iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I'm usually against sharing screenshots from Hell, but this one's too good. Kristi v Kacey? That's no war of wits; that's linguistic assassination. Get 'er, Kacey!🔥

A twitter exchange between Kristi Noem and Kacey Musgraves over a photo of Kacey with Talarico

Noem: "I'll take [Ella Langley] over Kacey Musgraves any day. And if I'm choosin' Texas, I'll take Ken Paxton over James Talarico."

Kacey: "I don't think you have a dog in this fight but if you did you would have shot it."

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Finally had time to sit down and start looking at my Anne Carson books. Here's where Autobiography of Red fell open. And now I'm remembering that I once loaned this to one of my seniors who, when she returned it, said, "I laughed every time I saw you'd written 'asshole' in the margin." 🤣

An open book with a corner turned down and lots of underlining, some bracketing, and one "asshole!" In the margin

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Obligatory voting sticker selfie

A woman in a car wearing sunglasses and a black Amanda Shires One Night Stand T-shirt and sweater with an Ohio Voted sticker.

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Ted Lasso season 4 finale ended with this Mary Oliver poem. 💙💛♥️💛💙

When Death Comes

by Mary Oliver

When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn; when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut; when death comes like the measle-pox

when death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering: what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything as a brotherhood and a sisterhood, and I look upon time as no more than an idea, and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth, tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Call for poems from any poet from or connected to the Greater Cincinnati area: drive.google.com/file/d/11KGC...

Call to Greater Cincinnati Poets
for
For A Better World 2027
The annual Book of Poems and Drawings on Peace and Justice
1) Call for poems from any poet from or connected to the Greater Cincinnati area
2) Poems to relate to themes of peace and justice
3) Poet may submit in one final submission, i.e. submitted all at once and not one at
a time and in their final form, up to 3 poems, any poem not exceeding 500 words
4) All submissions will be considered. The editors will be looking for quality,
inclusiveness, and appropriateness to the themes of peace and justice.
5) Selected poems will be illustrated in B&W by invited Greater Cincinnati artists
6) Poems and illustrations will be printed in “For a Better World 2027” (the 24th such
annual book) to come out May/June 2027; it will also be posted on the SOS ART
website.
7) Original drawings and poems of the book will be exhibited at a later date. Poets
included in the book will be invited to read their poems at some point during the
show.
8) Submission deadline: February 15, 2027
9) Please send submissions as “Word” attachments (or in full text) electronically by
e mail to: sosartcincinnati@gmail.com
PS. You can find pdfs of the 23 previously published "For a Better World"
books at the following link: https://sosartcincinnati.com/publications/
Thank You!!!
Please help forward this call to other Greater Cincinnati Poets.

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I don't recall where I took this picture...some store somewhere...in Knoxville, I think. Makes me laugh.

A wine glass with an opaque white band with black letters across it reading, "I'm not slurring my words, I'm talking in cursive."

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Posted on @bittersouth.bsky.social Instagram. Speak up. Step up. Please, hurry up.

On a red background, white letters say "Good Men: Speak up."

The caption below that says "Please. We desperately need you, and your silence is deafening."

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Has everyone else already noticed that Sharon Horgan and Nicolle Wallace look like sisters?

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Today's my sister-in-law's birthday. She and my big brother are on a Caribbean cruise. When he and his first wife divorced after 35 years, I was so sad, but... He's SO happy now! 😍

A woman with curly gray hair and a flowered top next to a man with glasses and a white shirt and white hair. Both are smiling and tan.

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Saw @andybeshearky.bsky.social and Mayor Aftab at Cincinnati's Joseph-Beth bookstore this evening. I was wearing my Dolly T-shirt from @bittersouth.bsky.social and I kept thinking, Dolly would approve of the governor's message.

Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, in a dark suit, stands next to and looks at My Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, who is in khaki pants with a white shirt and blue sport coat. They're standing on the landing of the stairs at Cincinnati's Joseph-Beth bookstore.

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I don't read a lot of nonfiction, so when I tell you this book is riveting, believe me!

