iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

short poem published in Five Fleas, a journal of haiku, monostitch, & related forms, back in 2024

birdsong in my brainstem passes the Turing test

D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

"Sad/House/Keeping," one of my color studies, published in @aprosexia.org living this poem today after a sad & anxious week

Sad/House/Keeping

grey like matter

blue like down

falling after

manic crown

grey like hazy

blue like waves

think i'm lazy

lost in place

grey like bloodless

blue like veins

beckon carving

final name

grey like morals

blue like code

one-way portal

waiting room

grey like neutral

blue like calm

soulless model

staged like home

grey like cobwebs

blue like dawn

sweeping motion

clean-up song

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Delighted to be part of this forthcoming anthology, A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT, featuring "essays on form & water," from @riverriverbooks.bsky.social. I have a piece on contrapuntal poems & consciousness. The publishers are currently fundraising to help cover costs: see below comment for more details.

A River Runs Through It

Essays on Form & Water

Amorak Huey & Han Vanderhart, Editors

cover by Alban Fischer

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Epistemic Literary- Read Issue 8: Righteous Rage now! @epistemiclit.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Submissions open August 1! Agency vs. Determinism Poetry - Micro and flash fiction - CNF - Visual Art epistemiclit.com/submissions/

Agency
VS
DETERMINISM
August 1 - 31, 2026
Epistemic
Literary

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I'm grateful to @onlypoemsmag.bsky.social for reprinting my review of @toddedillard.bsky.social's RAGNARÖK AT THE FATHER-DAUGHTER DANCE (2024: @variantlit.bsky.social), first published in @phillychapbook.bsky.social. Here is an excerpt:

Dillard’s style is often direct and vivid, but does not shy away from the abstract and surreal; he uses several techniques to defamiliarize quotidian detail—reminiscent of Charles Simic—that are well-matched to content. Perhaps the most striking example of this is a poem titled after an abstraction, “The Newness,” that is tightly composed around imagery of toilets. Dillard opens with a realist declarative sentence: “Sometimes you have to get rid of a toilet.” From there, he guides readers using a mixture of imaginative detail (“Do you know how easy a toilet shatters / under one sledgehammer swing?”) and carefully-enjambed revelation (“it’s like / when you died and, after, I broke / your life apart”), all of which culminate in a changed way of seeing:

Now when I go for walks I wonder
where a toilet would fit in. I wonder,
if you were here, what new place
you would pick to abandon.

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

had a horror pantoum accepted for spooky season 🎃 I think it's the perfect form for horror. I've written a few. Throwback to "The Lighthouse," the first I attempted, first published in @cosmicdaffodil.bsky.social then reprinted in @divinationsmag.bsky.social

I saw the pale spire of the lighthouse, vanishing softly out of the distant fog.
Surviving on blood oranges staining shaking hands red –
It had to be the first building after two weeks hiding in the waves.
Circling around, raising my eyes to rove the heights –

Surviving on blood oranges staining shaking hands red –
I quickly closed the distance and went headfirst through the dark space in the floor.
Circling around, raising my eyes to rove the heights –
Hands behind me pushed away – stairway slanting – air – into the gasping air –

I quickly closed the distance and went headfirst through the dark space in the floor.
They smiled first with greening eyes, then quietly pulled me under the surface.
Hands behind me pushed away – stairway slanting – air – into the gasping air –
I slowly sank deeper. Another bubble of breath escaped.

They smiled first with greening eyes, then quietly pulled me under the surface.
It had to be the first building after two weeks hiding in the waves.
I slowly sank deeper. Another bubble of breath escaped.
I saw the pale spire of the lighthouse, vanishing softly out of the distant fog.

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

love to ignore all non-urgent email for a few days to reset my anticipatory-shame procrastination clock with respite before a cold plunge back in

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

from my review, "Rhythm and Somatic Consciousness: on AUTOCARTOGRAPHIES by @evaalterpoet.bsky.social" (2025: Eulogy Press), published in Dodo Eraser

