#poetry ama

[feral-ballad]

Ama Codjoe, from Bluest Nude: Poems; “Bluest Nude”

[Text ID: “I crave. I want to be seen clearly or not at all.”]

#ama codjoe #excerpts #writings #literature #poetry #fragments #selections #words #quotes #poetry collection #typography

[lifeinpoetry]

Sometimes, I cry so hard I can feel it in my ribs. / I feel like the real me is backed into a corner inside me

— Ama Asantewa Diaka, from "Saturday Evening WhatsApp Message," Woman, Eat Me Whole

#quote #ama asantewa diaka #poetry #woman eat me whole #out of my collection #saturday evening whatsapp message

[soracities]

Ama Codjoe, from "The Bluest Nude" [ID'd]

#q #lit #quotes #poetry #typography #id included #ama codjoe #fragments of selfhood #personal #m #x

[geryone]

Woman, Eat Me Whole, Ama Asantewa Diaka

#quotes #quote #poetry #poem #Ama Asantewa Diaka #id in alt text

[jayrockin]

Voxelfrogs asked: Pinkie and Brownie, I really loved seeing what TV is like for bug ferrets! Do you have any other forms of entertainment you enjoy (music, books, comics, games, plays, etc?)

BFL-2 writing is read down-up right-left, both vertically and horizontally.

#spoken word poetry can be a pattycake game. if you want it to be. #pinkie #brownie #jayart #character ama #comic #runaway to the stars

[apoemaday]

On Seeing and Being Seen

by Ama Codjoe

I don’t like being photographed. When we kissed at a wedding, the night grew long and luminous. You unhooked my bra. A photograph passes for proof, Sontag says, that a given thing has happened. Or you leaned back to watch as I eased the straps from my shoulders. Hooks and eyes. Right now, my breasts are too tender to be touched. Their breasts were horrifying, Elizabeth Bishop writes. Tell her someone wanted to touch them. I am touching the photograph of my last seduction. It is as slick as a magazine page, as dark as a street darkened by rain. When I want to remember something beautiful, instead of taking a photograph, I close my eyes. I watched as you covered my nipple with your mouth. Desire made you beautiful. I closed my eyes. Tonight, I am alone in my tenderness. There is nothing in my hand except a certain grasping. In my mind’s eye, I am stroking your hair with damp fingertips. This is exactly how it happened. On the lit-up hotel bed, I remember thinking, My body is a lens I can look through with my mind.

#poetry #ama codjoe #on seeing and being seen

[asoftepiloguemylove]

SHE HATED HER LIFE, NOT BECAUSE IT WAS BAD, BUT BECAUSE WHEN YOU HATE YOUR BRAIN AND YOUR BODY, IT'S HARD TO ENJOY THE REST.

Franny Choi I Guess By Now I Thought I'd Be Done With Shame / Erika L. Sánchez Amá / Franz Kafka Letters to Friends, Family, and Editors / Hanif Abdurraqib A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance / Richard Siken Birds Hover over the Trampled Field / Hélène Cixous The Selected Poems of Hélène Cixous / Alberto Zamboni Ovunque / Oscar Nin / Richard Siken Crush

i. Franny Choi I Guess By Now I Thought I'd Be Done With Shame [ Somewhere, / there is a version of me that isn't neck-deep in her invented filth. ]

ii. Erika L. Sánchez Amá [ Amá, I leave because / I feel like an unfinished / poem, because I'm always trying to bridge the difference. ]

iii. Franz Kafka Letters to Friends, Family, and Editors [ I don't feel particularly proud of myself. / But when I walk alone in the woods or lie in the meadows, all is well. ]

iv. Hanif Abdurraqib A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance [ I've run out of language to explain the avalanche of anguish I feel when faced with this world, and so if I can't make sense of this planet, I'm better off imagining another. ]

v. Richard Siken Birds Hover the Trampled Field [ The enormity of my desire disgusts me. ]

vi. Hélène Cixous The Selected Poems of Hélène Cixous [ You horrify me. But at the same time, I horrify myself. We are horrible. ]

vii. Alberto Zamboni Ovunque [ The silhouettes of two human figures stand in a room. The background is blurred around them. ]

viii. Oscar Nin [ Distressed painting portrait of a man. ]

ix. Richard Siken Crush [ a gentleness that comes, not from the absence of violence, but despite the abundance of it. ]

#i've never done image ids before i'm a little worried that they suck #franny choi #i guess by now i thought i'd be done with shame #erika l sanchez #ama #franz kafka #letters to friends family and editors #hanif abdurraqib #a little devil in america #richard siken #birds hover over the trampled field #helene cixous #alberto zamboni #ovunque #oscar nin #poetry #poem #painting #oil painting #art #artwork #poetry web weave #on self disgust #web weaving #web weave #poem web weave #writing #spilled ink #spilled thoughts #spilled poetry

[fragmentos-adolescentes]

Ámame, pero nunca te olvides de hacerme brillar.

