Albert Goldbarth

"One Last Poem for Richard" by Sandra Cisneros

"We Lived Happily During the War" by Ilya Kaminsky

“I’m Explaining a Few Things”by Pablo Neruda

"Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" //"Nothing Gold Can Stay"//"Out, Out--" by Robert Frost

"Tablets: I // II // III"by Dunya Mikhail

"What Were They Like?" by Denise Levertov

"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden,

"The Patience of Ordinary Things" by Pat Schneider

“I, too” // "The Negro Speaks of Rivers” // "Harlem” // “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes

“The Mower” // "The Trees" // "High Windows" by Philip Larkin

“The Leash” // “Love Poem with Apologies for My Appearance” // "Downhearted" by Ada Limón

“The Flea” by John Donne

"The Last Rose of Summer" by Thomas Moore

"Beauty" // "Please don't" // "How it Adds Up" by Tony Hoagland

“My Friend Yeshi” by Alice Walker

"De Humanis Corporis Fabrica"byJohn Burnside

“What Do Women Want?” // “For Desire” // "Stolen Moments" // "The Numbers" by Kim Addonizio

“Hummingbird” // "For Tess" by Raymond Carver

"The Two-Headed Calf" by Laura Gilpin

“Bleecker Street, Summer” by Derek Walcott

“Dirge Without Music” // "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

“Digging” // “Mid-Term Break” // “The Rain Stick” // "Blackberry Picking" // "Twice Shy" by Seamus Heaney

“Dulce Et Decorum Est”by Wilfred Owen

“Notes from a Nonexistent Himalayan Expedition”by Wislawa Szymborska

"Hour" //"Medusa" byCarol Ann Duffy

“The More Loving One” // “Musée des Beaux Arts” by W.H. Auden

“Small Kindnesses” // "Feeding the Worms" by Danusha Laméris

"Down by the Salley Gardens” // “The Stolen Child” by W.B. Yeats

"The Thing Is" by Ellen Bass

"The Last Love Letter from an Entymologist" by Jared Singer

"[i like my body when it is with your]" by e.e. cummings

"Try to Praise the Mutilated World" by Adam Zagajewski

"The Cinnamon Peeler" by Michael Ondaatje

"Last Night I Dreamed I Made Myself" by Paige Lewis

"A Dream Within a Dream" // "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe (highly recommend reading the last one out loud or listening to it recited)

"Ars Poetica?" // "Encounter" // "A Song on the End of the World"by Czeslaw Milosz

"Wandering Around an Albequerque Airport Terminal” // "Two Countries” // "Kindness” by Naoimi Shihab Nye

"Slow Dance” by Matthew Dickman

"The Archipelago of Kisses" // "The Quiet World" by Jeffrey McDaniel

"Mimesis" by Fady Joudah

"The Great Fires" // "The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart" // "Failing and Flying" by Jack Gilbert

"The Mermaid" // "Virtuosi" by Lisel Mueller

"Macrophobia (Fear of Waiting)" by Jamaal May

"Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong" by Ocean Vuong

"Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou

I would also recommend spending some times with essays, interviews, or other non-fiction, creative or otherwise (especially by other poets) if you want to broaden and improve how you read poetry; they can help give you a wider idea of the landscape behind and beyond the actual poems themselves, or even just let you acquaint yourself with how particular writers see and describe things in the world around them. The following are some of my favourites:

Upstream: Essays by Mary Oliver

"Theory and Play of the Duende" by Federico García Lorca

"The White Bird" and "Some Notes on Song" by John Berger

In That Great River: A Notebook by Anna Kamienska

A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib

The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

"Of Strangeness That Wakes Us" and "Still Dancing: An Interview with Ilya Kaminsky" by Ilya Kaminsky

"The Sentence is a Lonely Place" by Garielle Lutz

Still Life with Oysters and Lemon by Mark Doty

Paris, When It's Naked by Etel Adnan

#ask #anonymous #beginner guides

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nateconnolly · 5 months

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Hozier Reading List of Free Texts You Can Finish in Less Than A Week

Another Hozier reading list is floating around the Internet, and it’s very thorough. Huge respect to @notmysophie for putting that together, they put in a lot of effort and research and it really shows. This is an alternative reading list for people who are too busy or tired to read all the entries on a complete list of Hozier’s literary influences. This list is incomplete—even after finishing it, there will be some very prominent literary references in Hozier’s music that might go over your head. But this will definitely help you appreciate the depth of thought in his songs, and if you read just five pages a night, you’ll be able to finish this reading list in less than one week.

