So many people have asked me recently to give you weekly runthroughs and 'day in the life'-s and I'll be completely honest... I have no idea why you want that because my life is boring. BUT I'm giving the people what they want and will be acting like I'm the main character in a coming-of-age movie. And I'll try to narrow down the rambling somehow.
This week's collection of words: (a poem that stuck with me)
“For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride, In the sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea.” ― Edgar Allan Poe
Remark of the week: (a quote I came across that altered my brain chemistry)
"For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hope and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action. Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. The farthest horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives."
― Poetry is Not a Luxury by Audre Lorde
Dear __?__ ,
I know that it isn't Spring yet because it starts near the end of March (not buying it, how do we manage to put a solid date on a season when the change seems so gradual and also a lot earlier than we date-) but this week felt so much like Spring and I adored it. We had really heavy rainshowers over here near the start of the week but the past few days have been a sunny bliss, even if they are quite chilly. I love them. It was the sort of sun that felt raw and gentle, and everything else echoed that. Even the rainshowers felt imbued with something a little more, different from the usual depressing, lazy drizzle we so often get. This rain was sudden and energetic and then eventually the sky would open up and, wet grass and dripping trees, the earth resigned itself to tender quiet.
It was the first week back after half term so thank god it was a slow one. I started reading Women of Troy by Pat Barker (finally got out of my reading slump) which was a pretty amazing read. I think many people drifted to reading The Song of Achilles after the BookTok hype, but they fail to see all the other gorgeous Trojan War retellings that actually exist already. (If you're thinking about reading it, the first book is called The Silence of the Girls, which tells the story from the point of view of Briseis, Achilles' slave at the camp. I love her so much, she's so cool). I find that when I read books set in Ancient Greece or Rome I manage to get through them unbelievably fast and it's my favourite thing ever - the characters all feel so close to me, like they're people I knew, and I won't ever tire of reading about them. (I really want to time-travel and no I won't listen to anyone who says that the Trojan War didn't happen because I know but it did. Anyway-)
So anyway I managed to finish that book and started reading The Goldfinch and I'm enthralled.
(Let's play a game!! Count how many times I say anyway).
I started new paintings for my art coursework and they're tricky but quite fun! I'm working on a trompe l'oeil (trick of the eye), so I'm painting small square canvases like pieces of scrap paper with love notes on them. The core theme of the project is Ephemera, so temporary things like tickets or post-its, but I wanted to play with the idea of notes of endearment written on ephemera that are supposed to be thrown away after a day or two of being used - nothing permanent. Besides, I love the tradition of love letters and just reading them from the past feels so tender and aaahh. There's also something so healing about seeing art on my timetable, knowing that it'll be spent with good company, good music, and in that lovely open studio. Me and my friends are either hyper and crying of laughter while working, or tired and work quietly with one person's music playing in the background. I love both.
Another thing I managed to get through, besides my reading slump, was my writing slump. Writer's block I mean. It had been a while since I'd gotten around to writing my book again, but I forced myself to leave behind the scene I was stuck on and to move to another. And thank God for that, because I managed to hit 13k words and it's so rewarding to see the story form just like I wanted it to. I struggle with writing enough detail, and moving on too fast, but somehow I've managed to slowly flesh out the story as I'm writing it (my huge chunks of description are still more than prevalent). I'm very lucky that the internship I'm doing also includes being a part of their Writing Academy, so my bosses were able to read my manuscript and I feel like I'm getting somewhere - I'm getting more and more excited. Here's a short extract to tide you over before you nag me:
"The Garden at San Marco was so peaceful it must have been almost holy. It was a place of creation and grace. Lorenzo de’ Medici was who they had to thank for this, for he, bringing in the new age of Florence, saw to it that all artists had somewhere to work as part of their practice. There were sleeping and dining quarters in a place not far from the main garden, areas of marble and chisel, and areas dedicated to the brush and paints. The garden itself was one of wonder. A colonnade ran around the edges, wherein the artists dwelled. In the centre, marble statues and fruit trees alike stood proud - lemons, pomegranates, figs, olives, all murmured gently as they witnessed history born and flames sprout from under the hands of the artists as they worked. The Garden was a sanctuary, something resembling the Eden in Genesis or the Elysium of Ancient Greece. Lorenzo was saturating Florence with art and sculpture, beauty and pleasure, and it flowed from herein like ambrosia and nectar."
Apart from all this, there isn't much else to go on. There were a lot of chess games, a lot of card games, and a library lesson for Classics (the library is on the highest floor, with windows that look out over the rooftops that make you feel like you're in a castle, sunlight streaming through them and painting dusted bookshelves with gold), petrol station trips (always) and the looming thought of exams (which I choose to ignore :* ))
And that's all for this week. I hope you're having a lovely day, evening, or night, and that you enjoy the rest of February. Drink lots of water and soak up some sun and fresh air for me.
Yours sincerely,
Maariya :)