#richard siken

One of my dearest held principles that I share with as many actors as possible is actually quite simple: read poetry. This is even more applicable if you’re also a playwright, writer, director, or composer. The overlap between theatre and poetry is huge, and not just with the classics. Music and poetry are inextricably linked. Reading poetry, both casually and out loud, can really help you grow as an actor and give you the skills to better understand text and subtext when it’s presented to you. Below are some of my very favorite poems for actors. Enjoy.

Megan Married Herself– Caroline Bird

Snow and Dirty Rain– Richard Siken

Ode to the Women on Long Island– Olivia Gatwood

The Kindest Thing She Almost Did – Blythe Baird

May We Raise Children Who Love the Unloved Things– Nicolette Sowder

Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note–Amiri Baraka

Good Bones – Maggie Smith

14 Lines From Love Letters or Suicide Notes– Doc Luben

I have more, but these are some favorites.

star-eaters:

“He is inside his body and I am inside my body and it matters less and less.”

— Richard Siken, Portrait of Fryderyk in Shifting Light

cealestrial:

richard siken, the worm king’s lullaby; from “war of foxes”

dearestvita:

“In the dream I don’t tell anyone, you put your head in my lap.”

—Richard Siken, from I Had a Dream About You

juneacademia:

the inherent romanticism of being thought of.

fuck literary gatekeeping, read whatever you want.

just a little oscar wilde angst for you all.

loveisdamnation:

i want to know you forever and i wish i’d never met you

waiting room, phoebe bridgers | true stories, margaret atwood | cleopatra, the lumineers | unfortunately, it was paradise: selected poems, mahmoud darwish | chinese satellite, phoebe bridgers | crush, richard siken | maurice, e.m. forster | waiting room, phoebe bridgers

[Text ID:

1: If you were a teacher, I would fail your class
Take it over and over ‘til you noticed me
If you were a waiting room, I would never see a doctor
I would sit there with my first aid kit and bleed

2: I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed 
& that necessary.

3: But I must admit it, that I would marry you in an instant 
Damn your wife, I’d be your mistress just to have you around.

4: We are captives of what we love, what we desire, and what we are.

5: But you know I’d stand in the corner
Embarrassed with a picket sign
If it meant I would see you when I die.

6: You said I could have anything I wanted, but I just couldn’t say it out loud.

7: I should have gone through life half awake if you had the decency to leave me alone. Awake intellectually, yes, and emotionally in a way; but here–” He pointed with his pipe stem to his heart; and both smiled. “Perhaps we woke up one another. I like to think that way.

8: I know it’s for the better
Know it’s for the better (x19)

End ID.]

shad0wspinner:

“We have not touched the stars, nor are we forgiven.”

—Richard Siken, excerpt of “Snow and Dirty Rain” (via pippa-blackwell)

these, our bodies, possessed by light

beyondgenre:

Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.

beyondgenre:

So the dead live on as ideas. Does that make your mind a graveyard or one of heaven’s hallways?

beyondgenre:

I’ve always liked quiet people: you never know if they are dancing in a daydream or if they’re carrying the weight of the world.

-John Green, Looking For Alaska.

beyondgenre:

I guess we all have a little bit of ‘i want to save the world’ in us, but i just want to put it out there that it’s okay if you are able to only save one person and it’s also okay if that person is you.

Movie: Reality bites.

I read Richard Siken once and was never same again

JSMSJSMS MY FAV POEM FROM THE BOOK

MY POETRY BOOK IS FINALLY PUBLISHED SMKSMSJSMSJSMSKSMMSMS ITSL IS HERE