Don’t overthink it.

“Regret nothing. Not the cruel novels you read
to the end just to find out who killed the cook.
Not the insipid movies that made you cry in the dark,
in spite of your intelligence, your sophistication.
Not the lover you left quivering in a hotel parking lot,
the one you beat to the punchline, the door, or the one
who left you in your red dress and shoes, the ones
that crimped your toes, don’t regret those.
Not the nights you called god names and cursed
your mother, sunk like a dog in the livingroom couch,
chewing your nails and crushed by loneliness.
You were meant to inhale those smoky nights
over a bottle of flat beer, to sweep stuck onion rings
across the dirty restaurant floor, to wear the frayed
coat with its loose buttons, its pockets full of struck matches.
You’ve walked those streets a thousand times and still
you end up here. Regret none of it, not one
of the wasted days you wanted to know nothing,
when the lights from the carnival rides
were the only stars you believed in, loving them
for their uselessness, not wanting to be saved.
You’ve traveled this far on the back of every mistake,
ridden in dark-eyed and morose but calm as a house
after the TV set has been pitched out the upstairs
window. Harmless as a broken ax. Emptied
of expectation. Relax. Don’t bother remembering any of it.
Let’s stop here, under the lit sign
on the corner, and watch all the people walk by.”

— Dorianne Laux, Antilamentation

Source: brainpickings.org
- 7 months ago
- 11 notes
- #poetry
- #regret
- #life
11 Comments
“You don’t have to get a job that makes others feel comfortable about what they perceive as your success. You don’t have to explain what you plan to do with your life. You don’t have to justify your education by demonstrating its financial rewards. You don’t have to maintain an impeccable credit score. Anyone who expects you to do any of those things has no sense of history or economics or science or the arts. You have to pay your own electric bill. You have to be kind. You have to give it all you got. You have to find people who love you truly and love them back with the same truth. But that’s all.”

— DEAR SUGAR, The Rumpus Advice Column #72: The Future Has An Ancient Heart - The Rumpus.net

Source: therumpus.net
- 1 year ago
- 7 notes
- #quotes
- #life
- #dear sugar
7 Comments
“Sometimes we say things by accident. Those are usually the best things. Sometimes by giving ourselves what we want, we give other people what they need.”

— Frank Chimero: Velocity
(via viafrank-deactivated20120702)
- 2 years ago
- 190 notes
- #design
- #life
- #quotes
- #reading
190 Comments
“Acting on desire is more like a craft, a science, an art. It takes careful mindful practice. Be patient and quiet. Listen, observe, take notes. Figure out what you want, privately, and then choose to want it, publicly. Put your desire out in the open. I want to go swimming. I want to bake bread. I want to paint a picture. I want to build a chair. I want to write a book. You act and then you fail. Over and over. And it’s better to start failing when you’re young, when all you lose is an ice-cream cone or a basketball game or an afternoon of fun. When you’re older, the stakes are higher. If adults don’t know how to want, then they lose a love, a career, a life.”

— David Barringer, There’s Nothing Funny About Design
- 2 years ago
- 10 notes
- #quotes
- #life
- #want
10 Comments
“Nobody can know whether they’re going to be successful. That’s a complete mystery. But it’s not about learning a certain kind of technique. It’s about taking a walk and seeing somebody crying and feeling a certain way about it and thinking – I have to do something to respond to that. It’s about telling a story that feels true to you and trying not trying to be anything other than who you are. That’s an absurdly difficult thing to do, and it takes many years.”

— Maira Kalman
9 Comments