iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 1h

so far today i sat zazen as usual, chanted the daihishin dharani for jon mc kinsey, went on a walk in the rain to aid in opening some possibilities in a decision-making situation i’m in. saw maple leaves turning, saw the intensive & extensive damage riot fest caused to our beloved neighborhood park.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 18h

i see various people doing the “post a picture of someone looking stylish in/next to a car” thing. i could do that, yeah. but instead here’s a picture of me looking stylish AS a car—last year’s cosplay as bessie, which i didn’t actually pull together in time to wear.

i’m taking a selfie in a full-length mirror, wearing a yellow t-shirt and yellow joggers, a black top hat with two round flat lightbulbs stuck to the brim, an antique “honk honk” brass horn stuck through my belt bag, and a mini british-style license plate reading WHO 1. there is a flat red button on my belly with the label “super drive” inked onto the shirt around it. i am holding a steering wheel.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 20h

it's not just that there are people who feel entitled to kill us. it's that they feel they are *correct* to do so. & it's not just that we're being murdered. it's the people who think that their job is to make it impossible for us to live. who cultivate an expertise in ruining lives.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

(please no reposts) what a day to be a neuroqu♾️r tr^nsfella renewing a passport online. online form! timed login! personal info! high stakes permagamble over whether it will be correctly processed! had to turn off VPN for it to even work! we gotcher cortisol & adrenalin fountain right here.⛲️😵‍💫😵‍💫

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Alejandro Wilson @cordovancreations.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

If anyone would like to peruse it, I finally have my own personal website up and running! www.alejandrowilson.art

alejandrowilson.art

Alejandro Wilson

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

scenes from one of the most enchanted places in chicagolandia.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

sometimes, in the light, things look more solid than they are.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

i have learned that compassion is a relationship with the world & all its aspects (beings & objects) as much as or perhaps more than it is a practice. discrete (&/or discreet😉) acts of compassion are certainly beneficial, but there’s room for deepening, letting it become everyday.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

squirrels are really busy in the garden all of a sudden—i wonder if i’ll find buried pastry chunks again this year when i move the soil out for mixing.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

charcoal drawing animation by my amazing spouse

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

i’m trying to lay out a book, & there is a fly 🪰

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

language used to create possibility & open more ways, more liberating relations, will always root more deeply & broadly than language used to control & reduce possibility. poetry is one type of opening-language, but it is not the only one.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

nothing says “i will do you no harm” like wearing very silly shoes.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

go-to response for queries about my experiences of physical transition

cropped shot of text from a bag of frozen raviloi: “new shape with more cheesy filling”.

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Grackle Review @gracklereview.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Squawk! New submission theme dropped: grackle.review/2026/09/23/0... We want your poems, your art, your heart! More submission details will be available soon. Stay tuned! #literaryjournal #litmag

grackle.review

Explore the Theme of 'Strange' for Our Inaugural Issue

Explore The Grackle Review's inaugural theme of 'strange.' Submit your odd, exploratory work and embrace creativity—coming soon!

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

also noteworthy, this delicious mural:

full-wall mural in a “fantasy novel cover”-illustration style, depicting a sand-colored dragon and a rabbit in worn traveler’s garb (blue tunic, pinkish or faded red hooded cloak) seated by a campfire in a rocky grotto. further observation reveals that the dragon is companionably keeping the fire stoked by breathing through the nostrils. the rabbit toasts a carrot on a stick over the bright flames.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

found a large clump of volunteer zinnias in a vacant lot i love. here you go.

scowling to focus on the timer countdown on my front camera, i stand against the grimy stone wall of an overpass abutment and proffer a bouquet of vibrant red, orange and pink zinnias. i am covered in bags, badges and camera, wearing my denim newsboy cap.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

not to be all “aw, shucks” but…aw, shucks. thanks so much, my friend. i really love the cover @mrwojorising.bsky.social designed for it!

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

mystery: sonny goes absolutely catnip-bonkers when i load my meds sorter. he stands on my lap & purrs & gives me kisses & tries to put his face into the little sections, & to open the actual prescription bottles or dump the whole sorter. he wants *something*, some ingredient. not sure what.

