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The Strange is Beautiful

Alternative self-care for mind obstacles.

poc poet

Zine Review: “Processes: A Meditation” by Terra Olvr

Posted by strange on February 6, 2019
Zine Review: “Processes: A Meditation” by Terra Olvr

There are many different ways to meditate that have been proven to calm your anxiety, depression or other mind obstacles, and to ground you. Some people like guided ones, where a person is speaking for the entire time and tells them what to do or visualize. Others enjoy practicing in silence, and simply letting the mind journey and wander to wherever it needs to explore. “Processes: A Meditation,” a zine by Terra Olvr (she/they) that I bought at their San Francisco Zine Fest table in 2018, is an inbetween option.

For each set of pages, there’s one philosophical sentence on the right-hand page that seems to both acknowledge daily mistakes and struggles, and to encourage taking healthier choices of self-love. And on the left-hand page, there’s a drawing representing what it would look like in a meditative physical form or “how the verses live in the body,” said Olvr.

Posted in: Media Reviews, Shannen | Tagged: #thestrangeisbeautiful, an old blue light, and still to sleep, lgbtq author, lgbtq poet, meditation zine, poc author, poc poet, processes: a meditation, recenter press, san francisco zine fest, sf zine fest, shannen roberts, terra olvr, the strange is beautiful, vipassana, zines

Accepting Difficult Change: Poetry by Georgia St. Jones

Posted by strange on October 17, 2017
Accepting Difficult Change: Poetry by Georgia St. Jones

My mother had been wanting to move to Lancaster since we started going through the moving process. It was me and my negative energy that kept us in L.A. for so long. It took me a long time to accept that my future was no longer in Los Angeles.

Posted in: Georgia St. Jones, Poetry, TSIB Staff Poetry | Tagged: anxiety, black poets, depression, georgia st. jones, lancaster, poc poet, poem, poetry, sad poems, the strange is beautiful

Poetry with Dinora: “Let Me Be Free”

Posted by strange on October 5, 2017
Poetry with Dinora: "Let Me Be Free"

there is something inside of me begging to come out
the little voice inside of me is bigger than i am
and instead of listening to it, i run away
i run away to secret places, libraries, book stores, coffee shops
anywhere to be away from my family who hover over my life,
over my choices,
over my mistakes.
i like to be left alone
don’t bother me unless it’s necessary
i am not anti-social
but maybe i am
it is hard to think, hard to write
when everyone wants to know about me
and i want to know nothing.
one day i’ll figure out
one day i won’t come back to the city that molded me
broke me
and loved me back again.
sometimes things don’t work out
and maybe i’m not meant to stay here forever
i’ll leave, i’ll leave
somewhere
anywhere
far, far away
where i won’t be found.

Posted in: Dinora, TSIB Staff Poetry | Tagged: dinora, female poet, poc poet, poc poetry, poetry, self care, self love, the strange is beautiful, tsib

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