ONE: ICARUS

Hozier puts the myth of Icarus to song in I, Carrion. You could very easily argue that Sunlight is also a response to Icarus. Many classical writers have told or mentioned his story, but I’ll let my own personal tastes shape this list, and recommend Ovid’s Metamorphoses. He tells the story of Icarus in Chapter 8 Lines 183–235. If you can afford it, I love the Charles Martin translation. You could consult the free Brookes More translation, or the one by A. S. Kline. Remember, you don't have to read the whole chapter--just find the part named "Daedalus and Icarus"

TWO: DOOMSDAY CLOCK

The title track Wasteland, Baby! is such a gentle love ballad, I almost have trouble remembering it’s about the apocalypse. Wasteland, Baby! finds hope and love in the face of annihilation. Hozier wrote this song as a direct response to the Doomsday Clock moving two minutes in 2018, one year before the album was released.

THREE: GENESIS 1-3

I also recommend reading Genesis Chapters 1-3. You’re probably familiar with the plot, but I think From Eden is such an ingenious twist on the familiar story that you’ll appreciate it even more after consulting the original. Hozier takes the symbols of Genesis 1-3 and uses them to make his own radically different point. The stories of Eden also come up in Be.

My favorite translation is by Robert Alter, but it’s currently not free online, so you might want to check out the Sefaria translation or the New King James Version (NKJV), both of which manage to capture the beauty of Genesis without becoming difficult for the average English reader. The King James Version (KJV) is also roughly the same level of difficulty as a Shakespeare play. I definitely think the KJV is beautiful, but at the end of a long hard day, you might be better off with the Sefaria, the NKJV, the NIV, or the NRSV. You can Google “Genesis 1” followed by any of those names/abbreviations, and you’ll find it right away.

FOUR: A MODEST PROPOSAL

Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, written in 1729, might be the most gutting satire in history. UCLA students put together a very thorough explanation of the economic suffering and the proposed “solutions” that inspired Swift. References to A Modest Proposal form the skeleton of Hozier’s Eat Your Young.

FIVE: SEAMUS HEANEY

Before learning about Seamus Heaney, you’ll need some background information on the Troubles. I recommend this National Geographic article. I also recommend looking through these Chris Steele Perkins photographs of life during the Troubles.

During the Troubles, Heaney wrote a series of poems about bog bodies. His poetry directly inspired the corpse imagery in Work Song, Like Real People Do, and In a Week.

Disclaimer: I cannot read Hebrew or Latin. I am evaluating these translations solely by 1) how difficult they are to read and 2) how beautiful they sound. I cannot independently review them for accuracy. Just know that all the translations I’ve listed are widely respected among academics and/or religious leaders.

Anyways if you liked reading this go check out my Substack where I originally posted it.

#hozier #reading lists #original post

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awkward-sultana · 2 years

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The Months, Linda Pastan / Reluctant Goodbyes, O.L. / Unknown / The Londoner / Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte / Tumblr: Honeytuesday / The Pond, Mary Oliver / Robin Bush / Tumblr: Honeytuesday / Greg Sellers / S. Heaney / Letters of Summer Past / Albert Camus / Unknown / Sara Baume / Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt / Unknown / Tumblr: Poetryatmost / Instagram: claudbakes / August, Devotions, Mary Oliver

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shoshiwrites · 6 months

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Band of Brothers Ages: IRL vs. Actors

Did you know that according to a 1947 study, almost half the men who served in WWII were still under age 26 by the end of the war?

What this is : A (very long) post comparing the ages of the actors in Band of Brothers vs. the IRL figures they are portraying.

Background: Did I need to do this? No. Did anyone ask for this? Also no. Did I do it anyway? Yes.

Disclaimers: This is SUPER approximate for the most part. I based IRL ages off of D-Day unless otherwise noted, and actor ages off of January 1, 2000, the year filming took place (the latter is where the most variation will be because I didn't try to figure out what month filming started). I also didn't fact-check birthdays beyond googling. Most are sourced from the Band of Brothers and Military Wikis on fandom.com, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

I broke them up into rough categories, which are, again, approximate. I know I often forget how young the real life people were here, and this was a good reminder of that. I also found it interesting to see which actors were actually younger than their roles!

