iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Via The San Marcos Writing Project, this beauty by Danielle Coffyn #poetry #poems #pride #pridemonth 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Why PRIDE

Because somewhere
a child is a heron
in a sea full of salmon
who encourage them
to convert wings
into fins.

Fish cannot teach
a bird to take flight.
So every June we flock
to the heavens
to remind them the sky
was never a sin.

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

Biggest turnout yet in New Haven yesterday for #nokings, and some great signs! #gscia #nhv

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Sure, I could have subjected myself to hours of lies, countless attacks, and invented "victories" in the #SOTU, but somehow catching up with Oscar Nominee One Battle After Another seemed like near-perfect counterprogramming. (Illustration by Chirrikenstein for The New Yorker)

Illustration of One Battle After Another characters by Chirrikenstein for The New Yorker

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

"I thought it was important for people to be in the streets. But that couldn't last. You needed a record. It would be my job to publish the voices, the books, the ideas of African Americans. And that would last."--Toni Morrison, born this day in 1931. #booksky #readthisbook #blackhistory

Copy of Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer's Legendary Editorship

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

A friend reminded me of this #poem by Christian Wiman this morning, and I just had to take some time to re-savor this beautiful take on #love #poetry #valentines #hopeinthedark

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

This amazing poem by @aracelisxgirmay.bsky.social , particularly these lines, has been on my mind and heart a lot lately. Full poem at poets.org/poem/you-are... #poems #poetry #hopeinthedark #resist #persist

You are who I love, writing letters, calling the senators, you who, with the seconds of your body (with your time here), arrive on buses, on trains, in cars, by foot to stand in the January streets against the cool and brutal offices, saying: YOUR CRUELTY DOES NOT SPEAK FOR ME

You are who I love, you struggling to see

You struggling to love or find a question

You better than me, you kinder and so blistering with anger, you are who I love, standing in the wind, salvaging the umbrellas, graduating from school, wearing holes in your shoes

You are who I love
weeping or touching the faces of the weeping

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

@amandagorman.bsky.social, as always, with her clear-eyed vision and beautiful words that pierce and comfort all at once. #poetry #poems #hopeinthedark #resist #persist

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Good reminder this morning at the train station. #resist #hopeinthedark

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

@amandagorman.bsky.social once again giving voice to our grief and anguish and offering clarity, hope, and inspiration #poetry #hopeinthedark #inspiration #resist

For Renee Nicole Good
Killed by ICE. on January 7, 2026
by Amanda Gorman
They say she is no more,
That there her absence roars,
Blood-blown like a rose.
Iced wheels flinched & froze.
Now, bare riot of candles,
Dark fury of flowers,
Pure howling of hymns.

If for us she arose,
Somewhere, in the pitched deep of our grief,
Crouches our power, The howl where we begin,
Straining upon the edge of the crooked crater
Of the worst of what we've been.
Change is only possible,
& all the greater,
When the labour
& bitter anger of our neighbors
Is moved by the love
& better angels of our nature.

What they call death & void,
We know is breath & voice;
In the end, gorgeously,
Endures our enormity.

You could believe departed to be the dawn
When the blank night has so long stood.
But our bright-fled angels will never be fully gone,
When they forever are so fiercely Good.

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

So many terrific #poems in Poetry is Not a Luxury: Poems for All Seasons, like this beautiful little heartbreaker by Sophie Klahr #poetry #nowreading #booksky

Tender
Sophie Klahr
I spend late morning weeping with the news:
a black bear with burnt paws is euthanized
along the latest wildfire's newest edge.
It was crawling on its forearms, seeking
a place to rest. I Google more; reports
leak out: the bear had bedded down behind
a house, below a pine, to lick its paws.
In hours before its end, officials named
It Tenderfoot, though some reports report
just Tender. Later, I will teach a class
where well discuss the lengths of lines in poems.
I'll say a sonnet is a little song
to hold a thing that otherwise cannot
be held: a lonely thing; a death; a bear.

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

Of all the great signs I saw at yesterday’s #nokings in New Haven, this is the one that will stay with me. #nhv #gscia

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

‘Nuff said. #nokings 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

Great turnout in New Haven, CT for the #nokings rally and march. #gscia #nhv

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

Timely #reading and rereading before and after joining #nokings protests today. #booksky

The Autobiography of Medgaf Evers and Fahrenheit 451

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

A friend sent this important reminder to me this morning in honor of my birthday, James Baldwin once again speaking necessary truth across the years, in a time when showing compassion, care, and love, to “magnify each other’s light” is critical work. #hopeinthedark #wisdom #inspiration

"The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love — whether we call it friendship or family or romance — is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other's light"—James Baldwin

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

How I wish this Mary Oliver poem was not so prescient about this terrible moment we are all living through #poetry #poems #truth

OF THE EMPIRE
We will be known as a culture that feared death and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity for the few and cared little for the penury of the many. We will be known as a culture that taught and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke little if at all about the quality of life for people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a commodity. And they will say that this structure was held together politically, which it was, and they will say also that our politics was no more than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of the heart, and that the heart, in those days, was small, and hard, and full of meanness.

