“Poetry can be dangerous, especially beautiful poetry, because it gives the illusion of having had the experience without actually going through it.” ― Rumi
Algedonic by R.h. Sin
“perhaps we laugh to mask the cries
screaming in silence
we’ve gotten better
at pretending to be happy” – page 35
“i’m lost and i just want to meet myself again” – page 46
“we’re afraid of monster but we are the monsters and in theory we’re all running from ourselves” – page 48
“you never lived up to the promises you made painting a false representation of who you truly were and where love should feel like art this love was purely a tragedy” – page 60
“sometimes you’re better off alone there is peace in being away from it all” – page 63
“i leave holes in those i leave behind an emptiness they can’t fill because i am irreplaceable” – page 70
“could we dance to the silence could we move to the tunes that live only in our heads” – page 74
“i hope you get lost and find yourself again” – page 78
“she found heaven in a bookstore she got lost in the pages” – page 80
“oversized sweaters and large coffee mugs the leaves are falling in love with her” – page 81
“the girl with the broken soul became the woman with the strongest heart” – page 85
“you are the most interesting thing occurring here on earth don’t let them make you feel as if you are ordinary you are not” – page 88
“seclusion can be heaven alone is peaceful” – page 90
“you are the flower that blooms by itself for itself for yourself keep growing” – page 93
“fuck the word count pay more attention to the message anything is poetry everything is poetry” – page 99
“you are you and that will always be a poem worth reading” – page 106
“do you hear yourself can you hear your own voice over the silence that dwells within you the quiet vibrance that is the soul the brilliant chaos that is your mind you’ve been fighting for so long engaging in that no one sees you’ve been at war with yourself wishing, hoping for more peace” – page 115
“her angel eyes saw the good in many devils.” – page 24
Love Her Wild by Atticus
“Love is diving headfirst into someone else’s confusion and finding that it all makes sense” – page 7
“I want to be with someone who dreams of doing everything in life, and nothing on a rainy Sunday afternoon.” – page 13
“I promise to live a life so rich of love that at the end I will not be so shy of death.” – page 19
“Put a girl in moonlight and tell only truths and every man becomes a poet.” – page 22
“Love could be labeled poison and we’d drink it anyways.” – page 23
“Don’t worry- you see, to some you are magic.” – page 28
“My sweet darling, all these tears, this hurt, the pain in your heart, do not fight it anymore, it is a gift, you see, to feel this much and even though it’s hard it means you’re alive with each of these tearful breaths gasped your soul awakens, more alive in the pain than you were in the numb, you are coming back to me now, my love, lucid in this darkness- so cry aloud, yell, and fall, and I will be here waiting to catch you when the waking up is done.” – page 31
“Watch carefully the magic that occurs when you give a person enough comfort to just be themselves.” – page 37
Helium by Rudy Francisco
“I take my compliments the same way I take my coffee I don’t drink coffee. The last time I did, it seared my entire mouth and I couldn’t taste anything for three days. I’m still learning how to let endearments sit until it’s ready to be consumed, hold it to my lips and sip slowly.” – page 19
“Muscle is created by lifting things that are designed to weigh us down. when you’re shoulders are heavy stand up straight and call it exercise. Life is a gym membership with a really complicated cancellation policy.” –
“and there is nothing more enticing than silence”
“Love is clumsy, and my heart refuses to wear a helmet.”
