Happy (and Hoppy) Easter, New Poems Up at The Normal School, and a Week of Being Sick (During Beautiful Weather)

Apple Tree Blooming in my Own Yard

Happy (and Hoppy) Easter

Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates. I was too sick to do much this year, but I did revisit some classics, including the children’s book (written in 1939, and re-released in 1967) The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes, which besides having adorable illustrations, contains surprisingly subversive morals on racism, classism, and feminism—I mean, it would be fair to say it’s an anti-Nazi Easter Bunny book. It surprises me what I look back on in children’s lit and see what affected my own values—in this case, learning that being a poor, brown female bunny from the country (being told to “look after her children” and “leave Easter business to the men” by the tall wealthy white male bunnies—sound familiar?) can achieve her dreams no matter what the obstacles.

sick, but still dressed for Easter, with neighboring cherry tree

Anyway, I strongly recommend you buy it for all your children. Meanwhile, I read the account of the Easter story in all four gospels and again noted that the first people to discover Jesus had risen were women, the first person to speak to the risen Jesus was Mary Magdalene, and the male disciples were too scared to check on his grave and refused to believe the women who saw the angels and even saw Jesus himself. So, ha ha ha, not much has changed, right? The church fails to point this out too often I notice. Ah well. You’ll have to excuse this country bunny.

New Poems up at the Normal School

I am very happy to share that I had two poems up at The Normal School this week, “Aurora, or When Firefoxes Spark the Sky” and “Pyrokinetic.” Below is a sneak peek at one of them. If you go to the link, like and share as The Normal School and I could use the online attention.

A Week of Being Sick During Beautiful Weather

First lilacs blooming in Spring.

This week I was supposed to run a book club for poetry month, record a poetry tutorial for Writer’s Digest, and a bunch of other things, but instead, I was sick in bed with a combination sinus/stomach flu bug, which I strongly do not recommend (if I look like I lost weight in the pic above, I did—from three solid days of being constantly sick and another day of liquid diet. Super fun! Like Ozempic without the cost Lol!) And every day I was in bed, outside the sky was blue, the flowers all jumped into bloom at once (cherry blossoms, apple blossoms, and lilacs generally do NOT bloom at the same time in our area, but the late spring really messed up the bloom cycle). So that was a bummer. It was not covid or the official flu (according to tests) but there are a lot of bugs going around, the doctor said, so just be aware.

Glenn and I with cherry tree

Meanwhile, I slept a lot, drank a lot of Pedialyte™ and caught up on a lot of good and bad television. I am hoping to get through my birthday (around the corner) with better health so I can get out and around Seattle to enjoy some blue skies and flowers.

It is almost the end of National Poetry Month, so I hope you have been reading and writing and enjoying poetry this month, too. If you want to cheer up a poet, just buy one of their books or write them a note about how much you enjoyed their work or share their work on social media or leave them an Amazon review or something. You never know when someone needs a little boost to keep them going.

Spring is Here with Cherry Blossoms and Art Shows, Tulip Fields, Pink Moons, and Visits with Family

My pink typewriter with cherry petals

Spring is Here—Cherry Blossoms and Art Galleries

In the days after AWP in LA, spring began springing in Seattle, although a bit colder than usual. The first sign here of spring is daffodils and cherry blossoms. We have several trees that I planted in our yard, and down the street, even more, so although it is a custom to go downtown to the UW quad to visit the almost-100-year-old cherry blossom grove, we usually get our cherry blossom fix closer to home.

Being outside is really good for me, even when I’m tired and feeling a bit sneezy (we’ve had a heck of an allergy season, despite or maybe because of the cold?), so I’m happy to have a bit less cold wind and a rain and at least a couple of partially sunny days.

Dewi Plass – Marvel

Visiting Art Galleries

Another soul-restoring practice of mine, besides spending time with flowers, is spending time with art. So, we went downtown to the new location (hard to find and in a bit of a dodgy area of town, but huge and well-lit) of Roq La Rue, my favorite art gallery in Seattle. They had a beautiful collection of smaller pieces called “Spectacle du Petite,” one of which I was able to take home (happy birthday to me!) Besides this, they had spectacular sculptures and new work by another favorite artist, Josie Moran. They just opened a new show this last Friday, so take a peek at their web site to see what’s going to be there. Worth the trip (and some level of confusion) finding it!

The day we went down we also went by a very friendly-seeming anti-Trump protest and a group of trans folks raising money for ACLU. It was sunny and everyone was in good spirits, even the gathered police, and despite what people on the right say about Seattle, I was happy and proud to be part of such a vibrant and inclusive community.

Annual Trip to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

Which, because spring is late this year, meant we saw not only fields of tulips, but fields of daffodils, still-blooming cherry trees, and early/late camellias and rhododendrons. I always wish I could stay longer and do more exploring up in the area, but this was a quick day trip (to avoid the work being done on the house—this time, noisy electrical work)—and I wore out after about nine hours out and about in the fields anyway. In the meantime, enjoy these pics—when I posted some of these on Instagram with a guess-where-I-am caption, several people guessed Holland! But you can totally imagine Holland looking at these pictures.