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

A friend sent me this moving beauty of a #poem yesterday, which gets it so right about our relationship with dogs and why I love them so. #poetry #doglover #poetrylover #dogsofbluesky #dogs #doglife

Full text of Andrew Kane's "How to Be A Dog," which can also be found at https://www.versedaily.org/2020/howtobeadog.shtml

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

The flock has gathered at the Little Flamingo Free Library to celebrate National Pink Flamingo Day. #littlefreelibrary #booksky @littlefreelibrary.bsky.social

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

I just finished the best kind of #beachread, an open-hearted, sweet, often funny, and ultimately very readable take on the deeply serious issue of book banning as it unfolds in a small town full of quirky, compelling characters. #booksky #summerreading

Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kristen Miller (displayed in hand on the beach)

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Thousands turned out in our small city to rally and march for #nokingsday #nhv #gscia #nokings

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

As we prepare to join folks across the country to mark #nokingsday, we hang our flag and put up this reminder that as we stand AGAINST authoritarianism, exclusion, and cruelty, we stand FOR these important values.

IN OUR America
ALL PEOPLE ARE EQUAL LOVE WINS
BLACK LIVES MATTER
IMMIGRANTS & REFUGEES ARE WELCOME DISABILITIES ARE RESPECTED
WOMEN ARE IN CHARGE OF THEIR BODIES PEOPLE & PLANET ARE VALUED OVER PROFIT DIVERSITY IS CELEBRATED

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

As a queer kid who also found escape and solace in Bewitched, I have long loved this piece by @poetrichardblanco.bsky.social #poetry #lgbtwriters #pridemonth

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Whatever is happening elsewhere, #pridemonth is in full swing at the Little Flamingo Free Library #littlefreelibrary #booksky #LGBTwriters

Little free library with multi-colored flamingos and a pride flag waving to celebrate Pride Month.

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Watercolor and ink of Harvey Milk by Victoria Ramos, featuring one of his most famous quotations. #pridemonth #inspiration #hope #hopeinthedark #hopewillneverbesilent

Water color and ink drawing of Harvey Milk, with his famous quotation, “Hope will never be silent.”

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Just this morning, I finished this gorgeous book and almost can’t imagine emerging from the beautiful, brutal, yet somehow tender world I’ve been immersed in this last week. Ocean Vuong never disappoints. I know I will return to this novel again and again. #booksky #readthis #lgbtwriters

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

Loving @otroedgargomez.bsky.social’s latest, Alligator Tears: A Memoir in Essays, which is full of moving, beautiful writing like this passage and more than a few laughs, too. #booksky #lgbtqwriters

“One of my biggest fears as a child was that I wouldn't be ready for the rapture: the day when, out of nowhere, all the perfect, sinless people would be sucked up to the sky and the regular ones would be left behind. I'm not particularly religious anymore, but some days it
eels like we're already living it. When I look around me,I don't see
any perfect people; just normal, flawed human beings trying to make the best with what they have. The volunteers at Love Wins, who are up before the sun is out to feed families in the neighborhood. Lesly and the students of Mirror, who insist on a life that is dignified and beautiful. The friends who housed and fed me in the pandemic, the co-workers I shared birthdays with in break rooms. My mom, who put on a pair of giant black sunglasses and lipstick to bring fruit to the ladies at her local pantry.

It frustrates me to think that the people I love may never be rewarded with everything they deserve, but I'm comforted by the fact that they don't let the current bleakness of the world keep them from fighting to make it a better place. Every day they claim their joy, dreaming out loud with me on the phone, dancing in line outside Friend's, marching through the streets.

I don't know what happens after, when this is all over. But wher-
ever they're going, that's where I'm trying to go too.”

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

Visited @possible-futures.bsky.social today for #independentbookstoreday, where I picked up some essential and all-too-timely reads and was the first to purchase Super Gay Poems, so I got some special super gay swag! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈 #booknerd #booksky #nhv #gscia

Copies of Jason Staley’s How Fascism Works and Padraig O’ Tuama’s 44 Poems on Being with Each Other resting on a public library tote bag that says “Libraries Save Democracy” and lists some frequently banned classics

Copy of Stephanie Burt’s Suoer Gay Poems: LGBTQIA+ Poetry Arter Stonewall, a super gay poem sticker, bookmark, and tote bag

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

A friend sent me these two Troubled Birds cards today, and now I can’t stop imagining an avian army deployed to save our country. 😂#sorrynotsorry

Wide-eyed bird under the words “I poop on fascists.”