Book on a table. The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald
John U. Bacon
New York Times Best-selling Author

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

My top 10. It's quite possible my list would be different tomorrow, but today, this is it. nytimes.com/bestTV

THE 100 BEST TV SHOWS OF THE 21st CENTURY

My Top Shows

THE WIRE

The Wire

The Pitt

PITT

JAN 9 MIX

The Americans

LINE OF DUTY

Line of Duty

Mad Men

Justified

MADMEN

Six Feet Under

TED LASSO

Ted Lasso

SIX FEET UNDER

HAPPY VALLEY

Happy Valley

somebody where

Somebody Somewhere

See the full list: nytimes.com/bestTV

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Some days, a limo pulls up at the drugstore, and a little old lady in a bathrobe and slippers walks in the door as you walk out.

A silver, 6-door limo is parked at an angle in the parking lot a
under a Walgreens sign

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

It's officially Fall. Potato lentil soup on the stove. 🍁🍲🍁

A pot of soup simmering on a black stovetop.

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Catherine Barnett from Solutions for the Problem of Bodies in Space. Graywolf Press, 2024.

How to Prepare

Best not to dream of death as an enormous spider crossing an empty highway. Instead imagine something all your own to kiss and hug, and small hummingbirds that look like azure foil. If you too awaken between 3:00 and 5:00 to stare into the abyss where flies gather, call me, I'll talk you through until morning. If you sign the release form, I can cite you in the study.

Release, yes, that's the term I was looking for.

Shake your nightclothes out well.

The human condition is made of moisture and heat.

So far, my research is very ad hoc, like dreaming. I lay my head on the pillow by itself and press "record.” Some of us will die alone in our sleep. Peacefully. Because I know I talk in my sleep, I hope one day to transcribe these recordings, and the sound of children passing now by the open window.

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Y'all... Britannica has gone the way of AI. And it shows. I'm pretty sure no one IRL has ever mixed up Charles Wright and Juan Felipe Herrera.🤣

Britannica entry for Charles Wright, poet, has a picture of Juan Felipe Herrera. Oy.

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Seven years ago, we went to Maker's Mark to see Stephen Powell's gorgeous glass work on display after his death. He was an art professor at Centre College in Danville, KY, where my brother went to school and worked for many years.

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Fall!🍁🍂🍁 I'm so excited for these temperatures!

Weather app for the coming five days with highs of 68, 71, 68, 68, and 70

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Lucille Clifton's poem about the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing

alabama 9/15/63

Have you heard the one about the shivering lives, the never to be borne daughters and sons,

the one about Cynthia and Carole and Denise and Addie Mae?

Have you heard the one about the four little birds shattered into skylarks in the white light of Birmingham?

Have you heard how the skylarks, known for their music, swooped into heaven, how the sunday morning strains shook the piano, how the blast is still too bright to hear them play?

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Lucille Clifton's poem about it:

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Look at this gorgeous photo of Sewanee by Stephen Alvarez. An 8x10 print of it just arrived. YSR!

A layered orange, pink, bluish sky above trees and the tops of Gothic buildings of the Sewanee campus.

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

My nephew, former college soccer player, with his son, brand new soccer player. Dad says "Don't think he quite grasps the kicking part yet, but he had fun!" And fun's a good goal in my book!

A dad kneels on one knee, and in front of him a kindergartner, in a soccer uniform. Both are looking at it other kids playing on the field.

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The sky today in Cincinnati. And a link to photos of an installation at the 9/11 Memorial Museums called "Trying to remember the color of the sky on that September morning": www.spencerfinch.com/trying-to-re...

A bright blue sky with white clouds floating across it

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The sound of firefighters' motion sensor alarms in coverage of 9/11 is haunting. I'm watching the Nat Geo doc "9/11: Reunited," and I just called my nephew, a firefighter, to tell him how proud I am of him. He was a junior in high school in 2001. Now 41 and a Sgt in Louisville FD. 📷: Alton Strupp

My nephew going into the Kentucky Center for the Arts in downtown Louisville, where there was a fire in June, 2018. Photo by Alton Strupp, Courier Journal

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Were we singing "King of the Road"? Could've been.🤷🏼‍♀️ Also could've been singing "Clementine" or "Frankie & Johnny" or "The Crawdad Song" or...

A little blonde girl sits, singing, on her dad's lap... he's also singing and playing guitar.

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

"Words to Comfort" poetry readings were held in NYC and other cities after 9/11. Here's one poem that was read; it has been posted anonymously by a missing persons flyer at Grand Central Station's Memorial Wall. jacketmagazine.com/15/hereisnyc...

Every morning
I see you
smiling.
I miss you.
We never met.