-Dark prince

#dark prince #black beauty poetry #citas #frases #notas #fragmentos adolescentes #frases de amor #escritos #escritos románticos #escritos para dedicar #ámame #amor propio #brillar #me amas por quien soy #almadepoeta

[pynkhues]

curious as to your thoughts on the may december discourse (some spoilers i guess) - vili has come out and essentially said that he felt the film contributed to his victimization and hurt him. and the response from a lot of film twitter seems to be to yell ITS NOT A BIOPIC and to say he doesnt understand the film (gross). i feel like i dont really care if its a biopic or not, when the film literally quoted vili/mary kay, recreated the mary kay in prison photo exactly, and both charles melton and julianne moore studied vili/mary kay for their performances. to hand wave that all as "not a biopic" feels like a way of writing off any discomfort. i feel like the film should not have made those specific choices, but having done so they had a duty of care to vili. i dont think the film that ended up getting made is worth the continued trauma to vili even if it is art. there were other ways they could have told the story to minimize the harm and they chose not to - and i dont think that choice is a great commentary on tabloids or whatever, its just a ghoulish thing to do

I did see that, anon, and I do have thoughts on it as it's a real grey area in terms of creative license, art and storytelling, and it's a grey area that's been around really since storytelling existed, but before I get into that I just want to quickly clarify what Vili said, because I do think it's important.

Vili didn't say that the film contributed to his victimisation and hurt him, he said the film offended him because it was a ripoff:

“I’m still alive and well,” says Fualaau, now 40 and still living in the Seattle area, where the scandal unfolded. “If they had reached out to me, we could have worked together on a masterpiece. Instead, they chose to do a ripoff of my original story. “I’m offended by the entire project and the lack of respect given to me — who lived through a real story and is still living it,” he adds.

“I love movies — good movies,” he says. “And I admire ones that capture the essence and complications of real-life events. You know, movies that allow you to see or realize something new every time you watch them. “Those kinds of writers and directors — someone who can do that — would be perfect to work with, because my story is not nearly as simple as this movie [portrays],” Fualaau adds.

The reason I think this distinction is an important one to make is because in interviews since Mary Kay Letourneau passing, it's pretty clear that Vili - while absolutely being a victim-survivor - doesn't see himself that way, and even says pretty specifically in his Doctor Oz interview from 2020 that he doesn't see her as a predator or himself as having been preyed on ('there was no perversion...she was my wife and my best friend' are his exact words), and he's pretty clearly open to the idea of a film being made about his story.

I'm not saying this to diminish his feelings about May December at all (I strongly believe that Vili is entitled to feel any and every which way about the film) or to patronise his own understanding of what he experienced - I can't even begin to imagine the complexity of trying to unpack the life he shared with her - but I think it's important to reflect his feelings accurately and to provide a little context to those feelings.

With that said, do I think the creative team should've reached out to Vili before making the film?

Honestly, I don't know.

I think it's one of those questions in art where there's not really a right answer. If Vili's feelings towards Mary Kay are still lost in the silver linings of her grooming, any film that has his direct approval or involvement is going to run the risk of tacit endorsement. It also hamstrings the creative team and opens them up in terms of liability (I actually was a writers assistant on a TV show a million years ago that was sort of a bio pic and I can tell you for a fact that it was a disaster once the person it was based on got involved), and, of course, it runs the risk of shifting the focus of the story the writer is wanting to tell.

And that's the thing about art, right? By design, art is supposed to reflect us back to ourselves in ways that we might not always be comfortable with. Of course, that usually happens less literally than in how Todd Haynes has used Vili and Mary Kay's stories, but not always. Todd Haynes is certainly no stranger to the technique given Velvet Goldmine is pretty transparently inspired by David Bowie and I'm Not There is often confused as a Bob Dylan bio pic despite the fact that it's actually not.

Hell, everyone loves that Succession points a pretty clear finger to the Murdoch's, and while, of course, the Murdoch's - and Bowie and Dylan for that matter - have social, political and economic power that Vili doesn't which does impact the ethics of the decision, it's still made under the same creative ideology that aspects of a real story can render an artwork, a story, a film more emotionally authentic, can create greater resonance, can offer a sharper reflection of the world we live in and offer, perhaps, a message or a question that lingers.

All of this has actually kind of been funny timing as I just finished reading Sarah Weinman's The Real Lolita the other day which is a really excellent blend of true crime, literary history and critical commentary on this exact topic. The book explores the real life case of Sally Horner who was kidnapped by a pedophile in 1948 when she was 11 years old and was forced to roadtrip with him around America for two years. It's actually mentioned in passing in Nabokov's Lolita, but once you go a little deeper it's pretty clear how much of Horner and her story Nabokov used to create Dolores Haze / Lolita.

In the book, Weinnman asks the question as to why Lolita gets to be remembered when Sally's been left to obscurity, and of course, the answer is that there are other Sally's in the news cycle, but only one Lolita in art, and that hopefully in her writing Sally Horner's story she can write her back into bookshelves and place her back into this artwork but who knows if that's what Sally would've wanted (Sarah does, at least, talk to Sally's lone surviving family member, and makes a measure to show that it's very unlikely Nabokov ever did the same).

