#michael lassell

[typewriter-worries]

It's world poetry day so here are some of my favorite poems:

Failing and Flying by Jack Gilbert

What the Living Do by Marie Howe

Night Walk by Franz Wright

Crossword by Lloyd Schwartz

The Great Fires by Jack Gilbert

Love Train by Tomás Q. Morín

Divorced Fathers and Pizza Crusts by Mark Halliday

Perhaps the World Ends Here by Joy Harjo

in another string of the multiverse, perhaps by Michaella Batten

acknowledgments by Danez Smith

Death Wish by Josh Alex Baker

San Francisco by Richard Brautigan

How to Watch Your Brother Die by Michael Lassell

You Are the Penultimate Love of My Life by Rebecca Hazelton

On Political(ized) Life by Kanika Lawton

All the Dead Boys Look Like Me by Christopher Soto

It Was the Animals by Natalie Diaz

In Time by W.S. Merwin

It Is Maybe Time to Admit That Michael Jordan Definitely Pushed Off by Hanif Abdurraqib

Dear Life by Maya C. Popa

I Could Touch It by Ellen Bass

To The Young Who Want To Die by Gwendolyn Brooks

Accident Report in the Tall, Tall Weeds by Ada Limón

#world poetry day #poetry #jack gilbert #marie howe #franz wright #lloyd schwartz #tomás q. morín #mark halliday #joy harjo #michaella batten #danez smith #josh alex baker #richard brautigan #michael lassell #rebecca hazelton #kanika lawton #christopher soto #natalie diaz #w.s. merwin #hanif abdurraqib #ellen bass #gwendolyn brooks #ada limón #recommendations #pinned #recs #these are a few of my favorite things

[every-momento]

the city of brotherly love

How to Watch Your Brother Die by Michael Lassell / Should Have Known Better by Sufjan Stevens / Cain and Abel by Keith Vaughn / A Brother Named Gethsemane by Natalie Diaz / Antigone by Sophocles / Catullus 101 translated by Anne Carson / Portraits of Van Gogh Brothers by Vincent Van Gogh

#vincent van gogh #van gogh #art #catullus #anne carson #antigone #brothers #brotherly love #philadelphia #tate modern #sufjan stevens #should have known better #michael lassell #poetry #web weaving #weaving #grief #family #poems #excerpts

[haveyoureadthispoem-poll]

"Offer God anything to bring your brother back. / Know you have nothing God could possible want."

Read it here | Reblog for a larger sample size!

#closed polls #polls #poetry #poems #poetry polls #poets and writing #tumblr poetry #have you read this #michael lassell #lgbt #queer poetry #hiv/aids #aids epidemic

[poem-today]

A poem by Michael Lassell

How To Watch Your Brother Die

For Carl Morse

When the call comes, be calm. Say to your wife, "My brother is dying. I have to fly to California." try not to be shocked that he already looks like a cadaver. Say to the young man sitting by your brother's side, "I'm his brother." Try not to be shocked when the young man says, "I'm his lover. Thanks for coming."

Listen to the doctor with a steel face on. Sign the necessary forms. Tell the doctor you will take care of everything. Wonder why doctors are so remote.

Watch the lover's eyes as they stare into your brother's eyes as they stare into space. Wonder what they see there. Remember the time he was jealous and opened your eyebrow with a sharp stick. Forgive him out loud even if he can't understand you. Realize the scar will be all that's left of him.

Over coffee in the hospital cafeteria say to the lover, "You're an extremely good-looking young man." Hear him say, "I never thought I was good enough looking to deserve your brother."

Watch the tears well up in his eyes. Say, "I'm sorry. I don't know what it means to be the lover of another man." Hear him say, "Its just like a wife, only the commitment is deeper because the odds against you are so much greater." Say nothing, but take his hand like a brother's.

Drive to Mexico for unproven drugs that might help him live longer. Explain what they are to the border guard. Fill with rage when he informs you, "You can't bring those across." Begin to grow loud. Feel the lover's hand on your arm restraining you. See in the guard's eye how much a man can hate another man. Say to the lover, "How can you stand it?" Hear him say, "You get used to it." Think of one of your children getting used to another man's hatred.

Call your wife on the telephone. Tell her, "He hasn't much time. I'll be home soon." Before you hang up say, "How could anyone's commitment be deeper than a husband and a wife?" Hear her say, "Please. I don't want to know all the details."

When he slips into an irrevocable coma, hold his lover in your arms while he sobs, no longer strong. Wonder how much longer you will be able to be strong. Feel how it feels to hold a man in your arms whose arms are used to holding men. Offer God anything to bring your brother back. Know you have nothing God could possible want. Curse God, but do not abandon Him.

Stare at the face of the funeral director when he tells you he will not embalm the body for fear of contamination. Let him see in your eyes how much a man can hate another man.

Stand beside a casket covered in flowers, white flowers. Say, "thank you for coming," to each of seven hundred men who file past in tears, some of them holding hands. Know that your brother's life was not what you imagined. Overhear two mourners say, "I wonder who'll be next?" and "I don't care anymore, as long as it isn't you."

