Miss Lonelyhearts Embraces the Cripple
Such an ancient and evolutionary magic, Love, so often invoked and so rarely successfully. You are the spellbook, as we are all spellbooks, so you must study it. “It” means your Self and the quality of its relationships to other Selves with other spellbooks, who are just as ancient and evolutionary as you.
If you spent more time studying this Book of Self, you would no longer fear being alone; loneliness is the best lighting by which to read, and the content of your own book assures you that loneliness will never be anything to fear, so long as it is embraced and cooperated. You are whole; you are reminded of the Thing that entered your body and never left, that immensely yearning throb to believe in the best of yourself and all selves.
As you read yourself more, you will be able to imagine things you never dreamt possible. Your mind and soul will be filled with the vocabulary to create a world of miracles, with every child fed, loved, and educated about the most effective ways they can contribute. You will someday understand that people are born racial, uniquely sexual and gendered, but nobody is born saying things like, “Oh, I don’t think I could ever marry a black guy.”
I know a lot of people have a “type,” as in, a typical appearance to which they’re sexually attracted. But please keep two things in mind: 1.) it’s dangerously easy to mistake socially programmed responses for genuine personal attraction, and 2.) you miss out on most of what life offers when you judge your experiences by appearance alone.
Love always,
your Mister
P.S. – The title of this poem comes from Chapter 11 (“Miss Lonelyhearts and the Cripple”) of Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts, the novella upon which this entire project is based.
Lonely Hearts Chapel 