Published in An Amygdala

·2 days ago

we.

a poem — what a wound. what a wound. when the emptiness invades I walk around it trained and careful you don’t want impact with that kind of ground maybe we could fill it up with something strong and liquid what a relief to dull the senses your buoyant body finds surface in this…

Poetry

1 min read

we.

a poem

what a wound. what a wound.

when the emptiness
invades

I walk around it
trained and
careful

you don’t want impact
with that kind of ground
maybe we could fill it up
with something strong and liquid
what a relief to dull the senses

your buoyant body finds surface
in this…

Published in An Amygdala

·3 days ago

Don’t Try to Change People. It’s Useless.

Back when I entered one destructive relationship after another, I opted out of contemplating the ramifications of my decisions. I didn’t want to think too hard about why I was on the roller coaster from hell because I frankly had no idea what it would take to get off of…

Advice

3 min read

Don’t Try to Change People. It’s Useless.

Published in An Amygdala

·6 days ago

On Growing and Changing as A Writer

I’m moving into the next phase of setting up interviews with potential project assistants for my writing career. The timing is finally right for me to begin devoting more resources to this space, but *phew* it’s been quite a journey getting here. I remember when I began writing on this…

Writing

2 min read

Published in An Amygdala

·May 3

I’m So over Dressing for the Male Gaze

It started early. I was born into a religious Muslim household. Somewhere along the way, shorts became sinful. Sleeveless shirts mutated into slippery slopes of impropriety. I was not allowed to wear these things anymore. I have a vague memory of my bathing suit draped over the silver rod of…

Feminism

3 min read

Published in An Amygdala

·Apr 27

Paid Project: Help Me Organize My Medium Stuff

I usually don’t use Medium as a place to advertise jobs, but here we go. The pay Let’s start with the pay so you can judge if the rest is worth your time. I will not pay you with exposure because that is called exploitation. The minimum hourly wage in California is…

Opportunity

3 min read

Paid Project: Help Me Organize My Medium Stuff

Published in An Amygdala

·Apr 12

On Finally Finding a Job That Works For Me

I love my work. That’s a big thing for me to say because for the majority of my career, I tolerated my work. I tolerated it for the paycheck. I tolerated it because I wanted to be an independent woman who didn’t need marry a man to access financial security. …

Feminism

2 min read

On Finally Finding a Job That Works For Me

Published in An Amygdala

·Mar 31

Honest Bits of Writing Advice That I Didn’t Want to Hear as A Beginner

I have read a lot of bad Instagram poetry. And when I was posting poems to that platform, I held myself to the standard of the quality I found on there. When I decided to leave, my poetry got a little better. I started immersing myself in a different platform…

Self

3 min read

Honest Bits of Writing Advice That I Didn’t Want to Hear as A Beginner

Published in An Amygdala

·Mar 29

I Was My Mother’s Keeper in the Lonely Places

My mother was beautiful. I always saw her as young, more like me than like a “true” adult. She had given birth to me, her first child, when she was only 23 years old. Her hair was shiny, a sea of relaxed waves. Her fingers were delicate and feminine. Her…

Self

5 min read

I Was My Mother’s Keeper in the Lonely Places

Published in An Amygdala

·Mar 28

The Dissonance of Being a Deeply Flawed Writer

The need to be perfect has been following me around like a dreary cloud for decades now, and it has caused me to teeter on an emotional tightrope. I get lost on the spectrum that is, at best, a frustrating nuisance and at worst a debilitating personality crisis. Mine is…

Self

3 min read

The Dissonance of Being a Deeply Flawed Writer

Published in An Amygdala

·Mar 27

You Don’t Have to Heed All the Writing Advice

I dipped my toes into the ocean of online writing about four years ago, via Instagram. There, I wrote lots of poetry ranging in quality from mediocre to cringeworthy. At the time, my feed was filled with other poetry that was trite and mawkish. Somewhere along the way, I started…

Writing

3 min read

we.

we.

a poem

Don’t Try to Change People. It’s Useless.

On Growing and Changing as A Writer

I’m So over Dressing for the Male Gaze

Paid Project: Help Me Organize My Medium Stuff

On Finally Finding a Job That Works For Me

Honest Bits of Writing Advice That I Didn’t Want to Hear as A Beginner

I Was My Mother’s Keeper in the Lonely Places

The Dissonance of Being a Deeply Flawed Writer

You Don’t Have to Heed All the Writing Advice

Rebeca Ansar