Written in the Stars: January Book Horoscopes from the Astro Poets
Happy New Year, Lovers! It’s hard to believe but it’s January 2017. We are the Astro Poets and we want you to remember to turn to poetry when times get rough this month. We want to remind you to stay focused on your goals and remember to respect and love everyone around you. And we are sorry to say this, but there will be some rough patches, particularly mid-month. As Keats would say “Scenery is fine — but human nature is finer.” Try to remember that and to worship at all of the complexities we all can be.
Aries: Sugar flour for bread — it does make you feel very tired. But If there is one thing you do like, it’s new beginnings. Maybe here is the time to show your stuff. The good news is the year is both positive and pretty exciting. Try not to sink into your own face. There is an elegant breathing image on the other side of the wall. Read Lydia Davis.
Book recommendation: Lydia Davis, Can’t and Won’t
Taurus: Refresh your memory into spaces that would never be forgotten, but that you put aside last year. Yes, this does mean love. You are always the person who is there, but consider what being there really means. There is an animal from the forest who will visit you in a dream. Read Alexander Chee.
Book recommendation: Alexander Chee, The Queen of Night
Gemini: You want everything and this can be a let down when everything is not graspable. Take what you can and pick the parts that do not interest you. Instead of throwing these aside like usual, turn them over in your hands. There is something important there. Read Paul Beatty.
Book recommendation: Paul Beatty, The Sellout
Cancer: The pink flower in the blue garden is not the thing to pick. But wow you do know that very well. Your job is to teach that to everyone. And when the person goes for it, do not knock their hand, but distract them with your mind. That is your strength, dear warrior. Read Yoko Ono.
Book recommendation: Yoko Ono, Between The Sky and My Head
Leo: You’re facing big life decisions this entire year and they start now. Try to avoid people around you who appeal to your ego, as difficult as this is for you. They will not tell you the truth. Cry in front of someone. Go against your nature of perfection. Sleep with a silver string under your pillow. And read Lorca.
Book recommendation: Federico Garcia Lorca, Selected Poems
Virgo: Change the internal external: buy a new chair or rearrange the old around a window. Buy two new plants and name one after an ex and another after a new love interest. Tend to both with care. And read Robert Hayden.
Book recommendation: Robert Hayden, Collected Poems
Libra: The less seriously you take yourself, the better this year will be for you. This means leaving self-deprecation behind. Avoid mirrors this month. Wear blue and think about the unbothered sea. That’s you. Read Zadie Smith.
Book recommendation: Zadie Smith, Swing Time
Scorpio: Many things from career to relationships are shifting around you. Remember you’re at your best when you’re assertive and passionate. Avoid enemies and old lovers as hard as this is for you. Sit in front of a body of water and have cinnamon with something at least once a week. Read Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Book recommendation: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists
Sagittarius: This is the year of purpose, restraint and fulfillment. Read next to a tree. Don’t mock your goals. Do one thing every week that connects you to the past. Remember to keep moving and take trips as often as you can. They keep your thinking new. And read Foucault.
Book recommendation: Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge & The Discourse on Language
Capricorn: This is a year that will startle you. Break your routines and take time every week to do one thing that goes against your nature when it comes to your friendships. Change where you sleep and the location of your bed. Find one metal, one wooden, and one stone relic and put them in your kitchen. Read Susan Sontag.
Book recommendation: Susan Sontag, As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh
Aquarius: Do you like the person who wears a false head or has the butterfly taken it’s toll? Maybe there is something that is strong that has been waiting or maybe you know it already. Instead of the moon, the land with which you walk along will give you answer. Carry a turnip. Read Langston Hughes.
Book recommendation: Langston Hughes, The Dream Keeper and Other Poems
Pisces: You will change in ways you had not dreamt of and you did dream of quite a lot. But what you dream and what will happen will not be the same thing. The eyes that speak of the future do not come from the human, but from the glowing seed. Find it. Read Etel Adnan.
Book recommendation: Etel Adnan, Night
Astro Poets (aka @poetastrologers) are our lyrical guides to the cosmos, and also extraordinary poets. Dorothea Lasky’s latest collection of poetry Rome was published by W.W. Norton. Alex Dimitrov’s Begging For It was published by Four Way and his forthcoming collection Together and By Ourselves will be published by Copper Canyon Press in 2017. Find more of their work here and here.
Illustrations are by Alison George.
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