ancasa_reyn raze welcome to the red. it's good to have you here. 230327 ... ancasa.reyn merci 230327 ... raze (nice to see you back around these parts.) 250721 ... ovenbird Nice to meet you! Those are some powerful memories you posted. 250721 ... ancasa.reyn thanks. i came here looking for something I'd posted some time ago and decided to hang around for a bit. 250722 ... epitome of incomprehensibility Welcome! And please forgive me for being so late in saying hi (when you started posting here I was in the clutches of a busy work month). But it's not just that I wanted to say. I really like your narrative poems, how a story flows from short and deceptively simple lines, like in "shoplifting" and "Virginia." They're a pleasure to read and reflect on. 250801 ... ancasa.reyn thanks, epitome of incomprehensibility. i apologize for the delay in responding i've been popping in here less regularly lately. and in truth, others' words have left my mouth agape, to the point of feeling i have little or nothing to add. 250907 ... raze i hope this doesn't land in a way that feels at all patronizing, and i don't for a second want to say, "you shouldn't feel what you feel," because your feelings are your own and they're completely valid. but i think i can safely say we all really enjoy having you here. i'm not sure there's anything you've written that i haven't been fascinated or moved by in one way or another. your words are as worthy of being gouged into these red walls as anyone's. not that it's a competition. but a large part of what i've always felt makes blather special is the way it can hold space for so many difference ways of seeing and speaking, with each voice given equal weight. it would be a far less interesting place if we all sang in the same way. i hope you always feel welcome and valued here, whatever the distance might be between visits. 250907 ... ovenbird It's been so lovely to have your voice weaving memories and reflections into this space. I hope you'll stick around! I often wonder if I've managed to have anything of substance to say, but I think we tend to be our own worst critics. I've really enjoyed your writing. I love that everyone here takes very different approaches to working with words and it seems to me that we're all collectively interested in investigating what it means to be alive and sifting through the moments and memories (big and small) that build meaning and help give shape to this world's chaos. 250907 ... ancasa.reyn thank you both for your kind words. there's no question that i'll be sticking around, if for no other reason than to sit in awe of what I read. 250908 ... ovenbird What you just wrote on first_memory is wrenching. I'm sorry that your first memory is something so heavy and dark. But your recollection was powerfully written. I find that you have a sparse and direct style that never tries to force an emotional response from the reader, but leaves all sorts of room for visceral reactions. There's this quiet storm in your words that is really fascinating to encounter. 251117 ... raze you just managed to work a bit of magic, bending vanity_plates into something a lot more meaningful than i ever thought it would be with the story you shared there. thank you for reminding me of one of the things that makes this place so special: a blathe can be anything, and it doesn't have to be defined by its beginning. 260123 what's it to you? who go blather from