The Assemblage Newsletter #71
Welcome to this week’s newsletter from Assemblage. These newsletters usually go out every Friday to highlight some of the top works from the past week, but this week we had to delay it until Saturday. We hope these links (all friend links, so anyone can view them) find you allowing the future to be part of your present.
“The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens.” — Rainer Maria Rilke
We are our future, and the more we allow it to be a part of our present, the more control we will have in making the future what we want it to be.
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 A Singular Story. A Singular Story has been with us at Assemblage for a long time. Read 6 of their essays this week on our homepage.
Collection
Collections are groupings of essays 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 Marriage features 9 different works from 9 different writers that all involve some relationship to marriage. 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 Marriage features one work each from Agnes Louis, Sam Kimberle, Adeline Dimond, Cecil Adkins, Tania Caan, Ashley Walker, Carrie Wynn, Em Unravelling, and Florence Wanjiku.
Essays and Poems From Last Week
I Close A Story by Lisa Alletson
“On that tiny rock-island
with two storm-swept pines,
I write a poem
of today.”
“hoping the brushed toxins would flow
from the inside out,
and all the pain would be released
through my gritty, vagabond fingers
onto the beautiful freedom of a clean, empty page,
that only time and travel would eventually kiss and smudge with age.”
“Carefully handcrafted and worn over time
but unperturbed by society’s maelstrom
just an item being held for eternity
inside of this vessel made of skin”
After Hours by Jessica Lee McMillan
“There is reprieve in dusty window
broadcasting dusk on the panes
aglow with the sun just tucked,
a mercy for eyes in parallax,
a mirror reflecting back
my light lost in waking hours.”
Call Me By Name by Estrella Ramirez
“Or was all the bliss,
all the moments that I miss, just memories
that only exist within the confines
of this sorrowful soul.”
For The Ones Who Think They Care Too Deeply by Megan Minutillo
“I hope you recognize that loving in such a way is a gift — to you and those around you. I hope you see that the world needs people like you, ones who love, even in the scariest of moments. I hope you know that your ability to love is both beautiful and brave.”
Courage Amidst Spring by Bradley J Nordell
“when you will take a step
outside those thin walls of pain
And embrace the warm light
of spring?”
Make These First Date Mistakes And Be Alone Forever by Niki Marinis
“If you’re texting someone else all night long… why are you out on a date? Go sit at home alone and text them, because God knows you wouldn’t want to talk to them in person. Eww.”
Weekly Note
“A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.” — Jean de La Fontaine
What road are you taking right now as an act of avoidance? We all are doing it in some small way, but what if we didn’t. Maybe the detour is worth the destiny, but maybe our destiny didn’t require the detour.
