Dear TBR: The Read Harder Challenge that Book Riot does every year hasn’t been something I’ve felt too much need to participate in, because it was originally started to expand people’s reading horizons, and… I like mine where they are? Meaning, I do make a point of trying to read a leeeetle nonfic, quite a […]

This poem brought to you by the letters P and I, and the word “autoimmune” coming to you live from the floor pillow in Tech Boy’s office nobody understands the triggers, not really. panicking bodily limits choice: hunker down, ride it out.

Heard the factoid this morning that Queen Elizabeth I’s courtiers blackened their teeth with soot to mimic her own genuinely decaying teeth, as in 1533 their monarch’s unrestrained love of sugar had left its mark and dentistry was not yet really A Thing. The podcast compared this to the myriad women who have gone under […]

DEAR TBR: This is the year’s first novel-in-verse that I’ve read – and boy, does it shine. The year is 1963 and fifth grader Cooper Dale is not looking forward to her school year. She has The Mean Teacher, and she’s dreading dealing with Ms. Keating, whom everyone says is just terrible. Cooper hates being […]

Heard the factoid this morning that Queen Elizabeth I’s courtiers blackened their teeth with soot to mimic her own genuinely decaying teeth, as in 1533 their monarch’s unrestrained love of sugar had left its mark and dentistry was not yet really A Thing. The podcast compared this to the myriad women who have gone under […]

Washday Consider housekeeping: constantly applying principles of order. (though laundry demonstrates entropy…) (Since even my washing machines have windows, they seemed fair game for observation.) Monday, November 13, 1620, the Mayflower came ashore. After they probably kissed the ground in gratitude for someplace solid to stand, the Pilgrim-esses hauled out the wash… because it was […]

Dear TBR, The Indian Appropriations Act of 1889 reapportioned lands once belonging to the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole peoples who had been forcibly removed. The Oklahoma Land Rush that same year was an historical event where what was considered some of the best ‘unassigned’ land in the U.S. was up for grabs by […]

Metaphor Thematic Poetry Achievement. My viewpoint: Internal Perusal. Transparent Observing, Through windows. It finally clicked when I came up with a stained glass window rather than draw anything else the other day. It’s all becoming clear to me now…?

two:fifty Awakened by panic? Remember astronauts splash landing, surviving. Control is a trust fall we let go. Thank you, anxiety, for the lesson. Can I go back to sleep now?

funerals funerals unburden the living, audibly consuming love stories like sharing one last meal together.♥

Dear TBR Though I wanted to be, your girl is NOT a ball-and-bat-and-sweats-and-spike girlie. I played football in junior high because I was fast and aggressive and very, very angry so bashing my body into boys without getting a felony count seemed like a good idea, until I was yanked unceremoniously off the team by […]

Grr. I’m so discombobulated today I thought it was Friday. It’s the noise. I’m going to really need the neighbors (and the HOA) to coordinate on a day when they have the yardwork done, because the minute it stops raining it gets ridiculous… suburban nuisance “Don’t chase poems,” let them come,” I insist. Arriving afterwards, […]

Dear TBR: I really dislike when I discover a traditionally published Big 5 middle grade book I’ve heard nothing about. Don’t get me wrong, a new book is always a joy, in a way – but in another way, it’s kind of disturbing. Brief research into the film director and novelist who combined to write […]

crowded table Imagine holidays by Hallmark – color-drenched celluloid. Realism is crowded: just space for… …everyone. There’s a song by The Highwomen called “Crowded Table” that was on my mind this morning (we’re doing a double quartet choral version sometime later this Spring, and the chorus is an incredible earworm), and it seems appropriate, as […]

Five Stars Rehearsals, Auditions – Life holds none. Though *nightly curtains rise on “Sunset.” Unrehearsed, The light drains brilliantly. Driving home the other night, the hills looked like black paper cutouts. Spring sunsets stretch longer as the light seeps more slowly. I thought “this light deserves a poem,” and though colored pencils don’t really convey […]

errands parking lot ambiance? Confounding – whatever this flower’s provenance, seductive, its fragrance elevates.

morning calm insistent, raucous song, repeating while light slides slow rainbows down siding… loud silence morning brings opposites. Today seemed a good day to try again with the original prompts brought to me by Grant Snider’s POETRY COMICS prompts. As in his first example, I looked for a window to draw… Of course, because I’m […]

Yeah, we’re not drawing today.

Since the rain, the roses are blooming wildly. It’s a riot out there.

Friday Tenebrae: ritual requires all candles extinguished. Acknowledge in darkness this planet, this grieving. I’m continually fascinated by how some people – communities or individuals – can make space for grief … and how some others relentless insistence on ‘this’ being some Part Of The Plan or Lesson. Sometimes awful things like pandemics, fascists, and […]

mandé mandatum “Commandment” in Latin. A brick word – Unyielding. Requiring Adherence, Demanding Charity. Not having been raised with liturgy, I am the girl who’s wondering, “Wait, what?” when our ensemble is asked to sing for “Maundy” Thursday. Could say MUCH MORE on the subject of the medieval/traditional connection between the day and charitable behavior, […]

And So It Begins Holidays – Holy Week, Passover Colliding, Colluding, Combining… Liturgy Requires Stamina. I can already tell that the poetry and the panels will be a challenge. I’ll need to sketch much faster with far less detail! It’s hard to wean oneself away from perfection. Additionally, for a tricube, I really only needed […]

NPM ’26 ♦ Sing On, O Mighty Pen In 2007, my friend Sarah and I saw artist, author, puppet maker, and all-round personified avatar of art Yuyi Morales in San Francisco. (It was at Alma Flor Ada’s Reading the World conference, a single day event put on by the International & Multicultural Education Department of […]

Welcome to another Poetry Friday Adventure! Poetry Peeps! You’re invited to our poetry challenge for the month of MARCH. Here’s the scoop: we’re writing ekphrastic poems, which might pair beautifully with your plans for National Poetry Month (I’m attempting poetry comics). Ekphrasis is a Greek word which means “description,” and you’re invited to choose your […]

You’ve Arrived! Welcome to Poetry Friday! Poetry Peeps! You’re invited to the Poetry Sisters’ challenge for the month of MARCH. Here’s the scoop: we’re writing tight little bundles of poetry called

Welcome to another year of Poetry Peeps Adventures! Poetry Peeps! You’re invited to our poetry challenge for the month of MARCH. Here’s the scoop: we’re writing tight little bundles of poetry called At present, I find fire and its environmental impacts too grief-inducing, so I tried for a lighter direction. I chose a positive moment […]

‘Tis the season for love, and to all my people out there who kind of hate Valentine’s Day… I see you. I was you, not because I was particularly anti-love, but because it all seemed like a lot of nonsense and noise – at least when I was in junior high. In honor of that […]

Welcome to another year of Poetry Peeps Adventures! Poetry Peeps! You’re invited to our poetry challenge for the month of FEBRUARY. Here’s the scoop: we’re composing

Retin-A was developed through tests on incarcerated people.

These stories will help anyone understand the motivations of immigrants, feel the sanctity of their bonds, and develop empathy in general.