Check it all out under the cut ⬇️

~10+ years older

Dale Dye (55) as Col. Robert F. Sink (39) (~16 years)

Michael Cudlitz (35) as Denver "Bull" Randleman (23) (~12)

Marc Warren (32) as Albert Blithe (20) (~12)

Rocky Marshall (33) as Earl J. McClung (21) (~12)

Frank John Hughes (32) as William J. Guarnere (21) (~11)

Neal McDonough (33) as Lynn D. (Buck) Compton (22) (~11)

Dexter Fletcher (33) as John W. Martin (22) (~11)

~5+ years older

Simon Schatzberger (32) as Joseph A. Lesniewski (23) (~9)

Richard Speight Jr. (30) Warren H. (Skip) Muck (22) (~8)

Jason O'Mara (30) as Thomas Meehan (22) (~8)

Ron Livingston (32) as Lewis Nixon (25) (~7)

Donnie Wahlberg (30) as C. Carwood Lipton (24) (~6)

Matthew Settle (30) as Ronald C. Speirs (24) (~6)

Nolan Hemmings (28) as Charles E. "Chuck" Grant (22) (~6)

Douglas Spain (25) as Antonio C. Garcia (19) (~6)

George Calil (26) as James H. "Mo" Alley Jr. (21) (~5)

Rick Gomez (27) as George Luz (22) (~5 year)

Scott Grimes (28) as Donald G. Malarkey (23) (~5)

Stephen Graham (26) as Myron "Mike" Ranney (21) (~5)

~less than 5 years older

Shane Taylor (25) as Eugene G. Roe (21) (~4)

Tim Matthews (23) as Alex M. Penkala Jr. (19) (~4)

Matthew Leitch (24) as Floyd M. "Tab" Talbert (20) (~4)

Peter O'Meara (30) as Norman S. Dike Jr. (26) (~4)

Tom Hardy (22) as John A. Janovec (18) (~4)

Rick Warden (28) as Harry F. Welsh (25) (~3)

Kirk Acevedo (28) as Joseph D. Toye (25) (~3)

Eion Bailey (25) as David Kenyon Webster (22) (~3)

Craig Heaney (26) as Roy W. Cobb (29) (~3)

Damian Lewis (28) as Richard D. Winters (26) (~2)

Robin Laing as Edward J. "Babe" Heffron (~2, 21/23)

Ben Caplan (26) as Walter S. "Smokey" Gordon Jr. (24) (~2)

David Schwimmer (32) as Herbert M. Sobel (33) (~1 year)

Michael Fassbender (22) as Burton P. "Pat" Christenson (21) (~1)

Colin Hanks (22) as Lt. Henry Jones (21) (~1) (age around Bastogne)

Bart Ruspoli (23) as Edward J. Tipper (22) (~1)

~Same age

Peter Youngblood Hills as Darrell C. "Shifty" Powers (21)

Mark Huberman as Lester "Les" Hashey (19)

Younger

Lucie Jeanne (23) as Renée Lemaire (30) (age around Bastogne) (~7)

Ross McCall (23) as Joseph D. Liebgott (29) (~6)

Simon Pegg (29) as William S. Evans (~33) (~4)

Philip Barantini (19) as Wayne A. "Skinny" Sisk (22) (~3)

James Madio (24) as Frank J. Perconte (27) (~3)

Stephen McCole (25) as Frederick "Moose" Heyliger (27) (~2)

Matt Hickey (~16) as Patrick S. O'Keefe (18) (~2)

Incomplete/not found

Phil McKee as Maj. Robert L. Strayer (34)

Rene L. Moreno as Joseph Ramirez (30)

Doug Allen as Alton M. More (24)

David Nicolle as Lt. Thomas A. Peacock (24)

Rebecca Okot as Anna (Augusta Chiwy) (24) (age around Bastogne)

Alex Sabga-Brady as Francis J. Mellet (23)

Mark Lawrence as William H. Dukeman Jr. (22)

Nicholas Aaron as Robert E. (Popeye) Wynn (22)

Peter McCabe as Donald B. Hoobler (21)

Marcos D'Cruze as Joseph P. Domingus (not found)

