Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos

“So it goes.”

- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

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From Brokeback Mountain. The tattoo’s owner says:

It’s what Ennis wrote back to Jack after reciving a postcard asking him if it’s okay to meet again after four years of separation. So it’s actually Heath Ledger’s handwriting on me.

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Last time I saw you
We had just split in two.
You were looking at me.
I was looking at you.
You had a way so familiar,
But I could not recognize,
Cause you had blood on your face;
I had blood in my eyes.
But I could swear by your expression
That the pain down in your soul
Was the same as the one down in mine.
That’s the pain,
Cuts a straight line
Down through the heart;
We called it love.
So we wrapped our arms around each other,
Trying to shove ourselves back together.
We were making love,
Making love.
It was a cold dark evening,
Such a long time ago,
When by the mighty hand of Jove,
It was the sad story
How we became
Lonely two-legged creatures,
It’s the story of
The origin of love.
That’s the origin of love

- Excerpt from Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Origin of Love (full song)

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Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

- Edgar Allan Poe, A Dream Within A Dream

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“Sometimes, when you fall, you fly.”

- Neil Gaiman, The Sandman

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“I’m telling you stories. Trust me.”

- Jeanette Winterson, The Passion

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Drink up baby, stay up all night
With the things you could do
You won’t but you might
The potential you’ll be that you’ll never see
The promises you’ll only make
Drink up with me now
And forget all about the pressure of days
Do what I say and I’ll make you okay
And drive them away
The images stuck in your head

The people you’ve been before
That you don’t want around anymore
That push and shove and won’t bend to your will
I’ll keep them still

Drink up baby, look at the stars
I’ll kiss you again between the bars
Where I’m seeing you there with your hands in the air
Waiting to finally be caught
Drink up one more time and I’ll make you mine
Keep you apart, deep in my heart
Separate from the rest, where I like you the best
And keep the things you forgot

The people you’ve been before
That you don’t want around anymore
That push and shove and won’t bend to your will
I’ll keep them still

- Elliott Smith, Between the Bars (from Either/Or)

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Walking home from work
Stop at the supermarket
The condiment aisle
A jar of pickles catches the eye
Made eye contact with a solitary pickle
Bought the jar, took it home

Then made it up the stairs
And made it through the doorway
And waded through the floor
Tried to head in the general direction of the bathroom
The truest room in the whole damn house

Saying love is the answer to a question that I have forgotten
And I know I’ve been asked
So the answer’s got to be love

So feeding time with TV
Then sleeping time, not sleepy so
Reading time with pickle
But where the bedside lamp had been
Is now emanating soft soft green

Has it always been this way?
Is it possible that all this magic went unnoticed?
Maybe now things will start to change
And life will turn a better page
No more rage

Saying love is the answer to a question that I have forgotten
But I know I’ve been asked
And the answer’s got to be love

Tomorrow back to work again
But run to the supermarket
Running hopeful through the aisles
Haven’t been this happy in a long time
But not a single jar was smiling
After all,
Pickle jars are just
Pickle jars and pickles are just pickles
Ingredients: water, salt, cucumbers,
Garlic, and pickling spices

Love is the answer to a question that I have forgotten
And I know I’ve been asked
And the answer’s got to be love

- Regina Spektor, Reading Time With Pickle from the album Songs

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“Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I’d have the facts.”

- To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

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“The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.”

- Dante Alighieri

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There are places I remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I’ve loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I’ll never ever lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more

Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more
In my life I love you more

- In My Life, From The Beatles’ Rubber Soul album

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“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

- Gandhi

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In English: “God, protect me from my friends. I’ll take care of my enemies!”

- Jacques Mesrine

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1(a

le
af
fa
ll

s)
one
l

iness

- e.e. cummings

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As I sd to my
friend, because I am
always talking, — John, I

sd, which was not his
name, the darkness sur-
rounds us, what

can we do against
it, or else, shall we &
why not, buy a goddamn big car,

drive, he sd, for
christ’s sake, look
out where yr going.

- Robert Creeley, I Know A Man

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i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

- e. e. cummings, i carry your heart with me

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The alphabet.

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Love, Love, Love. Love, Love, Love. Love, Love, Love.
There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done.
Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how
to play the game. It’s easy.
Nothing you can make that can’t be made.
No one you can save that can’t be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how
to be you in time. It’s easy.

All you need is love. All you need is love.
All you need is love, love. Love is all you need.
All you need is love. All you need is love.
All you need is love, love. Love is all you need.

Nothing you can know that isn’t known.
Nothing you can see that isn’t shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be. It’s easy.

All you need is love. All you need is love.
All you need is love, love. Love is all you need.
All you need is love (All together, now!) All
you need is love. (Everybody!)
All you need is love, love. Love is all you
need (love is all you need).

Yee-hai!
Oh yeah!
She loves you, yeah yeah yeah.
She loves you, yeah yeah yeah.

- The Beatles, All You Need Is Love

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[I]

Smiled that kind of icy blue smile of a noonday
Reckoning, the tied together two of tell-tale pictures
I’ve sketched in sand castle plots and plans. similar
Starting points, both for sin and shooting blanks. but
It’s always the unseen sharp pang; the awkward rhythm
Of the dance like a tick-tock clock in that heart of
Hearts repeating, “there is no happy here, there is no
Happy here…” devil may care touches trickled down
Spine, thigh, and breast may never truly illuminate
The finer art of heartwork.

[II]

I was turning over with the sheets, and facing the
Arched back thinking of how my eyes, half-opened,
Caught her arm moving from side to side, but never to
Me. it’s all connected by blank words to tell empty
Promises of clumsy miscommunication. so we say what we
Will, to see what we may, to find a Biblical knowing
Enfolded within the next few hours. it’s too bad, too
Tragic… I spent myself choking on the motions
Leading up to said misfortune.

- Saetia, Some Natures Catch No Plagues

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Leonard Cohen, Let Us Compare Mythologies

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