Memorable Stuff I Read This Week

One of these mornings we’ll get up and the weather will
be much different and much worse. We will be momentarily
annoyed. We will not for one moment be alarmed. We
understand how the universe works because we think it’s complicated.

— John Godfrey / “On the Elements”

Fascists terrify me. I’m scared whenever we get whipped up in a mob and don’t think for ourselves. There’s an insidiousness that I feel lurking ever-closer. When we don’t feel safe, or have faith things can improve, some seek comfort in being “better-than”; being in the “in-group”; causing pain. These are shallow pleasures, but if deep ones aren’t available? They suffice. That’s how the updated far-right is drawing people in. It’s extremely dangerous.

— Naomi Klein, interview with Michael Segalov / “So Many of My Ideas Get Lost” / The Guardian

And how many of our ancestors have 
already taught us: even after the world ends,  
there is work to do.

— Kyle Tran Myhre / “When it Really is Just the Wind, and Not a Furious Vexation”

As we commonly see elsewhere in our cascading climate crisis, we are robbing ourselves of the very ecosystems best suited to combat both the cause and effects of a warming planet, right when we need them most.

— Sam Keck Scott / “On the Power of a Salt Marsh” / Orion

today she split her skin
like a snake,
refusing to excuse my back
for being big
for being old

— Lucille Clifton / “poem to my yellow coat”

The wind changed its mind and remained in a contrary mood clear to the finish line: I regularly sliced through winds from the north at 17–20 mph. Headers are worse than hills — they can sap your spirit if you let them. I avoided looking ahead at the unchanging sightline. I counted my blessings: I was dry, and nothing hurt.

— Phil Blumenkrantz / “Road to Nowhere” / adventurecycling.org

I imagine an ossuary blooming in my gut, a stone well
           of tiny bones, ancestors tunneling through the cartilage,

though of course I know this is impossible: ancestors
           are supposed to stay dead.

— Liza Katz Duncan / “Owls”

What I’m Listening To: 

Choppity-chop goes the axe in the woods
You got to meet me by the fall down tree
Shovel the dirt upon the coffin lid And I know they’ll come a-lookin’ for me, boys
I know they’ll come a-lookin’ for me

— Tom Waits / “Get Behind the Mule”