#ty mercurygray for that sweet sweet jstor access #band of brothers #uhh one more disclaimer it's entirely possible that i mistyped stuff here and that i switched ages/etc.#i did try to proofread though!#anyway. i apologize if anyone has already done this.#shoshi.txt #sort of #it's also very possible that i spent too much time online today

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tummacademia · 1 year

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Some readings and resources for further exploration of medieval literature, history, and art

"The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer

"Beowulf" translated by Seamus Heaney

"The Song of Roland" translated by Dorothy L. Sayers

"The Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri

"The Decameron" by Giovanni Boccaccio

"The Book of Margery Kempe" by Margery Kempe

"The Lais of Marie de France" translated by Glyn S. Burgess and Keith Busby

"The History of the Kings of Britain" by Geoffrey of Monmouth

"The Mabinogion" translated by Sioned Davies

"The Romance of Tristan and Iseult" translated by Joseph Bédier

In addition to these literary works, here are some resources for further exploration of medieval history and art:

"A Short History of the Middle Ages" by Barbara H. Rosenwein

"The Civilization of the Middle Ages" by Norman F. Cantor

"The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England" by Ian Mortimer

"The Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval Europe" edited by George Holmes

"Medieval Art" by Veronica Sekules

"A Medieval Life : Cecilia Penifader and the world of English peasants before the plague" by Judith Bennett

"The Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe" by Judith M. Bennett, Ruth Mazo Karras

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection of medieval art and artifacts

The British Library's collection of medieval manuscripts and documents

The Medieval Academy of America's resources and publications on medieval studies

The International Center of Medieval Art's resources and publications on medieval art

These resources should provide a good starting point for further exploration of medieval literature, history, and art.

#medieval studies #study resources #dark academia #dark academia tips

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feminist-cult-following · 8 months

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characters that are actually lesbians because I say so <3 part 2

1. shauna shipman — had sex with and then married her best friend’s boyfriend because she couldn’t have her. then literally consumed her remains so they could be intertwined forever. do I even need to explain any further.

2. jackie taylor — what else was I supposed to take away from the toothbrushing scene in the pilot? see also: every interaction she had with shauna, literally ever

3. lottie matthews — if not gay then explain every interaction with laura lee. and nat. and shauna. and mari, leven. I rest my case.

4. imogen heaney — I know what you are, little miss “token ally”

5. taylor jewel — I know a bitch who’s in love with her best friend when I see one

6. betty cooper — veronica doesn’t put betty in the basement. she‘ s not afraid of her shine. she let’s her bejeweled.

7. veronica lodge — do you guys remember that episode where veronica’s sister accused her and betty of murdering jughead because “that’s the kind of thing that secret girlfriends do”? cause I do. and I think about it all the time.

8. rikki chadwick — her and emma were literally in love

9. kiarra carrera — “kiarra belongs with pope” “kiarra belongs with JJ” no, kiarra belongs with SARAH. friends to enemies to friends to lovers you will always be famous

10. abby littman — fellas is it gay to stare longingly at your best friend while she’s with her girlfriend? or to kiss your other friend in front of her at a party to make her jealous?

11. maya hart — that girl never wanted lucas or riley’s uncle, and she never wanted to “be riley” she wanted to be with riley. in this essay I will

12. sarah cameron— sorry (not really) but that girl just does not belong with a man

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luxurychristmaspudding · 2 months

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hey my love 💕

🥑🧃&🧸 for the ask game <3

Hi my darling!! 💕

🥑 you accidentally killed somebody, which mutual(s) do you text for help?

Ohoho. Definitely @schnarfer, YOU ( @janaispunk ) and @swiftispunk. Not to drag you into it and get you arrested, but just to hang out with you all before I go to jail. You’re all so cool and lovely and talented. It’d be like a social last meal.

🧃 share some personal lore you never posted about before

I met Forest Daddy (Hozier) a few years ago after a gig. He was so kind and SO fucking tall. I gushed all about what his music means to me, and had the chance to tell him that by introducing me to Irish literature he’d inspired me to move to Dublin and study at Trinity College. We had a wee chat about Seamus Heaney and then like the idiot I am I gave him the thumbs up when he went for a hug. I was PARA about his personal space and I’ve lamented it every day since lol

🧸 what’s the fastest way to become your mutual?

Honestly, just leaving a kind comment or a sick reblog does the trick. I’m in love with you forever after that.

