Xennial Memes
A photographed book page with a black square bullet and the italic title "Above Everything". The poem reads: "I wished for death often / but now that I am at its door / I have changed my mind about the world. / It should go on; it is beautiful, / even as a dream, filled with water and seed, / plants and animals, others like myself, / ships and buildings and messages / filling the air—a beauty, / if ever I have seen…

Above Everything: A Poem Worth Choosing Life For

David Ignatow's poem "Above Everything" on a book page: a reflection on wishing for death, then choosing the world's beauty. A quiet pick for Xennials growing older.

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A photographed book page with a black square bullet and the italic title "Above Everything". The poem reads: "I wished for death often / but now that I am at its door / I have changed my mind about the world. / It should go on; it is beautiful, / even as a dream, filled with water and seed, / plants and animals, others like myself, / ships and buildings and messages / filling the air—a beauty, / if ever I have seen…

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Screenshot of a poem titled "Obligations 2" by Layli Long Soldier, in black text on white, with short phrases spaced across centered lines. As we / embrace resist / the future the present the past / we work we struggle we begin we fail / to understand to find to unbraid to accept to question / the grief the grief the grief the grief / we shift we wield we bury / into light as ash / across our faces Photo of a book page, numbered 270. Title: "To Be Alive". Poem: "To be alive: not just the carcass / But the spark. / That's crudely put, but… // If we're not supposed to dance, / Why all this music?" Signed "GREGORY ORR". Black serif text on a white background. Bold title: "Letter to the Person Who Carved His Initials into the Oldest Living Longleaf Pine in North America". The poem reads: "Tell me what it's like to live without curiosity, without awe. To sail on clear water, rolling your eyes at the kelp reefs swaying beneath you, ignoring the flicker of mermaid scales in the mist, looking at the world and feeling only boredom. To… Black text on a white background. Title: "Two-Headed Calf" by Laura Gilpin. "Tomorrow when the farm boys find this freak of nature, they will wrap his body in newspaper and carry him to the museum. But tonight he is alive and in the north field with his mother. It is a perfect summer evening: the moon rising over the orchard, the wind in the grass. And as he stares into the sky, there are twice as many stars as… Screenshot of a poem titled "Good Bones" by Maggie Smith, in black serif text on a white background. The poem is about hiding the world's terrors from your children, comparing life to a bad house a realtor calls beautiful because it has good bones. A light gray band across a dark gray background holds centered black text: "The poem, the song, the picture, is only water drawn from the well of the people, and it should be given back to them in a cup of beauty so that they may drink - and in drinking understand themselves."

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