Was Nabokov wrong for not seeking out Sally's family for Lolita? Honestly, I doubt it even would've occured to him to do so, and the fact that we do now ask questions like this about the ethics of inspiration is, I think, a good thing. We should be critical of how stories are told and who is, and isn't, involved in the telling of them, but again, I don't actually think there are right or wrong answers here.

Fiction is always inspired by real people, real events, real life, it's a part of creation, it's a part of capturing a moment in time, it's about reflection and authenticity, but of course that's been rendered more complex in recent years by the fact that we live in a world that's ever shrinking and the people or the events that inspire new stories are inevitably brought into the public narrative in a way they just weren't back in 1955 when Lolita was first published.

So what does that mean for creativity and inspiration? I don't know, but personally I guess my thoughts would be that Vili is absolutely in his rights to be offended by the film, but I also don't think the filmmakers were wrong necessarily to not reach out. It's not the most ethical choice, but I also don't think it was an inherently bad one either. This isn't a Blonde situation where they write fiction and present it as fact, the creatives have been clear about it being inspried by what happened between Mary Kay and Vili, but they're also not saying Vili and Mary Kay are Joe and Gracie.

I appreciate you feeling like it's much of a muchness though given how they've apparently lifted entire scenes of dialogue. It's a murky question after all, and it's certainly one that's more complex when it comes to people like Vili and Sally than it is with the Murdoch's or even David Bowie, but yes, I'm not sure I see it as something inherently wrong, and I don't personally think it was ghoulish. I just think the specifics of this particular case just kind of shows how the sausage is made when it comes to storytelling.

#the ethics of inspiration is genuinely a pretty interesting topic #when i used to work at the writers centre there was this huge scandal about remix poetry #namely poets being inspired and riffing off other poetry #and oh man the DISCOURSE #anyway #sorry this is so long and rambling #i do recommend the real lolita btw #i finished it on the plane the other day and everyone in my row wanted to talk to me about it when they saw the cover lmao #may december #film asks #welcome to my ama #full disclaimer i still haven't seen the movie as it's not out in aus until 1 feb #but i am planning on seeing it

[hauntedbythenarrative]

Woman, Eat Me Whole, Ama Asantewa Diaka//House of the Dragon (2022-)

#web weaving #mine #quotes #words #poetry #rhaenicent #house of the dragon #hotd #rhaenyra targaryen #alicent hightower #blood tw #blood #wanting #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #got #game of thrones #woman eat me whole #hands #ama asantewa diaka #olivia cooke #emma d’arcy #alicent x rhaenyra #rhaenyra x alicent #violence #wlw #sapphic #tragedy #parallels #queer

[feral-ballad]

Ama Codjoe, from Bluest Nude: Poems; “On Seeing and Being Seen”

[Text ID: “Tonight, I am alone in my tenderness.”]

#ama codjoe #tenderness #loneliness #excerpts #writings #literature #poetry #fragments #selections #words #quotes #poetry collection #typography

[lifeinpoetry]

— Ama Asantewa Diaka, from "Transmogrified dreamer and a God with a Wi-Fi connection," Woman, Eat Me Whole

#quote #ama asantewa diaka #poetry #woman eat me whole #out of my collection #transmogrified dreamer and a god with a wi-fi connection

[soracities]

Ama Codjoe, from "The Bluest Nude" [ID'd]

#q #lit #quotes #poetry #typography #ama codjoe #fragments of selfhood #m #x #id included

[thetableintheback]

sunward bound - jude francis

[text description:

(in italics) sunward bound

in times of darkness and of uncertainty

turn inward and sunward;

grow towards the light

in whichever direction you are beckoned.

there is green in your leaves yet, and

the sun will rise again before you know it.

petals around your heart unfolding,

roots beneath your feet unrelenting -

you are homegrown.

this is only the beginning. /end description]

#poetry #original poem #poets on tumblr #writers on tumblr #spilled ink #silas denver melvin #this was inspired by an ama on his ig and was built around the phrase 'turn inward and sunward' #described #offerings #from the table #jude francis

[insaneclownpussi]

reading Ama Codjoe’s Bluest Nude right now and. holy shit its so good

#poetry #ama codjoe #bluest nude #on seeing and being seen

[asoftepiloguemylove]

ON BLOOD

Kanika Lawton, Vagabond City / Jen Mazza Peripety Project / Herakles Euripides (tr. Anne Carson) / unknown / Ama Asantewa Diaka Woman, Eat Me Whole / Erin Slaughter The Sorrow Festival / Jen Mazza Peripety Project

#blood tw #tw blood #web weave #poetry #poem #words #writing #quote #text #web weaving #kanika lawton #vagabond city #jen mazza #peripety project #herakles #euripides #ama asantewa diaka #woman eat me whole #erin slaughter #the sorrow festival #painting #oil painting #art #artwork #sad painting #sad poem #sad art #on blood #on heartbreak #poetry web weave