Reposted by @kencraft.bsky.socialColin Dickey @colindickey.com · 26/11/2025Handing back student work that’s been written by ChatGPT with a 0 followed by the comment “This essay will never stand in authentic wonder before the Beauty of God’s creation.” 2095252600
Reposted by @kencraft.bsky.socialTressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 09/01/2026A woman on IG has been making videos of immigrant lines at the U.S. Mexico borders…full of Americans standing in line to get affordable dental care in Mexico. It’s sublime counter programming. 151365263
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 28/12/2025Giving up on Christmas? So soon? You have company. updatesonafreeverselife.substack.com/p/if-its-dar...updatesonafreeverselife.substack.com"If It's Darkness We're Having, Let It Be Extravagant."At What Point Does Christmas Overstay Its Welcome? (Hint: It's Before Eleven Lords-a-Leaping) 000
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 21/12/2025You Have Four Browsing Days to Read These Randomly Unimportant Christmas Thoughts... updatesonafreeverselife.substack.com/p/random-tho...updatesonafreeverselife.substack.comRandom Thoughts, Encroaching Christmas EditionFrom Homer to Holden Caulfield, From AI to M&Ms, From Work Parties to Invading Hordes of Ladybugs, What You Now Have Four Days to Figure Out 000
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 11/12/2025Is Denis Johnson's version of "the writer's life" anything like yours? updatesonafreeverselife.substack.com/p/the-wisdom...updatesonafreeverselife.substack.comThe Wisdom of Jesus' SonGone Eight Years, Denis Johnson Still Speaks to Us 000
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 09/12/2025Critiquing someone else's poem? There's a how to and a how not to... updatesonafreeverselife.substack.com/p/how-to-cri...updatesonafreeverselife.substack.comHow To Critique a PoemHint: It's Not as Easy as It Looks, But What Is? 000
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 07/12/2025From the making lemonade from lemons department comes harvesting hate for writing success. updatesonafreeverselife.substack.com/p/how-do-i-h...updatesonafreeverselife.substack.comHow Do I Hate Thee? Let Me Count the WaysHate. It's the Word of the Year, Color of the Year, and Trend of the Year 000
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 27/11/2025Before going over the river and through the woods, before the playing the drumsticks, before sleeping in front of the football game, some thoughts... updatesonafreeverselife.substack.com/p/random-tho...updatesonafreeverselife.substack.comRandom Thoughts on Thanksgiving EveYou Just THOUGHT There Was Little To Be Thankful For... 000
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 25/11/2025If Ponyboy could do it, why can't you? updatesonafreeverselife.substack.com/p/the-secret...updatesonafreeverselife.substack.comThe Secret Superpower You Don't Know AboutIf You Think You Hate Memorization, You're Kidding Yourself 000
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 22/11/2025Writer's Block Is Well-Known, but Don't Discount the Perils of Reader's Block updatesonafreeverselife.substack.com/p/the-tyrann...updatesonafreeverselife.substack.com"The Tyranny of the Ignoramuses Is Insurmountable and Assured for all Time."David Markson's Trove of Literary Trivia Is Catnip for Readers and Writers Alike 000
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 21/11/2025When the poetry submissions game is a losing one... updatesonafreeverselife.substack.com/p/a-sure-sig...updatesonafreeverselife.substack.comA Sure Sign That Your Poems SuckKim Addonizio Lays It on the Line 000
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 20/11/2025Some of Raymond Carver's favorite quotes by other writers. updatesonafreeverselife.substack.com/p/bon-mots-f...updatesonafreeverselife.substack.comBon Mots from Raymond Carver's "On Writing"The Poet and Short Story Specialist Found Inspiration in the Words of Isak Dinesen, Ezra Pound, Isaac Babel, Among Others 000
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 19/11/2025Ada Limón's 3-year stint as Poet Laureate may have ended, but we can still look back fondly on her book, The Carrying. substack.com/home/post/p-...substack.comAda Limón's Stretch DriveHow the Late Poet Laureate of the USA Hit Her Stride in 2018's "The Carrying" 000
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 18/11/2025Sometimes poems that end in a question are the best kind. Exhibit A: Stephen Dunn's "The Inheritance": substack.com/home/post/p-...substack.comPoems That End with a QuestionSometimes questions prove more powerful than answers 000
Reposted by @kencraft.bsky.socialHole In The Head Review @holeinthehead.bsky.social · 15/10/2025Get those poems ready! The 2025 Charles Simic Poetry Prize will open for submissions on November 1st. This year's judge is Hole in the Head's founder and former editor, Bill Schulz. Full guidelines at www.holeintheheadreview.com 🐇 003
Reposted by @kencraft.bsky.social𝙒𝙖𝙮𝙣𝙚 𝙎𝙢𝙞𝙩𝙝 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 🇲🇽 🇺🇦 🇪🇺 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ @wayneesmith.bsky.social · 07/07/2025 505306117432