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Alejandro Wilson @cordovancreations.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Iiiiif any of my buddies want to follow this little venture @gracklereview.bsky.social and www.instagram.com/gracklereview/ now exist! The following days I will be making logos, creating the info needed to have the website up and running, etc. If any of y'all want to get in on this, let me know!

instagram.com

Instagram

Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 23/09/2026

Please invite me on your Star Trek podcasts

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

“Obviously Hookland is influenced by DOCTOR WHO.” oh, definitely. some evidence of my perhaps permanent enchantment @hookland.bsky.social—thanks for the blackwells suggestion!

a rather odd but personable photo of an odd but personable fellow with tattoos, graying funny hair (mostly shaved head! sticky-up stuff on top!) goatee & dark-framed glasses, cradling a copy of david southwell’s HOOKLAND FRAGMENTS vol. 1 against knees covered in checked pajama bottoms. a painting on paper hangs on the wall above/behind them. ladders feature heavily in the mostly abstract painting.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

i’m not saying i’ve already started packing for chicago TARDIS, but i *have* solved an ongoing storage problem by shifting some of the things i always take with me (electric kettle, coffee press) out of the cabinet they don’t fit inside, & into my big suitcase.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

sonny decided to do some edits in the project i currently have open. i’m tempted to leave them. 🐈⌨️

screenshot of a word processing file page with “1q
CV
f”

scattered across the white space. a cursor waits at the immediate right of the letter f.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

one of the *other* harbingers of autumn is the calendar logjam of concurrent deadlines, bookings, & events (other poets’). this is one of those months when everything seems to be happening on the same two nonsequential weekends. i finessed one of them, sort of, but the next one will be messy.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

geez, the vorta are out to ruin everybody’s fun, aren’t they? #ST:DS9

municipal red-on-white “parking”-style sign reads “PROMENADE CLOSES AT 11:00 P.M.”

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

yes, i needed this reminder. maybe you do too.💚

a white-painted concrete railing post with a cable rail coated in light blue plastic on a concrete pier. the post has a hand-lettered sticker reading “YOU HAVE FRIENDS EVERYWHERE”. the low rainclouds glower overhead.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

my friend/dharma brother anuj has a habit of unironically using “lovely” as a descriptor—& not as a descriptor of someone’s physical appearance—& i notice myself saying it too. i’m glad. the world needs more lovely.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

you know what? my 20-year-old self would be ECSTATIC over who i am now—& actually, if you’ve read ON BEING HALF-IMAGINARY, you know that i was! 😉

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

well, that was an excellent thunderstorm.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

dried marigold & cockscomb blooms in a bamboo bowl, after harvesting cockscomb seeds. pretty sure the marigolds will seed themselves plenty in the bed, but i hadn’t grown cockscombs before. they make loads of seed too!

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

it’s only september 16 but i’ve been so impatient for autumnal food that i had to make one of my kabocha squash skillet meals. it’s total vegetable mayhem.

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Essay Press @essaypress.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

We have a new chapbook! What happens when we invite the land to read the poetry that we write upon it? Public Papers poses this question, bringing poetry into intimate contact with the land and ecology of Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

there are reasons why i insist that poetry writing is a very physically intensive activity. also why cats have tended to play actively collaborative roles in this work.

i’m sitting on the floor wearing big black headphones and a blue utility vest, leaning into frame from the midst of a roll of paper spread on the floor, on which a mess of sticky notes is in the process of being arranged into poems. a spiral notebook and fountain pen are also sitting on the roll of paper. cat toys and a big electric fan can be seen around me.

a pink square cushion and the roll of paper with sticky notes and notebook, from above.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

yesterday at printer’s row i saw many incredible outfits & garments, but the standout one was a high-vis safety vest done in fluorescent yellow paisley lace. 😻

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

ok, i’m closer to 60 than to 50 these days, but if you see me put gum in my mouth, be warned that i will be cracking it like a 12 year old long past when it loses its flavor.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

well my dears, i’m deep in it now😹! i discovered that i had gotten much farther than i remembered & than was suggested by the drafts i found in the notebook. it’s opening new possibilities for continuation. so i’m grabbing the railing & hopping on the back of this trundling bus…

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

my printer’s row haul was modest: a few political volumes, some vintage science fiction. i chose only two ace doubles, including this one with an irresistible cover.

vintage pulp paperback cover of one side of an ace double novel. this one is THE COILS OF TIME by a. bertram chandler. it shows a red humanoid robot being engulfed by a yellow goo that may also be a plant or something like a stalactite in a cavern. the tagline reads, “the world that could not be.”

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

the occurance of a heavy socialization weekend with multiple pain flares (& other physical situations) has made the past couple days somewhat challenging. i had to knock a couple of items out of my schedule & curtail a couple of others. it was a good move—i could do what mattered most.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

dreamed i used my folding knife to carve a folding knife just like it out of wood

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

aha, sonny just pulled down my favorite volume of derek jarman’s journal off the shelf. good rec, moops!

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

found something in a notebook dated 2023, called “cardfile poem project.” it’s a couple of penciled drafts, & a steel cardfile box with alphabetical dividers, containing fragments on index cards. the penciled drafts incorporate & organize some of the fragments on the cards, but not all are used.

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Jay Besemer @divinetailor.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

i am feeling quiet & private today; if you’ve read ON BEING HALF-IMAGINARY you may know why. i’m not being coy; there’s no simple, postable, consumable version of what the aftermath of [25 years ago today] did to me. it can’t be said here or in casual conversation. let’s not abandon each other.

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