Libera Fatum
A response to Nietzsche’s widespread philosophy of Amor Fati. This is Libera Fatum. Loving your fate and setting your fate free are two very different things. Continue reading Libera Fatum
Tag: poem
Between Costumes
For those who are in-between chapters in their lives, this poem holds the key to what you must do while waiting. A surprising but simple order: be like a child in the waiting room at a doctor’s office. Play. Continue reading Between Costumes
Ignored Explorer
What happens when you over-identify with one side of yourself? There’s an explorer in all of us, sometimes it just gets ignored. Continue reading Ignored Explorer
I Don’t Buy It
If I had a penny for every time somebody told me how to ‘fix’ something about myself that I never seen as a problem, I’d be a millionaire. A poem that explores the insidious trade of our insecurities. How the most rebellious thing you can do is love yourself. Continue reading I Don’t Buy It
Men at Arms
A black-out poem from an old Robert Louis Stevenson piece turned anti-war as a critique of romanticised ‘honour’ in bloodshed. Continue reading Men at Arms
Bells Between Barga
A poem that reflects on cross-cultural love using soft, impressionist imagery and intentional symbols across nations. Partly inspired by Giovanni Pascoli’s L’ora Di Barga. Continue reading Bells Between Barga
The Bird of Madonna
Ailsa Gillies reflects on the mother-child bond through the eyes of a bird after visiting the Ufizzi Gallery in Florence. The Bird of Madonna is a soft reflection on how a mother’s devotion can become self-sacrificial, until the child learns to tend its own wounds. Continue reading The Bird of Madonna
Inherited Goods
Is it better to be good or honest? Ailsa Gillies reflects on the lineage of ‘good’ people that have come before her, noting that self-sacrifice is not romantic, but a quiet stirring of resentment and grief. Continue reading Inherited Goods
Big Feelings
Big Feelings in a small world. This poem comes from the healing found from internal reconciliation, not from the repentance of those who hurt you. Continue reading Big Feelings
Crystallised Self
A poetic follow-on from Prodigal Son, a dialogue with a shedding persona, Ailsa Gillies makes an empowered declaration of what it means to embody the Self. Continue reading Crystallised Self
ailsagillies.com 