$In the third section, “Mythogenesis,” Alter’s speaker offers poems that demonstrate rhythm as a tool for self-exploration. All three use her signature form of ten-syllable lines systematically broken both vertically (into couplets) and horizontally (by intentional use of space). Alter plainly describes this constraint in the book’s afterword: “I decided to approach material I’d been avoiding for much of my life by applying a simple formal constraint to most poems: ten-syllable lineation. By providing my mind with a rule and rhythm, I was able to articulate patterns that have haunted me since childhood” (31). One of the book’s most striking poems, “Chimera,” uses the mythological figure of a beast with mismatched parts to describe the conscious subject’s encounters with these hidden aspects of self: that chemical frontier fracturing me— memory and impulse exposed removed— synapses shaved somewhere unreachable—$

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

How I start my mornings now. Stretching dough for the lunch rush

a rack of prepared pizza dough next to a brick oven

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

The third section of "Traversing Floodwaters In Helios' Cup," one of my linked tanka experiments, recently published in @cincinnatireview.bsky.social's miCRo series

III. In

interior castle
intentional halo
insulating field
interfaith geometry
interdimensional fluid

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Can anyone comment on their experience with Dancing Girl Press as either a customer or an author? I've found some negative feedback online (that they take money then don't fulfill orders or pay out), but nothing from within a year.

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Have started printing out all my digital review copies of shorter works. Also appreciate receiving print copies of longer works much more than before... The marginalia process just gets much better results than typing notes on a screen, for me at least

a lap desk with a printed copy of Atropa Belladonna Coursing Through My Veins by Sudikshaa Amar

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

one year later: recently earned a promotion to a chef role. starting Monday, i'll spend 40 hours weekly making brick oven pizza. weekends & holidays off. Good benefits. Time to read, write, & be with my family. I still miss the kids I taught, but not the bullshit. Life is good

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

My son just asked if I have ever played chess, which gave me occasion to bring out this artifact of my childhood in Pittsburgh. I had a 1200+ rating and spent many a Saturday on the tournament circuit before giving it up in middle school.

a trophy, shaped like a knight wearing a crown, labeled "1st place - 2000 - 27th annual public library chess tournament"

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Here, translation choices as an example of Simic's "endless tinkering" -- an exercise in combinatoric possibility using one of the smallest canonical forms of verse: www.bopsecrets.org/gateway/pass...

Matsuo Basho: Frog Haiku

(thirty-two translations and one commentary)

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

The final paragraph of my latest review, "The Hologram and the Hunted: on FOLLOW THIS BLOOD TO FIND A DEAD THING by Charles K. Carter" (Ferbwood Press: 2026), published by @variantlit.bsky.social

Regardless of which illusion is targeted, Carter’s work points continually towards acceptance: of self and others; of the natural world’s dangerous beauty; of the ugly necessities of survival. As the speaker of “Interloper” states: “I want to find a way to belong in this wilderness. / Even if it is to feed its beasts of prey” (39). In an increasingly holographic world—social media feeds, manufactured consent in mass media, unrealistic pornography, AI-generated facsimiles of human creativity, and more—work such as Follow This Blood to Find a Dead Thing is a welcome reminder that authentic vulnerability’s reward is worth the risk.

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Variant Literature @variantlit.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

New review up on the site from @lowermelody.bsky.social "Tension between comfortable illusion and disquieting reality animates Charles K. Carter’s Follow This Blood to Find a Dead Thing (2026: Fernwood Press)." variantlit.com/book-review-...

variantlit.com

The Hologram and the Hunted: on Follow This Blood to Find a Dead Thing by Charles K. Carter

Follow This Blood to Find a Dead Thing by Charles K. Carter (Fernwood Press: 2026) reviewed D.W. Baker for Variant Lit.

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the engine(idling lit @the-engine-idling.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Check out the Contributors' Curio: buff.ly/yytUFIm! The curio houses info on our contributors' creative projects. Today our #spotlight is on D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social ! #writingcommunity #poetrycommunity #writers #authors #artists #writerslife

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

"Meteorite," a short poem featured in my microchapbook LOVE'S THE BURNING BOY (@fifthwheelpress.bsky.social pride series 2026), was first published & nominated for Best of the Net by @identitytheory.bsky.social

Meteorite

You are both:

the impact;

the celestial space
created on earth
once

everything in
the crater
burns away.

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

as a short form enthusiast, here is one of my favorite takes on tiny poems, from Charles Simic's 2013 interview with Granta

CS: Of all the things ever said about poetry, the axiom that less is more has made the biggest and the most lasting impression on me. I have written many short poems in my life, except ‘written’ is not the right word to describe how they came into existence. Since it’s not possible to sit down and write an eight-line poem that’ll be vast for its size, these poems are assembled over a long period of time from words and images floating in my head. A brief poem intended to capture the imagination of the reader requires endless tinkering to get all its parts right.

