Reading

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the frontiers of our uncertain freedom

NO MORE MISTER NICE POEMS. I have to post this one, though.

( Report from a Besieged City )

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Flower Fest 2x2 Coverall Bingo

Fandoms: 2 Greek myth, 1 Hadestown, 1 none

Mediums: 1 drawing, 1 fic, 1 junk journal spread, 1 set of pride flag edits
Prompts: poppy, hyacinth, sunflower, narcissus

[ Card & Fills ]

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burning in the open field

It is not uncommon for me to sit on a poem for years and years before posting it, because I collect poems and only have 30(ish) spots per year. I've had this one in the file for long enough that I have it saved in multiple places, but it never does get less evocative or relevant; it's also fascinating to me how different it is from both his earlier and later poetry, while also using language in such a recognizable way. Is Richard Siken in favor with the internet again? I honestly don't care, but I've always liked his poetry, including back when he was a tumblr fandom darling. This is not really a tumblr fandom poem, but it sticks with me.

( Landscape with a Blur of Conquerors )

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wild iris, duff, waterfall, dew

Take me back to the woods, please. (But actually, I took two pretty nice walks today; could be worse.)

( Yes, That's When )

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forged by the heart

I am posting this in honor of tonight's season finale of The Pitt, because I simply would not be me doing poetry month if I did not draw fandom poetry parallels. I'm a couple of episodes behind, though, so no spoilers. I also just really love the things Jack Gilbert does with language, and although I was initially going to post a different Gilbert poem this year, this one snuck up on me. I love a poem about place.

( Searching for Pittsburgh )

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the rapture of being alive

This one goes out to loons and Shane Hollander and those middle-of-the-night moments of clarity.

( The Loon )

Current Mood: busy

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!admin,
!schedule

May Bingo?

Does anyone want to run a May fest? No one has signed up yet. I'm doing April, so I'd rather not pinch-hit May.

You can pick any theme you want. What is a current fandom you're loving? Or a social cause? There are also dozens of prompt lists on the Bingo Card Generator, if you want to pick one (or mix and match several) from there.

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but yet the body is his book

It's my birthday! We went to NASA (Space Center Houston!) because I am 41 and still a space kid at heart. I was thinking about space poems to post (or moon poems, or poems about planets), and that got me to a not-super-surprising metaphysical place and then I thought, "I miss inflicting John Donne on people my birthday." So here is a deeply weird Donne poem that I have not posted before. (I posted "The Sun Rising" in 2008, otherwise you'd obviously be getting that one.) But what is this bonkers poem about, you may ask. The body? Sex? Death? Plato? Soul bonds? Being drift compatible with a possibly dead person while sharing a grave? All of the above, probably. It also has one of my favorite and most quintessentially "this is disgusting, bro, what are you doing" Donne couplets, which is the one about the eye-stalks.

( The Ecstasy )

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planet trouble

I post a lot of queer poetry, which should really come as no surprise to anyone. I also buy a lot of poetry books, especially in and around the month of April; when we were in New York last year, I bought Stephanie Burt's 2025 anthology Super Gay Poems, which is really fantastic and highly recommended for both the brilliant essays about each poem and the poems themselves. It also gives me a lot of personal joy because it doesn't have a single poem in it that I've already posted (in 19 years!!), which is so cool and exciting—although there are a handful of poems I've read in the anthology, and several poets I've heard of (or posted other work by), I really love the part of doing this each year where I get to learn and discover new-to-me poems and poets.

Since I skipped yesterday, I am going to indulgently post two poems from the anthology which are completely unrelated, except that they both haunt me (and also both have great enjambment).

( Mermaid )

*

( Heart Condition )

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Blackout Bingo - 2X2 Flower Fest

Title: A Spring Morning in the Garden
Fandoms: Sherlock Holmes (ACD) - Retirement era
Ratings: G
Pairings: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson
Prompts from the Dancing with Daffodils section: Landscape, Replete, Hunter Morn, Fulfilment

A Spring Morning in the Garden on AO3

The case of the missing notifications

I keep forgetting to post about this: we've been troubleshooting the "missing notifications" problem for the past few days. (Well, I say "we", really I mean Mark and Robby; I'm just the amanuensis.) It's been one of those annoying loops of "find a logical explanation for what could be causing the problem, fix that thing, observe that the problem gets better for some people but doesn't go away completely, go back to step one and start again", sigh.

Mark is hauling out the heavy debugging ordinance to try to find the root cause. Once he's done building all the extra logging tools he needs, he'll comment to this entry. After he does, if you find a comment that should have gone to your inbox and sent an email notification but didn't, leave him a link to the comment that should have sent the notification, as long as the comment itself was made after Mark says he's collecting them. (I'd wait and post this after he gets the debug code in but I need to go to sleep and he's not sure how long it will take!)

We're sorry about the hassle! Irregular/sporadic issues like this are really hard to troubleshoot because it's impossible to know if they're fixed or if they're just not happening while you're looking. With luck, this will give us enough information to figure out the root cause for real this time.

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o moon

Just a little late-night one, tonight, but it sings.

( The way I must enter )

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the narrative burden of events

Fady Joudah is a Houston-based poet (and doctor) who I first learned about through his translations of Mahmoud Darwish—one of which I may post later in the month—and then because Brazos Bookstore, one of our favorite independent bookstores in town, always tries to highlight local authors. I picked up a copy of Joudah's 2024 poetry collection last year and was thinking about posting a couple of different poems, but then I read this earlier one on Poetry Foundation and couldn't stop thinking about it, so here we are. Still on the subject of the moon, sort of.

( Moon Grass Rain )

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hot as molten silver

Here is another poem about the moon. Also, cats.

( How the full moon wakes you )

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ask the moon

I asked my wife how many poems about the moon I was allowed to post this week, and she said "all of them?" So we may have a week or so of moon poems, for obvious reasons. Since I missed yesterday, here are two.

( Why Are Your Poems So Dark? )

*

( Bless the Moon )

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National Crafting Month Bingo - triple bingo (2 column, 1 row)

Fandoms: 3 Greek myth, 1 Resident Evil, 1 Poppy Playtime, 1 orginal fiction, 14 none

Mediums: 7 junk journal/junk journal adjcent projects, 3 clay projects, 3 writing projects, 2 drawings, 1 origami set, 1 printable, 1 altar, 1 Sims 4 build, 1 Lego build
Prompts: habit tracker, washi tape, craft hoarding, collage, novel, suncatcher, fic writing, clay, scrapbooking, narrative/fiction junk journaling, abstract art, origami, miniatures, printable design, altar building, colored pencils, junk journal with "misc" envelope contents, original writing, Lego building

I had so much fun trying out new mediums with this one. :)

[ Card & Fills ]

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swept our hearts clean

A little devotional-ish poetry for Easter Monday. I love Joy Harjo.

( Eagle Poem )