The Tortured Poets Department. An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time - one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure. This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted. This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it.

And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry.

THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT is out now.

https://taylor.lnk.to/thetorturedpoetsdepartment

Introduction to The Iliad, Emily Wilson

i look for beauty in everything i see.

by that, i mean i look for you in everything i see.

i have never known love like this. i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you

im not religious, nor do i believe in any Gods, but i do believe that when the hands of some great being moulded my body, brain, and soul, they created me with you in mind. i believe that the bridge of my nose was made for you to kiss. that my hands were made to be held in yours. i believe that the shape of my face was made to fit into the hollow of your neck and that my hair was made to be soft so that when i fall asleep on you (as i often do) it wouldn't bother you. i believe that my shoulders were made for you to rest your head on and that my spine was made for you to trace your fingers down. i believe this because when you hug me i feel your lungs moving against mine in a way that tells me this is the reason i was created with the ability to breathe. i believe this because when i lie against you, my body feels at home. i Know this because no touch has ever felt as warm or soft as yours, and i Know that there is no other reason i would have been created this way, if not to be found by you.

@holdmelikewater13

im not religious, nor do i believe in any Gods, but i do believe that when the hands of some great being moulded my body, brain, and soul, they created me with you in mind. i believe that the bridge of my nose was made for you to kiss. that my hands were made to be held in yours. i believe that the shape of my face was made to fit into the hollow of your neck and that my hair was made to be soft so that when i fall asleep on you (as i often do) it wouldn't bother you. i believe that my shoulders were made for you to rest your head on and that my spine was made for you to trace your fingers down. i believe this because when you hug me i feel your lungs moving against mine in a way that tells me this is the reason i was created with the ability to breathe. i believe this because when i lie against you, my body feels at home. i Know this because no touch has ever felt as warm or soft as yours, and i Know that there is no other reason i would have been created this way, if not to be found by you.

@holdmelikewater13

"grief is love with nowhere to go" you could not be more wrong. can you not love someone when they are not there? when someone leaves a room, can you not still love them? even after death, your love will never cease to reach them. it will forever have a place to go. as long as you're still around, they will always be loved. it is what keeps them here with you. their love is still here as yours is for them, isn't that beautiful?

Ok so… there’s this thing called listening to music and me and my girls well… we’ve gone pro

i do not despise your words; they are beautiful and so are you.

we are sitting in sunlight, warmed. your dark hair is glowing golden brown in the light and i am leaning on your shoulder, sitting against a tree, playing with a flower i have plucked from the grass. we are on a blanket, shoes tossed to the side so that they do not touch, and although there is faint birdsong and gentle music playing, the moment feels quiet and soft. it's still, despite the fluttering leaves.

the sky is clear and so blue and for the first time, i really do feel so impossibly small in the world. but i find that i like to be small with you. there is peace in being unimportant. 

today, there is no one else in the world other than you.

i say something stupid just to hear you laugh and then almost feel ashamed about how much even a glimpse of your happiness delights me.

your hands are warm, smooth. red nail polish, chipping. as i look at them, i can't help but think about the music they create, as i always do. 

you are the only music i want to listen to. 

i find that i don't need to remind you to breathe today. 

then i notice that there is a ladybird in my flower, which makes me freeze because i do not know what to do, but you are braver in this than i am and you can take the flower for me, to keep it and the ladybird safe. 

i am drawing stars on you when you tell me that you love me, and i smile because i know. you have found a way to make me believe it. i have never believed it before you. 

i tell you that i hope you know that i love you more than anything in this life and maybe you cry because you know i'm telling the truth. i didn't mean to make you cry

i wish i could take this moment and make it last forever.

i know that i will love you in every lifetime, in every universe, in every moment that i am living and even after, when i am nothing but a summer breeze through the leaves in a tree we once sat under. 

for you i will stay, and because of you, i'll rejoice in staying. 

07/03/24

@softsummerain444 i wish i could write like you, but all that i have are these words which i hope you will not despise

@holdmelikewater13

“I would like to sit with you, and hear soft music Intensely and persuasively flow … I would like to hear you talking of simple things, Of the leaves that hang on trees and softly fall: I would like to have your hands touch mine like wings”

— Conrad Aiken, from “Sonata In Pathos”

no one has ever made me feel as loved as you have. you are my definition of love.

we are sitting in sunlight, warmed. your dark hair is glowing golden brown in the light and i am leaning on your shoulder, sitting against a tree, playing with a flower i have plucked from the grass. we are on a blanket, shoes tossed to the side so that they do not touch, and although there is faint birdsong and gentle music playing, the moment feels quiet and soft. it's still, despite the fluttering leaves.

the sky is clear and so blue and for the first time, i really do feel so impossibly small in the world. but i find that i like to be small with you. there is peace in being unimportant. 

today, there is no one else in the world other than you.

i say something stupid just to hear you laugh and then almost feel ashamed about how much even a glimpse of your happiness delights me.

your hands are warm, smooth. red nail polish, chipping. as i look at them, i can't help but think about the music they create, as i always do. 

you are the only music i want to listen to. 

i find that i don't need to remind you to breathe today. 

then i notice that there is a ladybird in my flower, which makes me freeze because i do not know what to do, but you are braver in this than i am and you can take the flower for me, to keep it and the ladybird safe. 

i am drawing stars on you when you tell me that you love me, and i smile because i know. you have found a way to make me believe it. i have never believed it before you. 

i tell you that i hope you know that i love you more than anything in this life and maybe you cry because you know i'm telling the truth. i didn't mean to make you cry

i wish i could take this moment and make it last forever.

i know that i will love you in every lifetime, in every universe, in every moment that i am living and even after, when i am nothing but a summer breeze through the leaves in a tree we once sat under. 

for you i will stay, and because of you, i'll rejoice in staying. 

07/03/24

@softsummerain444 i wish i could write like you, but all that i have are these words which i hope you will not despise

@holdmelikewater13

i knew from the moment i met you i would spend all my lifetimes loving you.

i knew from the moment i met you i would spend all my lifetimes loving you.