“I don't know where I end and the world begins. My best guess? Skin. It's the only actual boundary between the body and the world, between a body and any other body.” KnowsWorldEndsBodySkinsBoundaries Author:Richard Siken
“Knot the tie and go to work, unknot the tie and go to sleep. I sleep. I dream. I wake. I sing. I get out the hammer and start knocking in the wooden pegs that affix the meaning to the landscape, the inner life to the body, the names to the things. I float too much to wander, like you, in the real world. I envy it but that’s the dealio—you’re a train and I’m a trainstation and when I try to guess your trajectory I end up telling my own story.” WorldTryingRealEndsStoriesDreamBodyNamesMy OwnSleepToo MuchLike YouTrainEnvyWanderLandscapeTiesReal WorldFloatsHammersGoing To SleepInner LifeKnockingKnotsTrajectoryPeg Author:Richard Siken
“Imagine that the world is made out of love. Now imagine that it isn’t. Imagine a story where everything goes wrong, where everyone has their back against the wall, where everyone is in pain and acting selfishly because if they don’t, they’ll die. Imagine a story, not of good against evil, but of need against need against need, where everyone is at cross-purposes and everyone is to blame.” IfsWorldNeedsMadeStoriesPainPurposeDiesEvilActingImagineWallCrossesBlameImagine ThatGood Against EvilBack Against The Wall Author:Richard Siken
“Vanity, in a fairy tale, will make you evil. Vanity in the real world will drive you nuts. Vanity makes you say things like “I deserved a better life than this.” WorldRealEvilTalesVanityFairyReal WorldNutsFairy TaleBetter Life Author:Richard Siken
“I’m not suggesting the world is good, that life is easy, or that any of us are entitled to better. But please, isn’t this the kind of thing you talk about in somber tones, in the afternoon, with some degree of hope and maybe even a handful of strategies?” WorldKindLife IsEasyPleaseDegreesStrategyToneAfternoonEntitledHandfulSuggestingSomberLife Is Easy Author:Richard Siken
“...you're waiting because you thought it would follow, you thought there would be some logic, perhaps, something to pull it all together but here we are in the weeds again, here we are in the bowels of the thing: your world doesn't make sense.” WorldWould BeTogetherWaitingLogicMake SenseWeedBowels Author:Richard Siken