Reposted by @kencraft.bsky.socialHole In The Head Review @holeinthehead.bsky.social · 02/05/2025More coming very soon, we promise, including info about the next issue and our next reading period! 002
Reposted by @kencraft.bsky.socialEzra Klein @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social · 17/04/2025Today’s episode of The Ezra Klein Show. The Emergency Is Here. With @asharangappa.bsky.social. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/o...nytimes.comOpinion | The Emergency Is Here (Gift Article)Trump is disappearing people to a Salvadoran prison for terrorists. And he says he wants to send “homegrown” Americans there next. 48365143
Reposted by @kencraft.bsky.socialEzra Klein @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social · 09/03/2025www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/o...nytimes.comOpinion | There Is a Liberal Answer to Elon Musk (Gift Article)Right-wing populism thrives on scarcity. The answer is abundance. But a politics of abundance will work only if Democrats confront where their approach has failed. 3130458
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 28/02/2025Tom Friedman in the NY TIMES just now: "My fellow Americans, we are in completely uncharted waters, led by a president, who — well, I cannot believe he is a Russian agent, but he sure plays one on TV." #Ukraine 110
Reposted by @kencraft.bsky.socialEzra Klein @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social · 16/02/2025www.nytimes.com/2025/02/16/o...nytimes.comOpinion | The Republican Party’s NPC Problem — and Ours (Gift Article)What happens when ambition no longer checks ambition? 22334100
Reposted by @kencraft.bsky.socialeileen chengyin chow @chowleen.bsky.social · 15/02/2025“He said, you Americans are so naive. He said, you think that evil is going to come into your houses wearing big black boots and climb up the stairs—it begins in the language. Look to the language.” -Joseph Brodsky, as recounted by Marie Howe themillions.com/2018/01/tk-t... 530287
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 13/02/2025As a kid, "Are we there yet?" was a common refrain on long-distance road trips. Now "Are we there yet?" means a Constitutional Crisis. 010
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 12/02/2025As a subscriber of the NY TIMES, I used to enjoy reading the front page every day. But now that it's pregnant with 1930s-style bad news from Washington, reading it gives me the equivalent of morning sickness. The GOP Congress doesn't seem to realize that the prez will come for them some day, too. 000
Reposted by @kencraft.bsky.socialDavid Rosenthal @davidrosenthalpoet.bsky.social · 08/02/2025Rust & Moth is just consistently very good. And they present things simply and elegantly. It’s a top-notch joint. Yeah, yeah, I’m in this issue, but skip my poem and read the rest. It’s a great issue (so far — they add more each week). Seriously, check it out. 082
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 10/02/2025"Unlike riding a bike, with poetry, you never quite know how." -- Phoebe Millikin 000
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 04/02/2025So, how good is YOUR town library? www.kencraftauthor.com/yes-you-can-...kencraftauthor.comYes, You Can Judge a Town by Its Public Library – Ken Craft 000
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 03/02/2025Thank you @rustandmoth.bsky.social for making me part of your latest issue! rustandmoth.com/work/morning...rustandmoth.comMorning Reflections | Rust & MothOn morning walks, I’d see my nonagenarian neighbor on a small stool filling bird feeders with nyjer or sunflower seed. She’d smile but not speak, blue veins and bony rake on the back of her hand clutc... 091
Reposted by @kencraft.bsky.socialRust & Moth @rustandmoth.bsky.social · 03/02/2025New #poetry from Ken Craft: "Morning Reflections".buff.lyMorning Reflections | Rust & MothOn morning walks, I’d see my nonagenarian neighbor on a small stool filling bird feeders with Nygerz or sunflower seed. She’d smile but not speak, blue veins and bony rake on the back of her hand... 081
Reposted by @kencraft.bsky.socialSheila Foster @sheilarose.bsky.social · 02/02/2025Excellent by @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social "If you’re always consumed by the next outrage, you can’t look closely at the last one. The impression of Trump’s power remains; the fact that he keeps stepping on rakes is missed. The projection of strength obscures the reality of weakness. Don’t believe him." 35754308
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 30/01/2025When Adam Zagajewski couldn't write, he wrote about what he was doing while not writing... 030
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 28/01/2025What Danusha Laméris, earthworms, and memento mori have in common (other than good poetry)... www.kencraftauthor.com/a-garden-of-...kencraftauthor.comA Garden of Earthworm Delights – Ken Craft 010