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

i am coming to believe that the tyranny of requisite superlatives, the 11/10 blurb culture, is a cultural analogue of the spread of therapy-speak. both frames of language minimize the individual's accountability for imperfection, blunting growth & development in favor of comfort

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the engine(idling lit @the-engine-idling.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

**e(i Contributor Book Review!** @thmazing.bsky.social reviews "(e)lament" by @lowermelody.bsky.social & @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social Full review here: engineidling.net/reviews Find the book here: stonecorpse.com/nat-raum-d-w...

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Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl @deardara.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Irina Ratushinskaya didn’t scratch her poems into a bar of soap with a matchstick, memorize them and wash away her forbidden work as a political prisoner in a Soviet labor camp for you to tell me AI is "inevitable"

102438453

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the engine(idling lit @the-engine-idling.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

** e(i Contributor Book Review! ** Here, @lowermelody.bsky.social reviews @thmazing.bsky.social's "Thubrina" (Antemoff '25)! Full review: engineidling.net/reviews ** If yr one of our contributors & would like to sign up for a Book Review Exchange fill out this form: forms.gle/vnKrBHwdFDUw... 🩷

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Happy Solstice ☀️ a snippet from my "Solstice Hymn," published last year in Amethyst Review

May the longest day
stretch possibility
May the shortest life
stimulate urgency

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Celebrating father's day early since I'm working overtime tomorrow. My son (6) drew this picture of us playing Pokemon cards together. My heart is full!

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Vic Nogay @vicnogaywrites.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

the solstice is almost upon us! You know what that means! a new @identitytheory.bsky.social micro issue is coming!!!

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Tom Snarsky @tomsnarsky.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

happy June everyone!! I am so excited for this reading coming up in less than a week’s time, featuring Kevin A. Risner @mrdecember.bsky.social, Zuleyha Ozturk, Nora Rawn, & Z.H. Gill @burialmagazine.bsky.social! sign up below for this unmissable event, I look forward to seeing you there~

NIGHT LIGHT
THURSDAY 6/18
9PM EASTERN
ZOOM
KEVIN A. RISNER
ZULEYHA OZTURK
NORA RAWN
Z.H. GILL

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shome dasgupta @shomedasgupta.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Friends—here are about 55 literary journals opening for submissions in July—some are open now or will close soon in June or July. Genres, themes, & guidelines vary—dates are tentative & all these should be no-fee submissions. There are more resources out there, including on here. Wish y’all well.

Ubwali Literary Magazine
A Public Space
Salt Hill
Kitchen Table
Blueline
Acorn
Seaside Gothic
Dogwood
I-70
Diamond Gazette
Potomac Review
Arcturus
The Shore
Encyclopedia Prismatica
Beloit Poetry
Santa Fe Literary
Confluence
Mulberry Literary
Black Fox Literary
Kudu
Naugatuck River
Bluestem
The Branches
Harpur Palate
San Pedro River
Weird Lit
Thieving Magpie
Amsterdam Review
Reading Into Culture
New World Writing
InterrobangLit
Saw Palm
Rockford Review
Superpresent
Oh Reader
Fictive Dream
Turn & Work
Ghost Parachute
The Forge
X-R-A-Y
Necessary Fiction
Streetcake
Shine Poetry
Extra Teeth
Reckon Review
Barcelona Review
Literary Namjooning
The Baffler
Doric Literary
Lamp Lit
Stone of Madness
The Hoolet’s Nook
MoonPark Review
FIYAH
The Bulb Region
Stone Circle
Passionfruit

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

not here to make enemies. not here to make friends. here to read the writing of others, to share my own, to follow the heartbeat of the work, to sharpen my opinions into durable and informed objects, to post for nobody in particular but eternity and the odd fellow traveler

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

working title of latest review: "The Uncanny Valley of Procedural Language," a short look at a dada-inspired text working in the tradition of John Cage and Jackson Mac Low.

