26 quotes by Lesbians for the 26th of April⚢

"In the heat of her hands I thought, This is the campfire that mocks the sun. This place will warm me, feed me and care for me. I will hold on to this pulse against other rhythms."

Jeanette Winterson; 𝘞𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘰𝘥𝘺

"I feel the want and need often for the society of women, exclusively."

Audre Lorde; 𝘔𝘢𝘯 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥: 𝘈 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘓𝘦𝘴𝘣𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘍𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘵’𝘴 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦

"What has happened now is that I’ve fallen madly in love with a woman. And it seems to me so absolutely natural and genuine – there’s nothing problematic about it at all. I just feel proud and uncontrollably glad."

Tove Jansson; in a letter to Eva Konikoff

"My body is yours as my heart is yours. Sometimes I want you so terribly physically that I can hardly bear it. I can't feel ashamed of that."

Hilda Matheson; in a letter to Vita Sackville-West

"I want to die as I lived, between your thighs."

Natalie Clifford Barney, 𝘞𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘥 𝘞𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯

"Why are women by far the loveliest things in the world? There’s nothing to touch them, I suppose that’s why I have such an innate admiration for my own sex..."

Violet Keppel Trefusis; in a letter to Vita Sackville-West

"Ah! vous ne savez pas, vous, la volupté des enlacements féminins, l'ardeur des caresses lesbiennes..., la douceur endormante des baisers défendus, les réveils en fièvre, en désir de reprises folles..."

Liane de Pougy; 𝘐𝘥𝘺𝘭𝘭𝘦 𝘚𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘦

"If in my arms she soft as peaches lie, Why then, I’ll simply say, “How happy I!"

Vita Sackville-West; 𝘒𝘪𝘯𝘨'𝘴 𝘋𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳

"Two women, eye to eye measuring each other’s spirit, each other's limitless desire, a whole new poetry beginning here."

Adrienne Rich

"I realised that I had been missing her even before we met."

Violette Leduc; Thérèse and Isabelle

"Never, even after my death, will my soul cease aching over her."

Sophia Parnok

"Lunatic for Venus flesh So sweet in the night I do not know if I have woven her Pygmalion, out of my desires Or if indeed those hours she lay Beside, under me."

Maureen Duffy; 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯

"And as all Orlando’s loves had been women, now, though she was herself a woman, it was still a woman she loved; and if the consciousness of being of the same sex had any effect at all, it was to quicken and deepen those feelings."

Virginia Woolf; 𝘖𝘳𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰

“Someone will remember us I say even in another time"

Sappho, tr. Anne Carson

"We need not talk at all, our eyes would whisper for us, and your hand fast in mine, we would not ask for language."

Emily Dickinson, in a letter to Susan Gilbert

"my lover is a woman
& when i hold her
feel her warmth
     i feel good
     feel safe"

Pat Parker; 𝘔𝘺 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘐𝘴 𝘢 𝘞𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯

"Smooth, open petals—her arms. Fragrant, outcurved petals—her breasts."

Amy Lowell; 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘯

"You would never know that I love you when you never hear anything from me, but I do — and forever."

Greta Garbo, in a letter to Salka Viertel, c.1962

"Men never know anything about [love], why should they? But a woman should know—they are finer, more sacred; my love is sacred and my love is great!”

Djuna Barnes, 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥

"It is my nature to seek repose in some calm, tranquil idea, and I have now summoned up your image to give me rest."

Charlotte Brontë, in a letter to Ellen Nussey, c. 1836

"Next to my own skin, her pearls. My mistress bids me wear them, warm them, until evening when I’ll brush her hair. At six, I place them round her cool, white throat. All day I think of her"

Carol Ann Duffy; 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘏𝘦𝘳 𝘗𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘴

"I have been playing that the moon was you—my bed is right up against a south window. I put the pillow in the window and go to sleep looking at you to wake up from time to time to see you."

Jane Heap, in a letter to Florence Reynolds

"The shooting stars in your black hair
in bright formation
are flocking where,
so straight, so soon?
--Come, let me wash it in this big tin basin,
battered and shiny like the moon."

Elizabeth Bishop; 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘰

"a sea creature, except
for your two human legs
which tremble
and open
into the dark country
I keep dreaming of."

Mary Oliver; 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘴

"Then slowly and like a ritual
I would take your hand,
And you would laugh a little and say,
"My hands are awfully sticky"—or
"I can't seem to keep my hands clean in this theatre."
As if that mattered … as if that mattered …"

Mercedes de Acosta; 𝘚𝘰𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴

"I will teach you the deliberate slowness of hands that linger over belated contact. I will teach you the tenacity of lips that delicately persist. You will discover the all-consuming power of a gentle caress."

Renée Vivien; 𝘉𝘰𝘯𝘢 𝘋𝘦𝘢