59 Comments
User's avatar
akaexcvvvte's avatar

This feels personal and abstract in a way that makes me want to know the specifics of its inspiration!

MoTy's avatar

Unconscious, on a long journey. Without going into detail. Maybe that clears things - or not. Either way, it's fine. Thank you for the support.

akaexcvvvte's avatar

The unconscious is a deep, vast place, or so I hear.

MoTy's avatar

You hear right @akaexcvvvte x

Live as Art's avatar

Priestage is how you form your poetics QUEEN 🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛

MoTy's avatar

Thank you Sevda. This comment adds at least 2 years to my lifespan🖤

20th Century Fox's avatar

That made me laugh out loud 💋

pen n. bolsillo's avatar

tortured;

unspent;

pristine;

thirsty

https://dictionarybreath.substack.com/p/cubed

MoTy's avatar

Cubed poets everywhere, thank you pen n.

Rafa Joseph's avatar

There's nothing organic at all in this poem! Even the thing being subjected to all of this feels less like a human, and more like an android... that can bleed and be thirsty.

Radiohead circa 2000 would have been an even greater band, with you writing the liner text for all of its albums.

Paranoid. Pressed metal cage. Vector unknown. Jesus detection mode... activated.

MoTy's avatar

Haha I’ll take the Radiohead liner notes gig anytime. And yes - android with a pulse was definitely the intention. Thank you Rafa, your words mean a ton.

Rafa Joseph's avatar

Thank you, MoTy, for not being a stranger!

It's my life's mission to gather all the world's finest minds unto myself, link them up with wide rubber cables, then collectively play a chess match against Morphy's ghost. 🤔

MoTy's avatar

Excellent idea, I’m all for it.

Rafa Joseph's avatar

Ghostbusters on standby, in case things get out of hand. 💪

Earl Nobdy's avatar

I often feel time pressed remorseless against my mouth

Pakiza Gondal's avatar

Writing chemistry 🧪 💕

MoTy's avatar

Thank you @Pakiza Gondal

erin's avatar

There’s a sense of inevitability in your phrasing…doesn't feel like you’re building; it feels like the sentence was already there and you just uncovered it like a muscle, like a reflex. Thank you🖤

MoTy's avatar

You got me there, my little pocket rocket. All in plain sight for those sharp eyes. Thank you @erin🖤

Bertold Lagaro's avatar

I dived deep and deeper. Between not between the lines is where you can't really take another breath and you don't need to.face down in the mud.tied

MoTy's avatar

Permission not to breathe is where the void knots its links.

Bertold Lagaro's avatar

There is a moment before everything is gone, where the sharp inhale holds the entire weight of existence. Time folding inward, memory and possibility colliding. Everything that ever was and will be suspended in that single, fragile breath.

MoTy's avatar

I always thought that inhale would cut deep - ferociously. It doesn't.

theinkspilled's avatar

Moty this is visceral. The way you suture anatomy to ache is breathtaking. I’m always mesmerized by your approach to words. Also can we talk about how beautifully you created the contrast between the heavy parts like iron-heavy;

rope.twisted;

thumb.chemically_powdered;

To the softness in palmar.vein(speaks(of.you))

I adore this piece.

MoTy's avatar

Dearest sister from another mister - you strive in the space between anatomical and psychological. That's why this is so clear. I can talk to you about anything. Always. Thank you🖤

theinkspilled's avatar

Always🖤

Daniil Frolov's avatar

I do enjoy your syntax MoTy. It does inspire me to create new pathways. Always what's great about substack. Lovely.

MoTy's avatar

Thank you @Daniil Frolov. I never imagined my syntax could inspire anyone. I've just stayed consistently weird. Glad it works, though.

Daniil Frolov's avatar

Ooh I love consistently weird.

wildflower's avatar

It was so hard to choose what to quote, each line, each word is fantastic!! 🖤

MoTy's avatar

I'm speechless. Thank you for all the love - sending it right back at you @wildflower 🖤

Michael John Hulley II's avatar

captivating

enigmatic

and compelling

an excellent piece as always, M

This stanza, and part, particularly spoke to me:

compliant;

head(tilted.exhale);

measured(from.behind);

fingertips.pleading—

hesitant

sculpted(by.darkness);

pain.looping(his.neck);

oxblood(seared.onto.retina):

MoTy's avatar

Thank you so much, M. Your words mean more than you know. Not surprised you chose this stanza - it starts with "compliant."

Michael John Hulley II's avatar

You’re most welcome.

That’s lovely to hear.

Indeed 🙂

UpsilonA's avatar

claustrophobic...

Your form intensifies the sense of panic. It's visceral.

MoTy's avatar

Exactly what I aimed for. Thank you so much @UpsilonA

Gan's avatar

containment, control, intimate proximity, body knowing without identity

MoTy's avatar

Eight words say it all. Amazed and thankful for how you read me @Gan

Damien's avatar

“eyes(thriving.in.darkness);

remembering(your.shape);

black.holes(thinking.themselves.open);

destabilised;”

Sometimes I go in the dark to see. Sometimes in the dark I see better.

Memories play in the nothingness.

Time warps through black holes opened in the void.

Stability is overrated.

MoTy's avatar

Of course it’s overrated. Thank you D. We should go for a beer sometime x

Damien's avatar

Always down for socializing!! You’d be fun conversation. I can already tell.

Mark Crutchfield's avatar

So many good lines in this would be my first thought MoTy, but it's the embodiment of the actions, and the deep somatic nature of your words that are felt before being understood that hits between the eyes.

Palms over eyes, the shift from single experiential moments to a shared language in synchrony, metalic, loops inside loops, ear to neck and the line black.holes(thinking.themselves.open);

some.writing(waits(for.meaning));

this.one

moves.first;

under.the.skin

love.it;

MoTy's avatar

Mark, not only do I appreciate your syntax, but you also digest my writing with finesse. You’re on the money. Absolute pleasure to read your comment. Yummy.

Mark Crutchfield's avatar

I love reading absorbing it! Truly!

MoTy's avatar

Absorption is the correct word, cheers Mark!