000

D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

from the second part of my essay-in-halves, "Sonic Pressure and the Lexical Poem," published last fall in @version9magazine.bsky.social

133

D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

If you liked my three linked tanka poems in @apconmag.bsky.social last week, or my biblical golden shovel in @plaguecircus.bsky.social yesterday, or if you just like Sator Squares -- you'll love my latest, "Traversing Floodwaters In Helios's Cup," in @cincinnatireview.bsky.social's miCRo series

044

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The Cincinnati Review @cincinnatireview.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

"nightly departure into the dreaming water made of wave forms oscillating in to the body’s container..." In this week's miCRo, "Traversing Floodwaters In Helios’s Cup" by @lowermelody.bsky.social, an enigmatic poem puzzles the classical. Read the full poem at our site. Link in thread.

white text on a dark-gray background: nightly departure / into the dreaming / water made of wave / forms oscillating in / to the body's container. D. W. Baker, "Traversing Floodwaters in Helios's Cup"

A closeup of a tarnished but shiny vase with sea scenes engraved on it

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

"Proverbs 20:27," one of the golden shovels in my new chapbook, LOVE'S THE BURNING BOY (@fifthwheelpress.bsky.social), was first published in @turningleafjournal.bsky.social in 2024.

Proverbs 20:27 I was nine, ten? when the ruinous edifices of human language molded my spirit into altared forms. It is rote entanglement, the serpent’s apple: my lamp bears its own witness. Of course, sixteen was the age I defied the Lord of red letters, searching instead for colors every me includes: the inmost hue, of which I am part.

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Jared Beloff @readinstead.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

What do you need right now? Maybe you need my odd new poem about Jane Goodall’s Hologram in @variantlit.bsky.social's new Summer Issue... variantlit.com/jane-goodall/

Jane Goodall’s Hologram standing with hands clasped in front of her...probably not apologizing for late stage capitalism,but you never know...

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the engine(idling lit @the-engine-idling.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Our Issue 8 Reader's Choice Award nomination break down... We've got 1 vote in for D.W. Baker's @lowermelody.bsky.social "To Hold" Read it: engineidling.net/current By an Anonymous Nominator... ⬇️⬇️⬇️

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Here is the opening paragraph of my latest review, up today at @phillychapbook.bsky.social: "The Lines of Landscape: on THE CATASTROPHES by Marie Scarles" (2025: @finishinglinepress.bsky.social)

Readers of The Catastrophes, a chapbook of poems which revolve around the place and space of regional Connecticut, will frequently encounter a satisfying blend of painterly imagism, documentarian fidelity, and subtly resonant use of ordinary language. Over the course of 24 poems, poet Marie Scarles uses this toolbox not only to represent actual landscapes on the page, but also to explore how their constraints, affordances, and incentives can be understood as lines which shape the course of human lives.

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

three apocalyptic poems and a new review, "The Lines of Landscape: on THE CATASTROPHES by Marie Scarles," out tomorrow 👀

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

My new (micro)chapbook, LOVE'S THE BURNING BOY, part of the @fifthwheelpress.bsky.social inaugural pride series, is titled after the last line of Elizabeth Bishop's "Casabianca." These poems are instruments of self-confidence that helped me begin to publish my work. Price starts at $0

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fifth wheel press @fifthwheelpress.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

the 2026 pride microchapbook series starts NOW! ko-fi.com/fifthwheelpr...

ko-fi.com

Visit fifth wheel press's Shop!

I've opened a shop. Come take a look!

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

@janehuffman.bsky.social's contest-winning poem in Midway Journal. One of my favorite contemporary poets for her work with sound and repetition.

Beauty is made my fear

Jane Huffman April 15, 2026

A few notes on a misprinted poem by Laura Jensen

What slips from me is what
slips from me. Slippage
is the hinge on which my life

hinges. When the text
emerges with a mark missing,
I kiss it. The error ablates

the face I was making
when making it. Eros, a mistake.
When I faced it, I lost it.

When it slipped from me,
it slipped from me, and I let it
slip from me: errant tear.

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River River Books @riverriverbooks.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Hi dear poets—our summer open reading period closes on Sunday, 5/31! Send us your manuscripts today, before you are distracted by a bird or the inevitability of death. 📚💙💙 Submit here: riverriverbooks.org/editors/subm...

SUMMER 2026
OPEN READING
PERIOD
Closing
May 31
RIVERRIVERBOOKS.ORG

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JW Mason @jwmason.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

This is nicely put. The machine that subordinates all life to its own algorithm of self-expansion is already operating: It’s called capital. www.newyorker.com/science/anna...

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