Or just creating cool things and putting good vibes out into the universe. I suck at messaging mutuals though bc I’m a ball of worry all the time. Doesn’t mean I don’t think of you all the time ❤️

Me and the Hoz

#ask game #janaispunk #<33333

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rattyshipss · 2 years

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Imogen Heaney has my ❤️

#f/o #self ship #self shipping #s/i #self ship community #self shipping community #romantic f/o #imogen heaney #Heartstopper

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bunnysnuff · 9 months

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Heartstopper Masterlist.

18+

send requests.

Charlie Spring.

-Being in a Poly Relationship with Charlie and Nick would include.

-Mornings with Nick and Charlie.

-Jealousy with Nick and Charlie.

-A sleep S/O with Nick and Charlie.

-Bullies. (Imagines)

-Being in a 'V' relationship with Nick and Charlie.

Nick Nelson.

-Being in a Poly Relationship with Charlie and Nick would include.

-Mornings with Nick and Charlie.

-Jealousy with Nick and Charlie.

-A sleepy S/O with Nick and Charlie.

-Bullies. (Imagines).

-Being in a 'V' relationship with Nick and Charlie.

Tao Xu.

-haircuts. (Imagine)

-Movie Nights. (Imagine).

Tara Jones.

-Being in a relationship with Tara and Darcy.

Darcy Olsson.

-being in a relationship with Tara and Darcy.

Elle Argent.

Nothing yet.

Isaac Henderson.

Nothing yet.

Imogen Heaney.

Nothing yet.

#charlie spring #charlie spring x reader #nick nelson #nick nelson x reader #charlie spring x reader x nick nelson #Tao Xu #Tao Xu x Reader #Tara Jones #Tara Jones x reader #darcy olsson #darcy olsson x reader #elle argent #Elle argent x reader #Bunnysnuff masterlist✨#imogen heaney #Imogen Heaney x reader #isaac henderson #Isaac Henderson x reader

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feytouched · 1 month

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hi ieva!! i was reading through your poems and i’ve fallen in love with the way you write all over again ( . ̫.) which poet(s) do you draw the most inspiration from stylistically / are your favourites if you don’t mind me asking? :O

hi! thank you so much ;w; <33

i would say my greatest stylistic inspirations are mary oliver and mary szybist (i think these are quite transparent, they inform a lot of my personal style), as well as simon armitage (i admire the way his language flows, he makes great use of cadence in his poetry), seamus heaney and gillian clarke (big inspirations in terms of the beauty of their descriptions of nature). i also love ee cummings though most of my poetry has little in common with that style, i admire the freedom of it. and then probably my favourite poet ever, rilke: i can't even begin to reach the transcendental quality of his writing, but i can admire it and strive towards it all the same, and it's been a guide and comfort on many occasions.

other poets i like: wendy cope (of course. i was here when every other post was a quote from the orange! and it was glorious!), dorianne laux (i think her style also influenced the way i write), basho (every now and then i reread on love and barley in a single sitting and it makes me feel things), louise glück, derek mahon... just some of the names gracing my poetry shelf

obligatory 'i haven't even written any poetry in almost two years so i'm not even really a poet any more i'm just a seed in the dark waiting for the drive to write to pour over me again' disclaimer !

#answered #poetry

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scotianostra · 7 months

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On October 26th 1911 the Gaelic poet, Sorley MacLean, was born on the island of Raasay.

He was brought up within a family and community immersed in Gaelic language and culture, particularly song. Sorley studied English at Edinburgh University from 1929, taking a first class honours degree and there encountering and finding an affinity with the work of Hugh MacDiarmid, Ezra Pound, and other Modernist poets. Despite this influence, he eventually adopted Gaelic as the medium most appropriate for his poetry. However, it should be noted that MacLean translated much of his own work into English, opening it up to a wider public than the speakers of the Gaelic language.

During the Spanish Civil War, MacLean was torn between family commitments and his desire to fight on behalf of the International Brigades, illustrating his left-wing - even Marxist - political stance. He eventually resigned himself to remaining on Skye. He fought in North Africa during World War Two, before taking up a career in teaching, holding posts on Mull, in Edinburgh and finally as Head Teacher at Plockton High School.

