life is nothing how he expected it would be when he was young and living under the delusion that things could be controlled. nothing can be controlled. only endured.

• recursion, blake crouch

after receiving / the new year's well-wisher: / who the hell was that?!

• the penguin book of haiku, author unnamed

no need for alarm! / inevitably precedes / need for alarm

• the penguin book of haiku, gansui

my hometown: / however misted over / still grotesque

• the penguin book of haiku, issa

hitting rock bottom / everyone helps each other — / that's humanity

• the penguin book of haiku, nokōrō

why should we wait for the future to solve today's problems? the future will have its own problems, but we will not be in that future.

• "soda-sun," mikhail ancharov

we always transfer our unfulfilled desires to a place where we are not. that is why the past seems better than the present, and the future seems more desirable. we either run forward or scramble backwards in our effort to glimpse the merry face of happiness. reminiscence is a wrenchingly bitter sweetness.

• "soda-sun," mikhail ancharov

violence against nature always goes hand in hand with violence against people.

• the deluge, stephen markley

i made up my mind to never again allow a man to determine the course of my happiness. maybe one forms scar tissue too thick for any more hurt to pierce them, but i likened it more to living on my own terms.

• the deluge, stephen markley

one came to understand that we all purchased, voted, worshiped, and loved in unconscious obedience to narratives we thought were original, but which were largely dreamed up in sterile boardrooms like the one in new york. then we went and called these stories our passions and dreams.

• the deluge, stephen markley

to let the infotainment bath of the day stream over you was to slowly scrub away at the skin of your own humanity.

• the deluge, stephen markley

if you don’t give other people responsibility for your feelings, you can have a decent relationship with most of them.

• funny story, emily henry

if a person lets you down, it’s time to reconsider what you’re asking of them.

• funny story, emily henry

you can’t force a person to show up, but you can learn a lesson when they don’t.

• funny story, emily henry

as if change were not / something that just happens / at certain stages / but a private test failed / moment by moment / as age is.

• "the old cosmologists," kay ryan