Tidbits:
Andrea Gibson on eye contact.
There’s an above/ground poetry chapbook sale. 4 chaps/$20 (postage included), 10 for $40 + shipping, any 24 titles for $80 etc. I’d recommend: mine of course, and Ben Robinson, melissa eleftherion, Ken Norris, Lori Anderson Moseman, Kyle Flemmer, issues of Guest, Jason Heroux, Hugh Thomas, Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Monty Reid, Jacob Wren, James Hawes (those are all direct linked in the linked post)
Sage Hill Spring Colloquium applications are now open. It was fabulous. I did it twice, once remotely and once on site. On site with strangers who were supportive was much better than sitting on a hillside in blackfly season trying to keep a weak signal enough to radio in by phone but experience varies.
“Secrets aren’t treasure, you know. Secrets don’t make you powerful.They make you weak. Vulnerable.” – Louise Penny, A Great Reckoning
At the Woodlot, Rob Taylor’s mullings over being on a poetry jury.
“There are always a million different stories—you just don’t know which one it is you’re going to write. Bu that does doesn’t makes the others not exist.[…]As you define something. all the “might have beens” die as you decide things” Stephanie Meyer, the twilight saga: the official illustrated guide (Little Brown, 2011)
The Pi Review has been going for years but I didn’t attend before now. See this poem series by Monty Reid there?
Is an epigraph an involuntary blurb?
Reality is not static. It is brought into existence by notice, action and inaction.
“My mother’s superpower is turning my ordinary worries into monsters so huge and pervasive that her distress and heartache become almost debilitating.” – Angeline Boulley, Firekeeper’s daughter (Squarefish, 2021)
The Gospel of Us by Owen Sheers (Seren, 2012) can be borrowed at The Internet Archive as well as poetry no longer.
“Compassion is more creative than contempt. Forgiveness – at its best – seeks to make space for surprise and the unexpected.” Pádraig Ó Tuama, Poetry unbound (Canongate, 2022)
How to get back into writing with confidence from Natalie Holborow.
Find your next read with the Reactor Magazine quiz for sci-fi/fantasy reads.
For the 10th anniversary of the collection, Frances Boyle’s Light Carved Passages can be downloaded for free.
Rachel Clyne’s advice on giving a good reading
No next day is guaranteed as Samuel Pepys reminds, “from this day I should see how long 10 chaldron of coals will serve my house, if it please the Lord to let me live to see them burned.”
Centralized is great, under benevolent, community-minded rule. Consequently I am on pixelfed as pesbo (booed it up) getting on Pixelfed to replace Meta’s Instagram? It says I can import and pour it all to PF, except that is disabled. I’m feeling like the Pakled, Grebnelog.
I’m returning to MeWe after 3 years to see if anything’ changed. it doesn’t look ugly like it used to. So then we just need the social gathering aspect.
Jacob Wren is at bluesky.
I am pearlpoet at bluesky but I probably won’t return follow. I haven’t decided what to do about who to follow. I was planning to cap at 250. If/when I figure out lists I’ll add poets who say interesting things. I block or ignore people who don’t tweet. I want reciprocity not auditing and performance. I am spending too much of my time blocking soldiers, bots, evangelists and those who think it’s a dating site.
“The beginning is never the beginning.” Nnedi Okorafor, Akata Warrior (Viking, 2017)
If you deleted your tweets and deactivated it, the Musky ones may reactivate and restore including all your deleted posts. The download archive function is back if you want to save your tweets. I’m considering substack-tweet-like part for poetry twitter rrplacement.
“See/feel /what your body is/telling /you. /Stay there. //Feel that opening.” leslie roach, finish this sentence (Mawenzi House, 2020)