Literary Tattoos

I have spent a bit of time on contrariwise.org looking at literary tattoos and coming up with what line or poem or quote from the literary vaults I would put on my body and where.


Bukowki's 'Bluebird' is perhaps my favorite poem of all time (or at least for this month) but I have found it near to impossible to pick just one or two lines from it. If you happen to know the poem or get the chance to clicky on the link, give me your favorite line or two and let me mull it over.

This guy picked one of my less favorite poems by Bukowski 'my doom smiles at me'...and an obscure line from it as well: But hey, to each their own. I do like the type font though.

Here's another Bukowski tattoo:

Which is an excerpt from Love is a Dog from Hell.

I don't like this actual tattoo but I love the poem:



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


One of my favorite quotes is from Henry James, who is also my favorite author. -I've always been interested in people, but I've never liked them.


And of course Hemingway has "There is not friend as loyal as a book."


Just because it's boring me to list these ideas I have I'll wind up with two quotes from Barrie's Peter Pan which has a very special place in my heart.
“Oh, the cleverness of me!” -Peter Pan

Peter: Forget them, Wendy. Forget them all. Come with me where you’ll never, never have to worry about grown up things again.

Wendy: Never is an awfully long time.

When the Short People begat Giants the Sixth Sign was Revealed

Jeremiah and I are not very tall people. He is around 5'8" if that and I am under 5'3".

We also happen to have very tall children. Granted, three of these children do not belong to me and Jeremiah, they belong to me and my 6'5'' ex husband BUT

...this is my blog and I'll go with whatever fucking logic I want so go jump out a window or something ridiculous like that.

Or don't, which would be fine as well. Better yet maybe you shouldn't jump out a window at all, I think it would be better for both of us if you didn't do that. OK? OK.

Regardless my point is that I have this weird future vision of Jeremiah and I standing at one of our kids' graduation parties or proms, insert family occasion here, surrounding by four giants. Lovely, beautiful giants but giants nonetheless.

Our pediatrician likes to makes guesses on her patients' adult heights and rewards herself when she's right. (Talk about a long term gambling problem) So the other day she took her turn at guessing my kids' adult heights. (Also she gives herself a 2 inch leeway which is bullshit)

Rosey, my eldest daughter got the most specific height 5'8''-5'9''. She'll supposedly be our smallest child...more than 6 inches taller than me.

Olive, (who will be 9 years old on Sunday!) will be 6'0''-6'2''. And actually I might guess taller considering she has two aunts taller than that on her dad's side and she's built just like them.

Maxine Jane who was very underweight and under height (is that even a term?) for the first five years of her life consistently is now approaching giant status with gusto. She will be 5'9''-5'11''.

Elijah will be in the same approximate height category as Olive, 6'0''-6'2''.

Wouldn't it be crazy if I had birthed and raised a gaggle of super models!? I'm not sure if that's the lifestyle I would want my children to lead but hell! They might all be naturally very thin and won't have to do uppers and coke all the time to maintain their weights. Maybe they could all be those natural type thin people like Gwyneth who eat macrobiotic raw foods and do yoga and pilates.

What do you think?