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Little Mount Lavender, shop and cafe for a Kentucky lavender farm. Lavender horse, lavender bike...🥰 Visited this place 2 years ago, and I'm thinking it's time to visit again. shop.littlemountlavender.com/pages/about-...

Stone building with a lavender horse statue in front

A purple sign for Little Mount Lavender Co. (Locally grown, farm to store)

A tree in front of the stone building has a lavender bicycle leaning against it.

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Hilarious! I've lived in Virginia, South Carolina, and Tennessee, but never North Carolina.😎

A mydialect.us map that says my dialect is like someone from North Carolina

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

My niece is 39(!?) today. I remember when she was a tiny little whirlwind 🌪️ Now a funny, brilliant woman.

Collage of photos from toddler to grown woman

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Good night, Wendell Berry. We'll sit on a while without you. Thank you for stopping by.

They Sit Together on the Porch

BY WENDELL BERRY

They sit together on the porch, the dark Almost fallen, the house behind them dark. Their supper done with, they have washed and dried The dishes-only two plates now, two glasses, Two knives, two forks, two spoons-small work for two. She sits with her hands folded in her lap, At rest. He smokes his pipe. They do not speak, And when they speak at last it is to say What each one knows the other knows. They have One mind between them, now, that finally For all its knowing will not exactly know Which one goes first through the dark doorway, bidding Goodnight, and which sits on a while alone.

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Google Maps 8/30/2026 Like I said, if you clear cache or update your app, you'll see it. No one's lying about it.

Goddamn Google kissing Trump's ass by changing Lake Ontario to Lake America

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Love this little snippet. You tell 'em, Dolly.

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I took this in Knoxville, off Market Square, in September, 2022.

A mural painted on a brick wall in Knoxville off Market Square that's a close-up of Dolly Parton with a butterfly in her hair.
It's signed by the artists:
@meganlingerfelt
@colton_valentine_

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Charles Wright is 91 today. Favorite poem by a favorite poet... Favorite lines of poetry: "If you can’t delight in the everyday, you have no future here."

CHARLES WRIGHT

Future Tense

All things in the end are bittersweet—
An empty gaze, a little way-station just beyond silence.

If you can’t delight in the everyday,
you have no future here.

And if you can, no future either.

And time, black dog, will sniff you out,
and lick your lean cheeks,
And lie down beside you—warm, real close—and will not move.

A gray haired man in glasses wearing jeans, an sage green shirt, and a brown jacket sits in front of a door and looks at the camera without smiling.

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

My nephew and his wife are celebrating their wedding anniversary today. Eight years, three kids, and a head of hair later...😍 Happiest guy I know!

A groom dipping and kissing his bride in front of an antique Louisville fire truck.

A father and mother and 3 little ones in a family photo in a park

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Today's Paris Review Daily Poem is "The Trees" by Jericho Brown. I love this poem. Every time I've read it, some new connection comes to mind.

Jericho Brown

The Trees

In my front yard live three crepe myrtles, crying trees
We once called them, not the shadiest but soothing
During a break from work in the heat, their cool sweat

Falling into us. I don’t want to make more of it.
I’d like to let these spindly things be
Since my gift for transformation here proves

Useless now that I know everyone moves the same
Whether moving in tears or moving
To punch my face. A crepe myrtle is

A crepe myrtle. Three is a family. It is winter. They are bare.
It’s not that I love them
Every day. It’s that I love them anyway.

From issue no. 226 (Fall 2018)

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

No cheating. Share the last photo of the sky from your camera roll (if you feel like it)

A purple and pink evening sky above the dark outline of treetops

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I guess they don't have accurate demographic info on likely voters because they just sent me this...🤔

An invite to a "Black Voters for Amy Acton Community Meet & Greet"

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

p.s. Natasha Trethewey was the keynote speaker this summer at my MFA program's 20th anniversary celebration. 🔥

Natasha Trethewey speaking behind a large wooden lectern

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Darby Lyons @darbylyons.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

My youngest nephew turns 32 today. "Time flies" doesn't capture it. Phew! Cutest, sweetest boy now best and sweetest dad.🥰

A photo collage:
Top: man and little boy on beach rub noses
Middle: bearded man holds sleeping baby and a bride and groom hold hands and smile
Bottom: a little boy plays on the beach and a toddler in light blue pajamas looks at the camera.

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