Tower of Verse
Greetings! It's the last Friday of 2023, and the Potpourri is looking ship-shape for 2024.
§
True Year's Eve
The new year always feels a little arbitrary to me. I mean, all calendars are essentially arbitrary outside their own syntaxes. But what I mean is that I usually feel like the year has turned over around April. Maybe it's the early spring, maybe it's my birthday, maybe it's the deemphasis that comes with society observing other new years (e.g., Chinese, Islamic, Persian), but that's when life feels new again.
§
Germane Expression on German Expressionism
German expressionism is a film genre that includes atmospheric goth caviar like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, and Metropolis. It's quickly becoming a favorite niche; this week I watched an incredible restoration of The Golem, a movie which apparently leapt straight from the mouth of folklore itself.
§
Another Poetry Challenge
This one is of the reading variety. I've purchased a few volumes of poetry lately and realized I'm sitting on quite a few I haven't finished or even started. I assembled these into the stack you see pictured below; my hope is to get through them in 2024 before buying any new poetry.
§
Dental Fortitude
I've been prescribed some interventions that should help me stop grinding my teeth at night. I'm excited for the potential reduction in jaw pain. Unclench and massage those jaws, folks.
—Dara Khan