The Assemblage Newsletter #65
Welcome to this week’s newsletter from Assemblage. These newsletters go out every Friday to highlight some of the top works from the past week. We hope these links (all friend links, so anyone can view them) find you watching the rising sun of a new dawn. You can also view all of our previous letters via the Letters tab on our homepage.
“The sky takes on shades of orange during sunrise and sunset, the colour that gives you hope that the sun will set only to rise again.” — Ram Charan
We got used to rising only to find out it was Groundhog’s Day all over again. Now is the time to break that cycle and learn to bathe in that morning sunrise because even if it’s not perfect, it’s going to come again tomorrow.
Featured Writer
Each week we feature one of our writers and up to six of their essays or poems on the homepage underneath the Featured Essays and Featured Poems sections. This week our Featured Writer is Dave Roberts. Dave writes primarily about growth after grief and the loss of his daughter, Jeannine. Dave published 16 essays at Assemblage in 2020.
Collection
Collections are groupings of stories or poems with an overall theme. You can find Collections on the home page underneath the Featured Stories, Featured Poetry, and Featured Writer sections.
On Depression features 11 different essays or poems from 11 different writers all addressing the elephant in most of our rooms — depression. This section is a great way to get acquainted with multiple works around one theme, as well as to find writers you haven’t read before or ones you shouldn’t miss. Take a look at our Collection this week and see what you may have missed.
On Depression features one work each from Lisa Alletson, Wild Flower, Jonathan Greene, Shristi Jaiswal, S. Wade, Adeline Dimond, Tania Caan, Estrella Ramirez, Pamela J. Nikodem, M.S.Ed, The Rewired Soul, and Cassius Corbin.
Essays and Poems From Last Week
“In the pursuit of endless efficiency and optimal productivity, we take on unmanageable levels of responsibility that prevent us from doing anything well. In our mad dash through life, we slowly begin to wear paper-thin, becoming so fragile that a minor inconvenience can tear us in two.”
A Small Act of Kindness Saved My Life by Cassius Corbin
“Planning to kill myself had never been about wanting to die. I realized, later on, that I actually wanted to live — but to live without this pain.”
Tiny Scraps of Paper by Jonathan Greene
“I write notes to myself as
a cross-stitching of my life
gently sewing myself together
with a handful of reminders”
What Happens When You Rebound To Replace Relationships by Melissa Kerman
“I felt like a hasty movie director, filling my life’s vacant “boyfriend role,” because the chosen man dropped out last minute and I needed to occupy the spot. I didn’t need to pursue a replacement — several actors volunteered as soon as they noticed the opening — so I let them shoot their shot.”
The Cold Earth by Jessica Lee McMillan
“winter brings
less resistance,
bark naked
your petal skin
to the cold earth”
How To Catch-Up in Life When You Feel Like You’ve Wasted Time by Arlene Ambrose
“You were naive. Maybe you got into a relationship that you thought was love. Maybe you derailed your whole life in pursuit of it. Now it’s left you battered, broken, and just a shell of a person you once were.”
The Beauty Game by Daria Krauzo
“We hate how we look because of our new, complicated, post-edited visual culture, because of a fashion industry that has not adapted, a media that forensically analyses women’s bodies, and because we have to eat smart. Our bodies define who we are. So we punish ourselves for not meeting some unreachable and most importantly, unreal, ideal.”
Instead, Abide by Deborah McNamara
“Let life serve as a holy altar,
bowing down
and be heart and blood bound
to your one true path.”
Another Day Without You by Jessica Lovejoy
“I may have survived
another day without you
but tomorrow will be just as blue”
A Softer Place by Megan Minutillo
“Someone who needs a gentle place
to lay their head and speak their
dreams and whisper their fears and
curl up in a warmth that has no
contingency clause.”
Weekly Note
“There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.” — Bernard Williams
Wake up. Watch the sun rise. Allow yourself to hope.
