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161 " It happens when I wear shorts. It happens when I wear jeans. It happens when I stare at the ground. It happens when I stare ahead. It happens when I’m walking. It happens when I’m sitting. It happens when I’m on my phone. It simply never stops. "
― Elizabeth Acevedo , The Poet X
162 " When I look around the church and none of the depictions of angels or Jesus or Mary, not one of the disciples look like me: morenita and big and angry. When I’m told to have faith in the father the son in menand men are the first ones to make me feel so small. "
163 " When your body takes up more room than your voice you are always the target of well-aimed rumors, which is why I let my knuckles talk for me. "
164 " Sometimes the best way to love someone, is to let them go. "
165 " The weird thing about the Bible is that almost everything in it is a metaphor. So it seems to me that when the Bible describes church as a place where two or more people discuss God, they don’t mean just the cathedral-like churches. I don’t know what, who, or where God is. But if everything is a metaphor, I think he or she is a comparison to us. I think we are all like or as God. I think when we get together and talk about ourselves, about being human, about what hurts us, we’re also talking about God. "
166 " I think about all the things we could be if we were never told our bodies were not built for them. "
167 " And the more I write the braver I become. "
168 " I sip a Malta. "
169 " Although I lost so many poems, and I feel a pang every time I think about them burning, I’m also so proud of all I remember. I’m trying to convince myself rewriting means the words really mattered in the first place. "
170 " She tells me words give people permission to be their fullest self. "
171 " And I knew then what I’d known since my period came: my body was trouble. I had to pray the trouble out of the body God gave me. My body was a problem. And I didn’t want any of these boys to be the ones to solve it. I wanted to forget I had this body at all. "
172 " To make myself feel this way is a dirty thing, right? Then why does it feel so good? "
173 " In bed at night my fingers search a heat I have no name for. "
174 " And I'm not the type to believe "everything is a sign" or whatever, but when so many parts of my life all point in one direction... it's hard not to follow the arrows. "
175 " My brother says I don't talk enough so he hoped this notebook would give me a place to put my thoughts. Every now and then, I dress my thoughts in the clothing of a poem. Try to figure out if my world changes once I set down these words. This was the first time someone gave me a place to collect my thoughts. In some ways, it seemed like he was saying that my thoughts were important. From that day forward I've written every single day. Sometimes it seems like writing is the only way I keep from hurting. "