A sample of Poet Muse
Poet Muse
Sasha Nudél
Thought Catalog Books
thoughtcatalog.com
Copyright © 2025 Sasha Nudél.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior written consent and permission from Thought Catalog.
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First Limited Edition Print
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 978-1-965820-20-9
Contents
- Pinterest Girl — 9
- Take it From a Poet — 10
- Curated Vulnerability — 11
- Awe — 12
- Bright Yellow — 13
- Meaningful Exchange — 14
- Untethered Sensuality — 15
- Wild Abandon — 16
- In Conversation with the Infinite — 17
- Maybe — 18
- Playful Sentimentality — 19
- The Only Religion — 20
- Demons — 21
- Quiescent Heart — 22
- Slow and Steady — 23
- Nonverbal — 24
- Soul Ties — 25
- Time-lapse — 26
- Looped Affection — 27
- Extraordinary — 28
- Preserved in Pixels — 29
- Inspire Me — 30
- Rebellion — 31
- Freedom — 32
- Used For Art — 33
- The Psychedelic of Truth — 34
- No Threat — 35
- Sculpture in a Museum — 36
- Poetry — 37
- Exposed and Unseen — 38
- Pillows — 39
- Consumed Alive — 40
- Truth Be Told — 41
- Kinky — 42
- The Trace I Leave — 43
- Color Palette — 44
- Unsolicited — 45
- E-love — 46
- The Match and the Struck — 47
- Insatiable Thirst — 48
- Open and Unafraid — 49
- Masterpiece — 50
- Velvet Fever — 51
- Now — 52
- Theatrics — 53
- Love Worn Thin — 54
- Substance — 55
- Read Me Like You Mean It — 56
- Protect — 57
- A Friend Like a Galaxy — 58
- Jugular — 59
- Naked Truth — 60
- Doppelgangers — 61
- Abundance — 62
- Where the Poem Begins — 63
- From Lust to Death — 64
- Jaded — 66
- French Kiss — 67
- Prayer And Profane — 68
- De-armor — 69
- Stolen Lines — 70
- Lively Lifelessness — 71
- Head in the Clouds — 72
- Cynics — 73
- A Cage for the Soul — 74
- No Touching — 75
- No More — 76
- The Kiss — 77
- The Way You Say Mine — 78
- Borrowed Time — 79
- Desire — 80
- Life — 81
- Feverish Creatures of Youth — 82
- Sienna — 83
- Wishful Apology — 84
- Ode to the Wild — 85
- Beneath the Mask — 86
- Blink — 87
- Mama, Papa — 88
- The Rare Ones — 89
- Memento Mori — 90
- Not Afraid to Die — 91
- Inked Expressions — 92
- Rebellious Desire — 93
- Femme Fatale — 94
- Reminder — 95
- Perfect Rhyme — 96
- Love That Gives — 97
- Defying Time — 98
- Destructive Muse — 99
- Incoherent — 100
- Maybe It Will Bloom — 101
- Equilibrium Unsettled — 102
- Risk It All — 103
- Embracing, Not Becoming — 104
- Where Shadows Forget — 105
- Sensible Love — 106
- Every Lifetime — 107
- Outrageous Lovers — 108
- Wild Animals — 109
- Some Hands — 110
- Bright Eyes — 111
- Listening — 112
- Your Heart Is a Fist — 113
- Thought-less — 114
- Loneliness — 115
- Anchored — 116
- Unrepentant — 117
- Failures — 118
- Rib Spreader — 119
- Self-Intimacy — 120
- Courage — 121
- Enough — 122
- Anew — 123
- In Full Knowing — 124
- Rejections — 125
- The Spaces Between — 126
- Brick by Brick — 127
- Off Balance — 128
- Heartbreakingly Human — 129
- Missing From Me — 130
- Maestro — 131
- Phenomenon — 132
- Cupid’s Error — 133
- Preordained — 134
- Softness — 135
- Lowercase Love — 136
- Soar — 138
- I Drown — 139
- Home — 140
- Faith — 141
- Worth It — 142
- Life After Death — 143
- Love Multiplies — 144
- Turbulent — 145
- My First — 146
- Love Economics — 147
- Inspiration — 148
- Love or Lust — 149
- Panacea — 150
- The Poem We Live — 151
- Birth Day — 152
- Happily Ever After — 153
- Take the Lid Off — 154
- What We Leave Behind — 155
- Poet Muse — 156
Dedicated to you, the poet and the muse,
creating and inspiring in equal measure.
Dear Reader,
Poet Muse is a collection born from the space where the poet and the muse blur into one. In these pages, you’ll find poems from my first two collections, thoughtfully interwoven with new work. Each piece explores the mirror-like relationship we share with inspiration, showing how we reflect it, and how it reshapes us. Poet Muse opens the door to self-reflection and the quiet exploration of the questions we all carry but rarely speak aloud.
This isn’t a book about perfect love. It’s about raw, unfiltered emotion. It’s about desire in its boldest, most honest forms. It’s about claiming your voice, living fully, and daring to feel without apology.
You are not just a reader here. You are a poet. You are a muse.
May you find yourself in these lines, and perhaps leave with a few new ones of your own.
With gratitude,
Sasha
Pinterest Girl
Have you ever wandered through the
daydreams of a Pinterest girl,
where time stands still and old stories are never forgotten?
Soft moments of faded photographs
linger in a world of sentimental longing,
gently brushing your neck with a reminder.
Have you ever danced through a vintage dream?
Whispers from the past caress your ear,
drawing you in with warmth, familiarity,
and a wistful desire for what once was.
Have you ever been enchanted by nostalgia’s tender pull,
as she calls to you from the corners of your soul,
where every breath you take
carries with it the weight of everything unsaid?
Nostalgia can be quite a seductress.
Take it From a Poet
I think everything in life is poetry.
Take it from a multi-passionate self-expressionist,
who marvels at the swirl in the foam of a morning matcha.
Take it from a hopeless romantic,
who gets lost in a reverie at the thought of a lover’s touch.
Take it from a hopeful realist,
who romanticizes death,
for there is no better reminder to
indulge in the here and now.
Take it from an impractical dreamer,
who finds utopia in every profound connection.
Take it from a poet.
Curated Vulnerability
When did vulnerability become something we had to edit?
Aesthetic confessionals have become
a modern form of intimacy,
the grid, a digital altar
of how we want our fragility to be perceived.
A space where pain is stylized.
Lipstick smudged just enough to look like longing,
beautifully lit photos of a half-eaten croissant
next to a Sylvia Plath book,
tears filtered through VSCO presets
to make heartbreak look photogenic,
and captions that read like poems.
The coffee is cold by the time I finish arranging the scene.
We long to be seen,
but we fear being misunderstood.
So we share the version of our sadness that is easiest to love.
But deep down,
we hope someone sees through the curation,
past the filter and says:
“I know there’s more. I want that too.”
Awe
I went in search of meaning.
Awe arrived seeking a witness,
uninvited but deeply needed,
wanting nothing but my attention and stillness.
When the world stunned me silent
and burdened my path,
wonder softened the blow,
lifting me weightless with hope.
I stood ankle-deep at the brink of existence,
reality splitting in front of me like ripe fruit,
and vowed myself to awe,
to a soft undoing,
the still astonishment.
Bright Yellow
Somewhere between bright and dull,
between the sun and the earth,
content yet restless and insatiable,
my feet covered in dirt
yet hopelessly searching
for that bright yellow
to leave me blind in love again.