Memorable Stuff I Read This Week

It was hypnagogic sitting with him on the vinyl sofa tucked under the vibrating signs THRILLS, LOVE, and THE BRIGHT & THE SHINY as bluegrass twanged. We talked deeply over Bengali food . . .

— Tree Abraham / Cyclettes

Digging rock from hardscaped beds, I think,
is a bit like not writing poetry—like thinking
about writing poetry but digging rock from my backyard
instead.

— Camille T. Dungy / “Frequently Asked Questions: #6”

I went to the dining car and tried the breakfast poutine. I concluded that poutine is a perfect all-day meal. I wrote “open 24-hour poutine restaurant” in my notebook . . .

— Christopher Muther / “Two nights, three provinces, and 1,600 miles. A sleeper train through Maritime Canada is slow travel at its best” / The Boston Globe

When future generations look back upon the Great Derangement they will certainly blame the leaders and politicians of this time for their failure to address the climate crisis. But they may well hold artists and writers to be equally culpable — for the imagining of possibilities is not, after all, the job of politicians and bureaucrats.

— Amitav Ghosh / The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable

I am thirty-two weeks pregnant when they announce it: the water is rising faster than they thought. It is creeping faster. A calculation error. A badly plotted movie, sensors out at sea.

— Megan Hunter / The End We Start From

WENDSLER NOSIE: In 1974, in the town of Globe, they still had signs, ‘Dogs and Indians Keep Out.’ We still had to order outside of restaurants. We really didn’t start eating in restaurants until the 1980s.

— Lauren Redniss / Oak Flat: A Fight for Sacred Land in the American West

We are not hostages, America,
and your soldiers are not God’s soldiers…

— Saadi Yousseff / “America, America”

What I’m Listening To:

The power’s out
And no one can save us
No one can blame us now
That the power’s out

— St. Vincent / “The Power’s Out”