Hello friends—a few links of interest and a poem for your week.
On traveling at the speed of soul—and how a pilgrimage is not a one-way act: “The real destination is your own front door.”
Thanks to
’s beautiful newsletter The Life Boat, I now know that a Cloud Appreciation Society exists. What joy to know there are people who feel that looking up with appreciation and awe is worthy of organization.Specious Bridgerton headlines aside, a new book collects the work of Eliza Haywood, who knew how claims of free speech in an unfree society are used to silence the marginalized (more on that below, if of interest).
I fiercely love that
is sharing lists of the many women writers across centuries. (Note to the world: Women. Have. Always. Been. Writing).A surprising connection between Pittsburgh and Glasgow—not only are both centers of 19th-century urban industry, but they also share a dialect.
Unsurprisingly, the history of the 1864 abortion ban in Arizona was partly in response to elevating the medical profession—which was only accessible to white men—by suppressing women’s knowledge of healing and medicine.
And I so loved this wise and beautiful interview between
and .And a poem by Rosalía de Castro (1837-1885):
They say that plants don't talk, nor do brooks or birds, nor the wave with its chatter, nor stars with their shine. They say it but it's not true, for whenever I walk by they whisper and yell about me "There goes the crazy woman dreaming of life's endless spring and of fields and soon, very soon, her hair will be gray. She sees the shaking, terrified frost cover the meadow." There are gray hairs in my head; there is frost on the meadows, but I go on dreaming—a poor, incurable sleepwalker— of life's endless spring that is receding and the perennial freshness of fields and souls, although fields dry and souls burn up. Stars and brooks and flowers! Don't gossip about my dreams: without them how could I admire you? How could I live? —trans. by Aliki and Willis Barnstone
What a beautiful marsh and clear blue skies 😍 I loved the interview too and yes! Women have always been writing! I appreciate all the things I’ve learned from you and 15thcenturyfem over the last year.
☁️!! The cloud appreciation society!! 🌦️ makes my heart sing.