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 24/01/2025Resolution-wise, Plan A was to read a poem a day from my complete Emily Dickinson collection (a poet I've read little of, truth be told), but the poems are so short I've shifted to Plan B: Read them in bunches, catching the rhythm (she likes meter and rhyme, even when telling it slant) 010
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 14/01/2025Just sent A.J. Brown a copy of my most recent book (though I changed the name to "Inner Excellence & Other Stimulants). Hope to see it in his hands on the sidelines (line of scrimmage may be asking too much). #Eagles 010
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 11/01/2025Led to www.truefood.tech by a NYTIMES wellness piece, I found surprises in just how processed a few of my favorite "foods" are. Turns out I am a highly-processed man! And even when I do the right thing (e.g. buy plain yogurt with very little sugar), I add maple syrup for flavor. Mea culpa. 010
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 18/12/2024Reading some Matthew Rohrer tonight when the last line of this poem spoke to me. 030
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 08/12/2024First walk through first snow brings that satisfying crunch of snow under foot. The sound brings you back to childhood. The only thing missing is the wax paper used on your heels to get your foot into the boot. (All-purpose wax paper was also good in other 3 seasons to make slides slippery-fast). 030
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 07/12/2024December 7. I remember it for more reasons than one. In 5th grade, my teacher, Mr. Underwood, started the class by solemnly telling us, "Pearl Harbor was bombed today," to which I said, a little too loudly and a little too incredulously, "AGAIN?" Naive was my middle name. Sometimes still is. 020
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 07/12/2024Odd how reading some poets generates ideas and inspires you to write yourself, while reading many others generates nothing and inspires nothing (your specialty), even if their work is good. Why is that? 120
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 04/12/2024In NYTIMES "By the Book" column this week, Billy Collins professes a dislike for poems about dead relatives. I once read that he stops reading poems if he sees the word "cicada," too. Clearly he once worked with Jeffrey at Curmudgeons R Us. 010
Reposted by @kencraft.bsky.socialChen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 03/12/2024family—and maybe especially parents—is one of the great subjects of literature. imagine telling a novelist not to write about parents, about families 12858
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 04/12/2024See enough & write it down, I tell myself, and then some morning when the world seems drained of wonder, some day when I am only going through the motions of doing what I am supposed to do, which is write – on that bankrupt morning I will simply open my notebook & there it will all be --Joan Didion 010
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 01/12/2024In a column about Kash Patel's FBI plans, NY TIMES columnist David French quotes former Peruvian president Óscar Benavides: “For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.” Great quote and salient stuff. 010
Reposted by @kencraft.bsky.socialDai George @daigeorge.bsky.social · 30/11/2024Grateful to @poetrydaily.bsky.social for choosing my Dylan piece on Lit Hub as a pick of the day today. Nice to come across his 'nonchalant, slightly dumbstruck face' staring back at me when I opened their daily email! 184
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 27/11/2024According to Keats, the only thing necessary for good poetry: "a feeling for light and shade." Sounds easy, but go ahead and write it. 010
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 25/11/2024From David Markson's "Reader's Block": Not one of Thomas Hardy’s first three novels sold more than twenty copies. Walt Whitman more than once wrote anonymous favorable reviews of his own work. Robert Frost had exactly five poems accepted in the first seventeen years in which he was submitting. 000
Reposted by @kencraft.bsky.socialRust & Moth @rustandmoth.bsky.social · 25/11/2024New #poetry from Mike Bove: "Choose Your Own Adventure".buff.lyChoose Your Own Adventure | Rust & MothPoems aren’t puzzles. Disagree if you want & if you do see line nineteen where you’ll find my mom, drunk again the night she pitched a log through our kitchen window, scaring the shit out of five-year-old... 5318
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 25/11/2024Best part about late fall in Maine (post-summer people and post-leaf peepers): You can take a left onto Route 1 again. 000
kencraft.bsky.social @kencraft.bsky.social · 25/11/2024From Mary Ruefle's "Madness, Rack, & Honey," a book I never tire of dipping into: “Paul Valéry, the French poet and thinker, once said that no poem is ever ended, that every poem is merely abandoned.” More of her poetry-centric quotes here: www.kencraftauthor.com/no-poem-is-e... #poetrykencraftauthor.com“No Poem Is Ever Ended…” – Ken Craft 000