It is often said that what Hugh MacDiarmid did for the Scots language, Sorley MacLean did for Gaelic, sparking a Gaelic renaissance in Scottish literature in line with the earlier ‘Scottish Renaissance’, as evinced in the work of George Campbell Hay, Derick Thomson and Iain Crichton Smith. He was instrumental in preserving and promoting the teaching of Gaelic in Scottish schools. Through the diverse subject matter of his poetry, he demonstrates the capacity of the Gaelic language to express themes from the personal to the political and philosophical.

MacLean’s work was virtually unknown outside Gaelic-speaking circles until the 1970s, when Gordon Wright published Four Points of a Saltire - poems from George Campbell Hay, Stuart MacGregor, William Neill and Sorley MacLean. He also then appeared at the Cambridge Poetry Festival, establishing his fame in England, as well as Scotland and Ireland, where he had become something of a cult figure thanks to a fan base including fellow poet Seamus Heaney. A bilingual Selected Poems of 1977 secured a broader readership and a new generation began to appreciate his work.

Latterly, he wrote and published little, showing his concern with quality and authenticity over quantity. Never a full-time writer, he was also a scholar of the Highlands with a vast knowledge of genealogy, and an avid follower of shinty. Amongst other awards and honours, he received the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1990. He passed on in 1996 at the age of 85, and was survived by his wife and two daughters.

I have posted many times about Sorley, and probably overused Martyn Bennet’s Hallaig, but if you haven’t heard it, please go to Youtube and search for it, you won’t regret it.

Todays poem is Tràighean/ Shores, the Gaelic version first, followed by the verse translated by his fellow bi-lingual poet, Iain Crichton Smith.

Nan robh sinn an Talasgar air an tràigh

far a bheil am beul mòr bàn

a’ fosgladh eadar dà ghiall chruaidh,

Rubha nan Clach `s am Bioda Ruadh,

sheasainn-sa ri taobhn na mara

ag ùrachadh gaoil ‘nam anam

fhad ‘s a bhiodh an cuan a’lìonadh

camas Thalasgair gu sìorraidh:

sheasainn an siud air lom na tràghad

gu `n cromadh Priseal a cheann àigich.

Agus nan robh sinn ciudeachd

air tràigh Chalgaraidh am Muile,

eadar Alba is Tiriodh,

eadar an saoghal `s a’bhiothbhuan,

dh’fhuirichinn an siud gu luan

a’ tomhas gainmhich bruan air bhruan.

Agus an Uibhist air tràigh Hòmhstadh

fa chomhair farsaingeachd na h-ònrachd,

dh’fheithinn-sa an siud gu sìorraidh

braon air bhraon an cuan a’ sìoladh.

Agus nan robh mi air tràigh Mhùideart

còmhla riut, a nodhachd ùidhe,

chuirinn suas an co-chur gaoil dhut

an cuan ’s a’ ghaineamh, bruan air bhraon dhiubh.

’S nan robh sinn air Mol Steinnseil Stamhain

’s an fhairge neo-aoibhneach a’ tarraing

nan ulbhag is gan tilgeil tharainn,

thogainn-sa am balla daingeann

ro shìorraidheachd choimhich ’s i framhach.

If we were in Talisker on the shore

where the great white foaming mouth of water

opens between two jaws as hard as flint –

the Headland of Stones and the Red Point –

I’d stand forever by the waves

renewing love out of their crumpling graves

as long as the sea would be going over

the Bay of Talisker for ever;

I would stand thee by the filling tide

till Preshal bowed his stallion head.

And if the two of us were together

on the shores of Calgary in Mull

between Scotland and Tiree,

between this world and eternity,

I’d stand there till time was done

counting the sands grain by grain.

And also on Uist, on Hosta’s shore,

in the face of solitude’s fierce stare,

I’d remain standing, without sleep,

while sea were ebbing, drop by drop.

And if I were on Moidart’s shore

With you, my novelty of desire,

I’d offer this synthesis of love,

grain and water, sand and wave.

And were we by the shelves of Staffin

where the huge joyless sea is coughing

stones and boulders from its throat,

I’d build a fortified wall

Against eternity’s savage howl.

As well as Hallaig I enjoy listening to Somhairle by Niteworks, an Electronic Celtic fusion band from the Isle of Skye who put some of Sorley’s words to music. Listen to it below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PgWqrxa_-Y

#scotland #scottish #history #edinburgh #Hallaig #Hebrides #Raasay

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