Wide-eyed bird under the words “I poop on racists.”

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Spotted this new variation on a theme this morning on a walk around my fair city. #nhv #gscia #signofthetimes #resist #persist #hopeinthedark

KINDNESS IS EVERYTHING
SCIENCE IS REAL
BLACK LIVES MATTER
DIVERSITY IS CELEBRATED
HATE IS VOLUNTARY
IT'S NOT FAKE NEWS
NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL
I SUPPORT THE PARIS AGREEMENT WOMEN'S RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FOR EVERYONE
POWER OF LOVE > LOVE OF POWER CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOT A HOAX
RESIST PERSIST COEXIST

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Getting ready for some great conversation in this afternoon’s faculty book group about our *actual* motivations for teaching and how we are and might carry out the radical hope @thetattooedprof.bsky.social calls for in his book. #booksky #hopeinthedark #professorlife

A copy of Kevin Gannon’s Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto with a mug in the background that reads “I became a teacher for the money and fame”

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

I picked up this #wisdom from Perla Anne Press at #Charleston City Market over spring break, and glad to start the week with this #art hung in a place over my desk that will keep what's ahead in #perspective #inspiration #supportlocalartists

Use your voice for kindness, your ears for compassion, your hands for charity, your mind for truth, and your heart for love on a block print with a flower

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Knowing that Meta was so desperate to make this book by a Facebook insider disappear that they got a court injunction barring the author from promoting it makes it essential #weekendreading for me and apparently a lot of other folks, as it has shot to the top of the charts. #booksky #freespeech

Book cover of Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

As we continue figuring out how to navigate all the upheaval and pain so many are experiencing, I’m also taking time to cultivate and treasure these little moments of #joy and connection, like lingering over a mocha latte with my #love @jim-travers.bsky.social #joyisresistance #hopeinthedark

Mocha latte with tiny chocolate heart drawn in the foam.

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

“Louise [Little], Berdis [Baldwin], and Alberta [King] were well aware of the dangers they and their children would be met with as Black people in the United States, and they all strove to equip their children not only to face the world but to change it.” #nowreading ##forgottenhistory #booksky

The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Weekend #reading about one of many kick-ass librarians, who have been my heroes since childhood. #booksky #readbannedbooks

Copy of That Librarian by Amanda Jones with a cup with a “Read Banned Books” sticker

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

Taking Sunday morning refuge from the endlessly horrifying news cycle in the exquisite #poetry of @poetrichardblanco.bsky.social #booksky #poems #recommendedreading

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

A few signs of the times at the #NotMyPresidentsDay protest, about 800-1000 people strong, in New Haven, CT #resist #persist #gscia #nhv

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

We will be traveling to and around South Africa for three weeks in July, and I am considering buying and wearing one of these t-shirts from @teepublic.bsky.social every day.

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

#nowreading and learning from Medgar and Myrlie by @joyannreid.bsky.social No executive order can keep us from exploring and being inspired by our country’s full history and passing it on in any way we can. #booksky #blackhistorymonth #resist #persist

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Today, like every day, is a good day to remember that, in these trying times, we all have to love up on each other harder than ever.

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Sure, most of the news is terrible, but then there's this handsome devil hanging out with his BFF. #timelinecleanse You're welcome. 😉

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Today’s Little #Zen Calendar offers an important morning #meditation reminder. And, man, do we have some sweeping to do! #inspiration #wisdom

In spiritual practice there are only two things: You sit and you sweep the garden. And it doesn't matter how big the garden is.
ZEN SAYING

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

#snowday #booknerd morning bliss is curling up with a post-shovel cozy blanket and cozy mystery #booksky #bookish

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Great piece by Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny, and with some marching orders for us all. open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...

"As for the rest of us: Make sure you are talking to people and doing something. The logic of "move fast and break things," like the logic of all coups, is to gain quick dramatic successes that deter and demoralize and create the impression of inevitability. Nothing is inevitable. Do not be alone and do not be dismayed. Find someone who
is doing something you admire and join them."

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

A beautiful reminder that, no matter what chaos swirls around us, we can still be a refuge for others. #poetry #poems #inspiration #hopeinthedark

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

“Libraries were full of ideas—perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.”—Sarah J. Maas #booksky #books #bookish #resist

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Steve Mark @stevesdropper.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Another day, another example of the @nytimes.com failing to meet this moment with its now pathological normalizing of the abnormal. Where are the front page stories of the very real impact on normal Americans? The fact that this move on his part is patently illegal?

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