Memorable Stuff I Read Last Week

When I woke, the waves had gone black,
turning over the macerated
curd of the ocean bottom, heaving its sludge
onto the beach.

— Cleopatra Mathis / “The Sea Chews Things Up”

Sometimes they dream the same dreams — of fractals and blue spheres and familiar faces engulfed in dark, and of the bright energetic black of space that slams their senses. Raw space is a panther, feral and primal; they dream it stalking through their quarters.

— Samantha Harvey / Orbital

There are not enough words
               in the Kalaallisut language (or any language)
               to prepare you for the five-hundred shades of blue
               in icebergs.

— Aimee Nezhukumatathil / “What I Learned in Greenland”

One of the most worrying theories to emerge is that the Earth is losing its albedo, which is the ability of the planet to reflect heat back into space. This is mainly because there is less white ice in the Arctic, Antarctic and mountain glaciers.

— Jonathan Watts / “We should have better answers by now’: climate scientists baffled by unexpected pace of heating” / The Guardian

My body has a tenure of chaos
and blood. It’s clotting and ache began at
the edge of girlhood. I see no way out.

— Ajanaé Dawkins / “How to Witness a Miracle Without Converting”

In this town, this country, there are no stories. The dead, the survivors, they don’t want to remember. They don’t want to talk about what happened. They want to bury it. They want to forget.

— Kim Stanley Robinson / The Wild Shore

At my feet I found a grave of starfish,
broken and gnarled among the fleshy
snipes and heads. Every shade of death
covered the sand.

— Cleopatra Mathis / “The Sea Chews Things Up”

What I’m Listening To:

All across the world, they shout out their angry words about the end of love …
The stars stand above the Earth, bright triumphant metaphors of love

— Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds / “Joy”