Memorable Stuff I Read This Week

Gather your losses, oblong

& indiscriminate: avocado rot,
football, cracked soap dish;
dropped eggshells, embryo
gone. Gather mutilated joy.
Smelted promises. Aloft,
here & now. In open air.
Gather your heartbreak, wind-
ing & windowless. Animal
the shadow, lurking
at the edges
of your mouth.

— Marcus Wicker / “How to Continue Loving the World Despite Years of Impediment”

The newfound Church of England also believed in converting the “savages” and in the concept of terra nullius, that land inhabited only by non-Christians — i.e., Indigenous Peoples-belonged to no one. The British used the principle of terra nullius to take over the entire continent of Australia, where it remained the basis of law until 1992. The British argued they could take the land because Indigenous People did not claim ownership of it: the British believed they did not use it to grow food or farm it. And if Indigenous Peoples weren’t using it to farm, the settlers coming from crowded England, Ireland and Scotland must have thought it was going to waste.

— Tanya Talaga / The Knowing: How the Oppression of Indigenous Peoples Continues to Echo Today — A Native American History and Canadian Memoir of Intergenerational Trauma

Through the pale receiver we discussed like things:
ambition, roaches, red blood cells.
Then a change came backward. She accused me
of leaving myself in another room, when
that sound reached me within that room
a white shape legislated itself. Chimes chimed.

— Leslie Sainz / “[There are forces that twist the tops of us like pliers.]”

They say that people who have experienced traumatic events are kept awake by cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone, which will not stop releasing from the adrenal glands, the triangle-shaped organs above the kidneys, even though the trauma is technically over. The body remains poised in alarm. Adrenaline, another major stress hormone, is also often abnormally high. I do not know this until many years later, nor that trauma can actually change the shape, size, and function of parts of your brain, those that regulate emotions, memory, affect, sensation. I think, instead, I am convinced, instead, that my brain is stuck in some deranged loop, like a CD skipping, being played on repeat for hours. My brain is broken, short-circuited, hotwired, not mine.

— Emily LaBarge / Dog Days

It’s never our finest hour in America but right now,
most things at the ledges of my life are like the sad
shuffling at the edge of an LP. This one time, I forgot to pick up the tonearm & heard polyvinyl lamentations
until Thursday when I finally realized the sounds were from
my speakers & not one of my own haunted creation.

— Adrian Matejka / “Record Player”

Cycling can make you smarter by boosting brain functions and improving cognitive abilities. It stimulates the release of neurotransmitters and hormones that enhance mood and mental well-being. Cycling white matter in the brain, improves memory and reasoning, and contributes to overall mental fitness.

Going for a bicycle ride is one of the best all-round examples of exercise you’ll get. I’ll bet you feel the instant gratification once your pedals start turning and your heart rate increases. And your increased efforts are rewarded instantly. Don’t you get a buzz from being out of breath? 

What you might not realise is what’s going on inside your head as you clock up the miles. While you’re busy getting fitter . . . you’re charging your mind, as well as your body. Didn’t think your brain would be getting a workout too? 

— Kevin Glenton / “Does Cycling Make You Smarter?” / discerningcyclist.com

Sometimes still
like light I catch
the mermaids’ singing

swimming back to me,
a certain strain on the air.

They sing for the hell of it.
The pure, fresh hell.

— Jameson Fitzpatrick / “Refrain”

What I’m Listening To:

Well, the beat goes on
Louder than a moustache on a face
Would anybody miss the human race?
I didn’t think so

— Robyn Hitchcock / “Yesterday’s Rain”