lighting the candle...

entering the cave...

~ tradition ~

BEFORE ANY MEETING BEGINS, THE CAPTAIN READS...

I went to the woods

because I wished to live deliberately,

to front only the essential facts of life,

and see if I could not learn what it had to teach,

and not, when I came to die,

discover that I had not lived.

— Henry David Thoreau

SCROLL

▸ history of the present · muted reel

timesnewrania

poet. deliberate chaos.

RANIA ALI SHAH

patternspilldeliberateunknownwanderrebellionmeaningstructurescatteredbecomingunravelingthreadedquietrebellionsoftedgesbetweenalmoststillagainsuddenturnspilledheldloosetightbreathewildcagefreeordernoiseechoselfalmostdriftfracturecollidewhisperstaticcompasslostfoundmidnightmargininkbleedtanglequiethumstaticspiralfragmentburnsofthardopenclosebreatheagainbecomingundoneremadebetweenalmostalmostalmostyesnomaybestillgo

I — A QUIET REBELLION

Organized Chaos

i would introduce myselfas a kind of organised chaosthe kind that looks scattered from a distance,like nothing quite belongs where it should.but if you stayed,if you really looked,you'd see the patternthreaded quietly beneath it all.

i crave structurenot the kind that cages,not the kind that presses walls too close to breathebut the kind that holds me just enoughto let me wander safely into the unknown.

i am not made for boxes,for neat lines or predictable endings.i need the sudden turn,the unplanned thought,the moment where everything spillsand somehow still makes sense.because my chaos has never been careless.it is deliberate.a quiet rebellion that always finds its way back into meaning.and somewhere between the order and the unraveling,i become myself.


from her page ↓

II — FROM THE ASHES, A QUIET BLADE

All Is Never Lost

in silence deep, the echoes fade,yet hope remains, a quiet blade.from ashes rise the dreams we sought,in every loss, a lesson taught.

though shadows loom, the heart holds fast,what's lost in time is never past.

from her page →

london eye

london eye

loch ness

loch ness

the drawer

the drawer

london eye

london eye

the girls

the girls

edinburgh

edinburgh

III — LAUGHTER AFTER LAUGHTER

Nostalgia

a word that drifts through my mindyet i wonder if i've ever truly felt it

what if the past doesn't need to haunt mebecause what i have nowis already what i once dreamed of

what if the fading memoriesaren't just echoesbut seeds growing into the futurewe're building hand in hand

laughter after laughterthese peoplemy peoplethese are the stories i'll keep

not a longing for yesterdaybut a reminderthat today is enough

maybe nostalgia never came to memaybe i never needed itbecause life with themis already whole.


watch the reel ↓

i clingrefugethe ache feels realis happiness not enough?where shadows lingercomfort i cannot findwhat i can't explaintight

IV — A REFUGE WHERE FEELINGS GROW

Cling to Pain

why do i cling to pain so tight?is happiness not enough, in its light?do i search for peace in hurt's embrace,where shadows linger, leave no trace?

why question morality, with weary mind,when comfort's gentle hands i cannot find?is it the ache that feels so real,that in its depths, my soul can heal?

perhaps the pain is all i know,a refuge where my feelings grow.so i cling to it, despite the strain,for i seek in it what i can't explain.


watch the reel ↓

V — PETALS WE COULDN'T SAVE

Broken Flower

in the realm of love's bittersweet embrace,i find myself torn, embraced and misplaced.for perhaps we were destined to nurture and fade,like roses, shed petals on this earthly stage.

that fragile touch, a tender force untamed,broke our roses, scattered petals unclaimed.now we tread upon separate promises,paths unknown, adorned by diverse flowers, colors not our own.

lost within, a mere visitor of my own mind,captivated by the task, a flower to revive and find.yet you journey toward clarity, a crystal-clear quest,while i remain entangled in the opposite, unrest.

i can love you, oh how love shall flow,but how can i resurrect dead petals, i must know?how much water, how much love must i sow,when all is in vain, for the flower no longer glows.

the sun's rays, they pierce, but to no avail,for the bloom is disrupted, lifeless and frail.


from her page ↓

THE POET

Rania Ali Shah

vice captain (ifykyk) · keeper of the cave (carpe diem)

Rania Ali Shah

where are you even lookin at rania?

"she does not write to be understood —
she writes to make the silence say something back."

rania doesn't fit cleanly into one sentence, and she'd be the first to tell you that's the point. she writes from the place between order and unraveling — the deliberate one, the one that always finds its way back into meaning.

she has a soft loyalty to the people she loves. she keeps their names in her margins. she romanticizes ordinary hours — a kettle, a friend's voice, the rain hitting the window at exactly the right time. she calls it living deliberately. her poems call it the same.

— Ranoo ✎

SHE WRITES

(i need to ask her)

HER HOURS

(i need to ask her)

HER CHAOS

(i need to ask her)

HER LOYALTY

(i need to ask her)

HER REBELLION

(i need to ask her)

HER FAVORITE KIND OF LOVE

(i need to ask her)