Whiskey Words and a Shovel Volume III
“death to this idea that strong women must sacrifice their independence to make weak men feel comfortable in a relationship” – page 176
“She was King a ruler on her own” – page 214
“your own memories betray you becoming silent threats of pain destroying that bridge that often leads to peace the more you remember the deeper you dig your own emotional grave” – page 223
“this morning feels different there’s a slight silence in the air but my troubles are still here weighing me down like a kettlebell sitting on my chest I went to sleep last night with this thought that everything would be okay once the sun had reached its peak I should’ve known that my pain would grow fed by late nights of overthinking and falling asleep after drinking my soul at war with my heart my heart at odds with my mind they tell me each day is filled with hope but everyday, I feel hopeless trying to piece together all the parts of me that have been broken sometimes life is hell and I simply survive the flames sometimes I feel uncertain most of the time, I feel afraid the unknown lurks in circles then hides in the darkest corners in every place that I inhabit I want to leave I want to stay I want to give up but maybe I should try most of the time I’m fighting against myself I’m fine but that’s a lie most of the time we’re fighting scratching and clawing simply trying to survive” – page 231
“read more books drink some water ignore more texts say no more often and put yourself first” – page 256
“be good to yourself you’re the only you you’ll ever get” – page 283
“she needed nothing from no one basking in her own independence comfortable within her strength she was the type of woman who made weak men uneasy she was the type of woman you couldn’t flatter with a simple compliment because she was more than what met the eye as her true value was always infinite” – page 298
Light Filters in by Caroline Kaufman
“there is nothing more powerful than a girl with a pen who is brave enough to use it”
“I don’t know who I am I’m trying to look at myself in the bathroom mirror, but the shower’s running and the glass is all foggy. I’ve spent so much time trying to become who I should be that I lost myself along the way. ” – page 6
“I am crowded in an empty room I guess it’s the silence, the emptiness, the nothingness. it pushes on me. it tells me you take up too much space I reply, I Know” – page 8
“these words are not polished these words are not pure. these words are venom purged from my veins and poured out on paper. these words are poetic poison” – page 23
“I work so hard to be the hero. but then I sabotage myself, picking out poisoned apples and eating them like candy. I am the antagonistic protagonist of my own story.” – page 31
“I want so badly to spill my soul onto these pages, but some things are stuck. some memories cling to the sides of my spirit no matter how much I try to scrape them out.” – page 41
“come and sit with me. we can watch the day grow dark as we do the same.” – page 54
“all writers, we seem to have our minds knotted. a bed head of a brain. and with ribbons of dark matter braided into our thought, we will never be able to comb out all the tangles. but still, with pen in hand, we brush and we brush and we brush.” – page 68
“when will love become greater than lust, or power not lead to pain? when will torture not hold hands with trust, or greed not be part of the game? when will writing not grow old and rust, or failure detach from fame? when will we realize our creations combust because we are the ones lighting the flame?” – page 75
“last night I felt it happiness. I didn’t recognize the spark at first. I had forgotten what it was like. but then, there it was. a flash of light. a second of warmth. a glimmer of hope when all I had for years was darkness. and just the idea that this might not last forever is motivation enough to keep going.” – page 83
“the trees write in cursive roots that you cannot decipher. you were promised block-letter branches. experience never quite matches up to the textbook, but remember that you are not illiterate. life is learning to read the messy handwriting of the earth when school only showed you clear cut- letters.” – page 86
“some days I’m okay, while others pull me to the ground. I’ll dig through the dirt searching for happiness I thought I’d found. the darkness scares me more now that I see a chance of light; that flare of hope is pushing me to not give up the fight.” – page 93
“find yourself in a page look at where you are. find your past in the pages before. look at all that you have survived. find your future in the pages after. look at all that you have ahead. this is not the end of the book. you are right at the heart of it. keep reading.” – page 103
“a pillow is not a tissue or a shoulder or a therapy session. but you can cry into it. a journal is not a friend or a hotline or a therapy session. but you can vent into it. poetry is not an intervention or a prescription or a therapy session. but you can heal with it. first steps are always more important than they seem.” – page 108
“don’t tell me my brokenness is beautiful. this is not beautiful. this nearly killed me. this is not something for you to romanticize. I am beautiful. this (depression) (anxiety) (pain) is not.” – page 124
“the closet is more of a prism than anything. it’s okay if you haven’t come out yet. you are still refracting.”
“I am done being delicate. as a girl I was taught to be sweet, to be dainty, to fold into myself until I was nothing more than crumpled paper. this is my unfolding. I will use gunpowder to set my makeup and gasoline as my perfume. next time you try to burn me at the stake, I will burn back. I will start a fire you cannot control.” – page 191
“don’t ask for respect; demand it. don’t look for opportunity; grab it. don’t add to the world; change it.” – page 196
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
The Paper Life 