Arrange to take an early flight home. His lover will drive you to the airport. When your flight is announced say, awkwardly, "If I can do anything, please let me know." Do not flinch when he says, "Forgive yourself for not wanting to know him after he told you. He did." Stop and let it soak in. Say, "He forgave me, or he knew himself?" "Both," the lover will say, not knowing what else to do. Hold him like a brother while he kisses you on the cheek. Think that you haven't been kissed by a man since your father died. Think, "This is no moment to be strong."

Fly first class and drink Scotch. Stroke your split eyebrow with a finger and think of your brother alive. Smile at the memory and think how your children will feel in your arms warm and friendly and without challenge.

Michael Lassell

#michael lassell #american poetry #grief #aids #brothers #gay men

[insteviewetrust]

How to watch your brother die by Michael Lassell

#I've been crying for hours over this #I've read it over and over again #every word a new wound cut open in my heart in my brain in my flesh #i feel sick #i dont think I'll ever recover completely from this piece #poetry #how to watch your brother die by michael lassel #poem #aids pandemic #aids crisis #aids

[romanticizingmurder]

Dustin Pearson, The World at its Beginning / Iphicles Saved from a Serpent by his Brother Hercules / Diana Khoi Nguyen, Ghost Of / Maurice Sendak / Brenna Twohy, Swallowtail / Arcade Fire, Neighborhood #2 (Laika) / Edvard Munch, Death in the Sickroom / Michael Dickman, Killing Flies / Käthe Kollwitz, Woman with Dead Child / Michael Lassell, How to Watch Your Brother Die / Catherine Staples, Dear Henry / Lytras Nikephoros, Antigone and Polynices / Anne Carson, Antigonick / Elisa Gonzalez, After My Brother’s Death, I Reflect on the Iliad / John William Waterhouse, Sleep and His Half-Brother Death / Natalie Diaz, A Brother Named Gethsemane

on brothers and loss.

#grief #death #web weaving #webweave

[filmnoirsbian]

hey you posted a poem about a dying brother a while back that made me cry and I want to show it to someone but can't find it- do you know what it is?

Is it How to Watch Your Brother Die by Michael Lassell?

#this poem tears me apart like a blood eagle every time i think abt it #asks #poetry

[cordeliaflyte]

How to Watch Your Brother Die, Michael Lassell // What the Living Do, Marie Howe

#poetry #am i my brother's keeper?

[newwavesylviaplath]

Favorite poem, least favorite Lana song, and guns or roses?

my all time favourite poem is 'how to watch your brother die' by michael lassell it is so incredibly gorgeous but also fair warning i could not stop crying for a hot minute ("think of one of your children getting used to another man's hatred.")

my least favourite lana song is either lucky ones or american ive only been able to listen to the both of them like two times idk i just can't stand them

guns OR roses?? def roses my aunt married into a family of super stereotypical canadian hunters (they make their own maple syrup and live in the woods) and i hate going over there cuz they hunt things and it makes me sad so boo guns

ps i'm having so much fun with these love u guys

#love u anons #girlblogging #coquette #hyper feminine #tumblr girlies #this is a girlblog #lana del rey #poetry

[metamorphesque]

Poetry recommendation: How To Watch Your Brother Die by Michael Lassell

beautiful ... thank you

#asks #poetry recs

[whiskeysorrows]

Seeing tiktok discover Richard Siken & Silas Denver Melvin & Lev St Valentine & Michael Lassel is so funny to me for some reason.

#wait til they find franny choi #rambles #it’s the homosexual poets group😌 #every time i see them i’m like “i know these mfs from this hellsite & at least 2 of them shitpost on my dash daily”

[typewriter-worries]

"are you okay?" how to watch your brother die by michael lassell has made a home inside my heart what do you think?

[corrosivein]

GOD LOVES YOU, BUT NOT ENOUGH TO SAVE YOU.

michael lassell // s. osborn // ilya kaminsky // @/morepeachyogurt // disco elysium // richard siken // fortesa latifi

#web weaving #religion

[cidnangarlond]

try not to cry challenge: read "how to watch your brother die" by michael lassell and not cry. (CHALLENGE FAILED IMMEDIATELY ❌)

#''Forgive him out loud even if he can't understand you. Realize the scar will be all that's left of him'' BLOWS UP

[parappa-the-killer]

honestly. having a brain that is utterly fucked is convenient sometimes

i spent a while sobbing about How to watch your brother die by Michael Lassel. and after some sobbing i got like. idk, more grounded? like. i was aware of whatevers around me without having to intentionally focus on it. and i currently had some kingdom hearts video playing in my headphones. and i rembered that joke about mickey mouses wife being extremely silly. and i forgor. about feelings caused by poem

so. now i am both "aware of my surroundings" and "not currently full of sadness and other such"

#in my defence i wasnt reading poetry AND listening to kingdom hearts video. i didnt kno it was playing

[gogoakechi]

i didnt think i was the kind of guy for poetry but one poem in particular from that comp class remains in my gut and the second i remembered what it was called after a few minutes of searching i began to tear up. how to watch your brother die by michael lassell. reread it just now and full on cried about it. "let him see in your eyes how much a man can hate another man" has haunted me since i first read it but "forgive yourself for not wanting to know him after he told you" is the line that hits me the most. idk im gonna start crying again

#personal