On Love Letters
100 readers, girl dinner, and how this newsletter came to be <3
Dear reader,
I wasn’t supposed to write about this until we made it to 10 issues, but I couldn’t keep it in any longer. In just two months, we’re 100 subscribers strong! I haven’t made it easy, or convenient, to join this - in the hopes that it would reach only those people who really want to read it. My goal was really just to get 10 subscribers who would really read this thing - so the fact that there’s 100 of you is overwhelming, beautiful, and inconceivable at the same time. Thank you so much for being here.
That being said, here’s the story of how Poetry in Motion was born.
This newsletter has been in the making for about 3 years - but it got a helpful push from my current partner. He’s different from the ones before him - switches off his phone for most of the day and has zero social media.
I’m chronically online and social media has been a stream of income for me since my late teens. As a result of that, seeing how absolutely uncluttered his mind is baffles me sometimes. It also gave rise to a lot of letters and notes passed between weeks because of all the things I couldn’t normally WhatsApp him. It turns out a lack of meme exchanges encourage things like love letters. I’ve only just stopped cringing about it.
Getting into the flow of writing every week was an absolute game changer, even if it’s for something as anachronistic and cheesy as this. Eventually, I got into the habit of writing them every week - and I’m all for displays of affection like that, but at some point it became overkill even for a hopeless romantic like me - so I channeled that writing time into what you’ve been reading for the past 8 weeks!
Cheese aside, here’s some other stuff I’m loving:
Vlog Brothers: Brothers Hank and John Green (yes, from that book) upload vlogs addressed to each other for 16 years now. That’s like, since YouTube was born. These two singlehandedly taught me everything I needed to know to pass high school - and this little personal but also public catch up call always strikes me as one of the purest love letters of our time. No one will love you like a sibling does :)
GUTS: Olivia Rodrigo is…something else entirely. She’s the pop icon I would’ve loved as a teenager - and her sophomore album is so worth the hype. Talk about a girl who just doesn’t miss! Vampire is the track on everyone’s minds right now (and if you’ve ever felt someone completely use you for your value and drain all of your energy - gosh, it’s relatable), but personally my favourite is All American Bitch.
Something about the soundscape of that perfect 70s-era long haired, kind, radiant, Sunshine Barbie with all the rage of a real girl confronted with the real world hits the spot. Read about its literary inspiration in this article.
This listicle of the ‘10 best love letters ever’. I don’t usually love the simplistic gloss of articles like this - but it’s interesting to see all the phases and kinds of love in these snippets from Beethoven, Frida Kahlo, Virginia Woolf and more.
This three minute TikTok about the meme ‘girl dinner’ and what it signals for girls all over the world. I kid you not, it has changed my entire life.
Of course, being a hopeless romantic can often be more hopeless than it is romantic: the people we love hurt us, the people we hurt show us we’re not perfect, and things aren’t as pretty as we want it to be. So what is a girl to do? What is love when it has no place to go? Some call it grief. Some call it hope. Some have to live in the space where those two exist at the same time. It’s never fun, but when it’s over, it breeds so much gratitude.
Thinking about love always makes me think of everywhere I’ve been, and everyone I’ve known. Love letters: in ink, in song, in video, is why I’m an artist and why I’m not sure how I could ever be anything else. It’s why no matter what, I cannot give this irrational life up.
If I am not documenting how we love, how we must love, why we must keep going, then I’m taking it all in for myself. I hope you’re finding a minute in between your day to remind yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing too.
Sending you all lipstick kisses and butterflies in your stomach,
Kaav.