41 Comments
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BuyNowSellLater's avatar

I think you just wrote the best treatise on presence I’ve ever read, and it involved raccoons and serial killers. Magnificent.

Lucy Morley Williams's avatar

I loved this

I am addicted to Nordic Noir crime fiction and I feel no shame - if there is no grizzly murder of extreme sadism I am not interested. In the interests of equal death opportunities I do need men to be victims too - rather than the female count rising . Oh I am also addicted to Cheese Strings.

keep writing.

Paulette Bodeman's avatar

Thanks for restacking and introducing me to this publication.

Anna Judd's avatar

Thanks for being here Paulette!

Lucy Morley Williams's avatar

my pleasure - it is great and happy that you found a resonance

Nina Simperi's avatar

You're a modern day mystic and pulling weeds IS complicated AF because they FIT IN the ecosystem if not our aesthetics or desires.

Talking to things helps, even swearing at things helps, because communication comes over, in all shapes and forms. Thank you for the ever helpful tip of what lettuces and frogs love. And for all the rest.

Stay wild, stay true, stay you.

Thank you!

Anna Judd's avatar

Ah yes! Thank you from the very middle of my heart- for reading this and letting it land. And for leaving this wonderful comment. You get it. I can feel that in your work as well. It vibrates 🤍Talking to everything does help. And swearing at things! Yes. That happens too. The ecosystem is very real and everything does have a life. Once you feel this you simply cannot unfeel it. Also. The toads will love you forever if you put the hose on the mist setting. It's really kind of wonderful to behold. I swear they make heart eyes at me when i do this :)

Alexandra Winteraven (they)'s avatar

anna, this is the kind of writing that rehydrates my soul. not because it’s pretty (though it is), but because it’s in relationship. with the weeds, the wind, the madness of presence, with the sheer absurdity of being a feeling creature inside a collapsing world that still insists on constantly blooming. i cackled at the true crime confession, and for some reason knowing this makes me like you more. this piece made me feel less alone in the way i talk to my books while they’re still in boxes and whisper apologies to spiders i didn’t mean to kill. thank you for telling the truth so generously and so strangely. i feel more real after reading this.

Anna Judd's avatar

Alexandra :)

I knew that you would understand this piece. And I'm so grateful that you took the time to read, and that it landed. I also feel less alone reading your work, and this reciprocity pleases me so much. Feeling less alone in my wild, unhinged way of understanding reality gives me the courage to really TRULY express myself. And yeah, I feel you on the spiders. I always try to give them twenty-four hours notice before I do heavy cleaning, but the pang of guilt remains. :).

Alexandra Winteraven (they)'s avatar

24 hours' notice...you're clearly a more evolved spider diplomat than i am. i try to gently remove them and somehow always end up breaking a leg. it's a tragic, well-intentioned failure. also: this reciprocity pleases me too. thank you for meeting me in the strange.

@polizei_1's avatar

A wonderful "much to do about nothing" and everything to do about living feel.. a rythem to die for.. if one so wishes :)

Siobhán M O'Connor's avatar

Also, I think I discovered you today because yesterday I wrote a poem that had both the words 'feral' and 'unhinge(d)' in it. Universe pointing me this way...

Siobhán M O'Connor's avatar

Offfff. That was the sound I made when I finished reading this. Thank you SO MUCH for writing this. Amazing. I think I will indeed start talking to more things.

Anna Judd's avatar

Ah, so nice to meet you! If you're writing poems with those words, we are definitely family. 🥰 can't wait to check this out! Thank you so much for reading and for the kind words. ❤

Siobhán M O'Connor's avatar

The wilding and the feraling is kind of new, I'm being called to it, or something like that. And I'm listening. I want to be in this tribe. 💕

Black Bees's avatar

Brahman experience

Anna Judd's avatar

Gonna look this up :)

effy hara's avatar

Oh i love you Anna. What you describe with the weeds is exactly how I feel in the gym. Pulling at each muscle fiber one by one. Listening. Getting into the grooves, the knots, the gnarled parts, the nuance. Over and over and over till everything is lit up, illuminated, full of breath. Until I’m aware of the connection.

Fun fact you might enjoy - muscles can only pull! there’s actually no pushing involved even when it seems to be what we’re doing. I like to let that tumble around in my mind sometimes.

Paulette Bodeman's avatar

Thanks to Dr Lucy Morley from Square Peg Women for restacking this post and introducing me to feral but friendly. It's comforting to know I'm not alone in well, talking to everything. Great post!

cora taylor's avatar

This is the most engaging writing I've read in a long while - and your photography is art! Well done, Anna.

Samara's avatar

Love this. Been there, feel you on all of it and love your juicy descriptions.

“Nature is on the warpath.

It. Just. Never. Stops.” 😂yep

Anna Judd's avatar

Nice! So so glad to meet you samara. So many mystics in our midst. Its so gratifying. We all gotta stay connected, to remind each other. You know? 🤍

Samara's avatar

Very very true! And so glad to meet you too 🌿

wildflower's avatar

I love the way you write!! 🤍

Anna Judd's avatar

Aw thank you maestra! 😊 So kind of you to say.

wildflower's avatar

My pleasure. I enjoyed every word!! 🤍

Mike Ketch Poetry's avatar

same, same, and same, and same, and same, same, chatterbox falls, beautiful portrait of what matters 🌞🧡✍️🌻☕️

Anna Judd's avatar

Chatterbox Falls sounds like a place I'd like to visit someday :)

Thank you so much Mike. 🥰

Abbey Wade's avatar

Anna!!! I love this so much. I talk to everything too!! I personify EVERYTHING and have never known why.

Your way of words is beautiful and I saw every single one of them

Anna Judd's avatar

Abbey, I always feel so seen and understood by you. It doesn't surprise me that you build a rich relationship with the world around you and with reality itself. I've noticed you're kind of masterful at that. Thank you so much. 🤍

Abbey Wade's avatar

I feel the same about you!! Truly. It must be that groundedness.. the openness and desire to loop everything into existence. I feel that in you. And it’s beautiful.

C.S. Mee's avatar

BOOM!! Hell yeah