Pink Moon and Visiting Family

The full Pink Moon was actually pink this weekend, so I tried to get a picture of it in its true color which is always challenging but this one got pretty close.

My birthday is coming up soon which is always a time of introspection, as is tax time (how is it possible I did so much freelance work for so little money? I ask every year.) I am hoping to find a new home for my next book, maybe a chance to do more lucrative work teaching or publishing, and of course, balancing the joys of life and the stress plus health stuff. I am trying to find more disabled and chronically ill women’s books to review (so definitely comment if you have a new book coming out), and besides the book club and open mic, trying to get together more regularly with other writers. AWP (and maybe the art gallery and protest, too) reminded me of the strengths of feeling like part of a community, rather than just a lone eccentric trying to live your lone eccentric writer life. Helping others, speaking up, these things are also part of feeding the soul, not to get too cheesy.

I also got to visit my little brother’s newly renovated home (beautiful!) in a lovely neighborhood and got to see the way he and my sister-in-law have already started making it their own—hanging art, arranging furniture, trying to beautify the yard (which the previous owner had left a lot of gravel). I am reminded that someday soon our own home renovations will be done, and we can concentrate on something else, but also, in this area, buying and maintaining a home is no joke, financially, but somewhat more stable than the veering stock market this week, for instance. I always like to touch base with my family, and it felt nice to actually spend an hour or two just talking and catching up.

Wishing you some time with flowers, art, full moons, and family and friends this month.

AWP Part 2: Meeting with Editors and Fellow Writers, My Moon City AWP Reading on YouTube, and Down Days

Tresha, Lelsey, Kelli and I (and right beyond the pic, Roxane Gay!

AWP LA Part II: Meeting with Editors and Fellow Writers

Last week I wrote a Part 1 of AWP post and promised a second. My web site has had issues, and I myself had a few down days—after the excitement and travel, my body decided it didn’t want to do much and made sure I stayed in bed for much of the last week.

But, back to AWP LA days 3 and 4. On the 3rd day I got to meet and talk to editors of literary magazines and presses I admired, or had published me, or a combination of the two. The bookfair was massive, and attendance was 10,000—not the biggest, but not the smallest either. The best thing about the bookfair is accidentally running into friends—and that happened outdoors as well. This picture at the top was a happy accident waiting for Glenn to pick me up at the “accessibility” drop off location, where I happened to run into friends Tresha Faye Haefner, Lesley Wheeler, and Kelli Russell Agodon. And Roxane Gay was right there too, right beyond the picture. Did I mention her keynote was worth listening to? I mean, not every keynote is useful, but Roxane is so real about the writing life—she described her first AWP as “being surrounded by people with interesting glasses and stiletto heels”—I remember being equally daunted at my first AWP, which was even longer ago, back in 2003, when they had a “huge crowd” of 3000 attendees. Ha ha ha ha.

Anyway, I should have made more time for parties, lunches, dinners, and other events, but I was usually burned out after about four hours. My energy levels aren’t what they used to be! (More on that later.)

I did get to have a coffee and a bite to eat with Lesley Wheeler, whose new book Mycocosmic just dropped from Tupelo Press. This trip to AWP was a last minute decision on my part—I had decided not to go a long time ago—but I felt that with having to be out of the house anyway (with the ongoing disability renovation) and having felt a bit down since the beginning of the year (and Trump’s re-presidency) it would prove encouraging, and it did. Even getting a bit of a break from Seattle’s cold and dreary spring (everything bloomed after we left!) was nice. If AWP is a bit physically and mentally exhausting—and it is—it also reaffirms you as a writer—a writer some people have actually read—and part of a community—whose books you actually read.

My Moon City Reading

Glenn was a bit late to catch the into from Mike or the beginning of the first poem, but this gives you a brief taste of the Moon City Press reading. Here I read California-themed poems from Field Guide to the End of the World, Flare, Corona, and my manuscript in progress. Hope you enjoy! It’s almost like you were there…

Anyway, besides having to spend a few days in bed, there have been cherry trees blooming here in Seattle and art shows to visit, which I’ll talk about next week. Until then, may your writer days and ways be lucky and supported.

AWP LA Part I: Day 1 and 2, All the Gossip, Disability and Travel, Poets!

AWP LA Part I, Day 1

Ah, the trip to LA – delayed flights, turbulence the whole time, and snafus with the rental car at LAX (the worst! do Burbank if possible!) meant we were racing across traffic after waking up at six AM and being in travel mode until 8 PM to make it to my Moon City Reading at least partially on time, after the hotel decided “accessible” meant something other than actually accessible (this happens a lot.) Anyway, we made it there, I got to see some friends, snap a pic or two, and then get home to the hotel and collapse without eating, because honestly, too tired to eat! That’s Day 1! (Pic from the Moon City Reading with Lee Horikoshi Roripaugh in the next paragraph.) The weather this whole trip was a little overcast and cool for Californians, which you can tell from the pics, although still warm to me (in the sixties, til nightfall.)

