Everyday is New Year’s Day (even October 1st!) 🥂

I’m not scared of liminal spaces

Back in January, we had the great privilege of being joined by some of you in two thematic poetry workshops: QUEERING RESOLUTIONS which we hosted with Unwanted Words, and HOT PEOPLE DON’T MAKE RESOLUTIONS with The Berlin Writers.

As a part of our mission to platform new writers and showcase poetic experimentation, we left an open invitation to all who participated to publish their work with us (if they were so inclined).

Today, we’re already on our AUGUST resolutions (or, anti-resolutions) with work by Kaci O'Meara and Laura Kell. 🥂🥂🥂🥂

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Odd Oddity. 🧛‍♀️

by Kaci O'Meara (she/her)

this will be my year.

and in my year, I will persevere to be unconventional

talking with the cadence of an English fictional villain

being a tad strange

unusually peculiar. an odd oddity

dainty hands and sharp spikes

white face paint, all black and coloured contacts

this year I will keep weirding people out.

embarrassing with my open unwillingness

to not allow taboo subjects to overstay their label as taboo.

this year I will weird and amaze

with stories of my sex life

which yes, I also turn into poetry

this year it is a high-up resolution to confuse

with my eccentricities

their unease keeps us all on our toes

About Kaci:

Hello! My name is Kaci, a poet from Glasgow city. At the moment I have over 20 published poems, both online and in print. Most of my poetry consists of emotional sad themes, with a twist of gothic horror and gore. Alongside writing, I do photography and modelling (modelling photos with @Hauntedgirfriend) and run an online poetry/feminist newsletter called The Ghoulish Gazette.

For more of my work, you can take a look at my social media accounts! Instagram- @k.omearapoetry @theghoulishgazette, and Tumblr- Gh0thiclygh0ulish-diaries

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I don’t need a new year’s resolution, I need someone to tell me if I’m real 🍂

by Laura Kell (she/her)

things I know are real:
artisanal coffee beans
gut problems
having dreams about being poor
cotton underwear
the smell of orange peels and warmth in my room.
things I think are real:
epistemological solipsism
people saying I should use plant fertiliser
meet cutes
empty dancefloors
my own desires.

took a quiz (thought this might give me some answers): which snoopy plushie are
you? classic, vampire, kisses, puffer coat, popcorn, detective or joe cool snoopy?
You are classic snoopy! You are authentic and original. People love you so much
just as you are

I think it’s really easy to make self-absorbed, masturbatory, navel-gazing art.
what’s hard
is to accept an endless liminality of it all
because I’m not a very imaginative person.
but I’m not scared of liminal spaces
as sometimes I feel so translucid
my existence feels made-up
(except I know I couldn’t have made it up,
precisely because I would lack the imagination for it).
so I’m trying to practice opening myself up to the sublime
every day
trying to exercise this muscle like I would be doing Kegel exercises.
Maybe then
and only then
things will finally stop making sense for me.

I indulge in intellectual masturbation
and pretend to know the difference between ethics and aesthetics
when really the only thing
that deserves any factual consideration
is during autumn when the sun has just gone down and the air is biting but in a
caring way and I’m on the bus enveloped in the darkness of it
and I’m listening to music and it penetrates my body so deeply my skin is hurting
and I’d like to close my eyes but I can’t because
I would miss this moment
with all these trees drifting past behind the window

About Laura:

currently rocking in the warm embrace of academia, trying to find out how to make the world a better place through art (and how to escape the capitalist fever dream of a corporate job). sometimes writing poetry because there's clearly not enough people in the world saying what they think of things. loving the world forever and always even if it's horrible.

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Happy new October everyone! We will be back on November 1st with more new year poems and wishes! Until then,

Xoxo,

PTK