Lee Horikoshi Roripaugh and I at the Moon City Reading, Day 1 of AWP: Purple Light

Day 2 of AWP: So Many Friends, Poets, Publishers

So waking up bright and early day 2, I took a walk on the beach (I always stay away from downtown LA when I go to LA, from the time 25 years ago that I used to come down and present when I was a Microsoft tech person. Because downtown LA is not really LA.) And then hustled down to the conference, to register and meet up with people. I did not get to go to all the talks I wanted to – Beth Ann Fennelly and Hybrid writing, the speculative memoir (what?? right?) and many writers I wanted to see I just didn’t. But there were 10,000 people at this LA, so I guess that’s just statistics.

Anyway, I caught up with several former professors, lots of blogger friends, and some new people that were fans of my work that I hadn’t met yet, which is always a pleasure (and a surprise! Somehow I don’t realize real people actually read my books until I go to these kinds of things.) It was a b

Here’s the book haul from Day 2 and lots of friend pics: Got books by friends but also from good presses like YesYes Books and Word Words and tons of others. Did I come home with too many books? Yes I did!

It is so great to meet press editors and publishers you’ve never heard of. It is great to see West Coast lit mags you didn’t already know about. This is part of what makes AWP fun and worth going to, even if you’re tired and your MS is acting up and you have anxiety about travel and the world. the other part is catching up with people who know and love and might not have seen for a couple of years.

I don’t remember much about the night of Day 2 because I may have fallen asleep literally between events and didn’t make to several things I meant to (Roxane Gay’s keynote was great, but I watched it virtually later on.) Gossip: Roxane Gay bought The Rumpus. I was very happy to hear that as a former Rumpus reviewer, I must admit. She seems good at managing things.

All right, since I am typing this from the hotel and getting ready to fly back to Seattle, I will end there. Guys, stay safe and strong until I can post again. Also: LA is much friendlier and more diverse than Seattle, and you can do something that you couldn’t in Seattle: wake up, stroll across the ocean, pick up fresh masa corn tortillas with honey butter, and eat breakfast on the beach. I’m not at all an LA girl but I’ve got to admit the people are fun (People at LAX – at the airport! – stopped and complimented my clothes, my hair, and my luggage. Before I got  a rental car!) Locals recommended the best restaurants and local music to you, just standing around. and the food is amazing, just stuff we don’t get much in Scandanavian Seattle. Anyway, wait for Part 2: the Reckoning, AWP LA style.

Hello Spring, Plum Blossoms, Almost There: AWP, Renovations, and Health Challenges

A picture of me with plum blossoms

Hello Spring!  Plum Blossoms, and Almost There: AWP, Renovations, and Health Challenges

Well, it’s almost AWP, my bathroom renovations are almost done, and having survived a 24-hour stomach bug AND an emergency vet visit for one of the cats in the same day, it feels like we’re going to make it. Hopefully. (Thunderstorms and hail are predicted for the time of my flight, so think good thoughts!)

Though it’s mostly been a cold, wet, miserable spring so far, the plum blossoms and cherry blossoms and early star magnolias have started blooming, so spring can’t be far behind. I also got my hair to match. Pink for spring!

I hope you are all surviving as well as possible through this period of scary news and economic anxiety, among other things. I hope some sunshine and time with friends will help me shake off some of the low spirits I’ve been experiencing lately, a combination of high anxiety and low-level depression, I think. When your MS acts up (which mine has been lately) it is all you can do to not curse at the pain and non-ability to focus, write, or accomplish even small tasks, and this is all ratcheted up when strange people are in the house at all hours and you can’t get to any of your normal stuff and you and the cats both get sick. So I’m sorry I wasn’t well enough to post yesterday, when I usually do, but I promise an extra exciting post next week, after AWP.

A visit from our bob kitten seems to portend good things ahead, I hope. AWP can be frantic and overwhelming, I know LA has had a lot of hard luck lately, and I expected not to go (so didn’t even apply for talks or readings or anything.

I’m going to try to make it in time for the Moon City Press reading Wednesday night (if my flight, rental car, traffic, etc all make it possible) but otherwise I’ll be seeing friends at the bookfair and by appointment (if you want to see me, send me a message!)

Good luck this week, friends! May your yards be full of bobcats and plum blossoms. May spring come soon and bring better weather, better news and better fortune.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Lunar Eclipses, Dental Work and Cherry Blossoms, Plus MS Flares

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, and First Cherry Blossoms

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all who celebrate, and happy first cherry blossoms, despite the crazy weather (hail, freezing rain, sunshine – all in one day!) we know spring is almost here.

This week was a tough one for me, including two crowns without Novocain (and a complication on one of them), a mistake in the accessibility remodel that means the end date is pushed back again and more expense, MS acting up (almost always happens after complex dental work for some reason.) So if I’m less expansive and intelligent than usual, you can blame my brain. Anyway, here are some spring blossom photos and me with some temporary crowns.

Full Blood Moon Lunar Eclipses and MS Flares

The same day I got two crowns, we also had a beautiful full lunar eclipse, which I managed to get some pictures of. The bad news is, like many times in the past, getting dental work and lunar eclipses both seem to equal MS flares, and this time was no different. (See this poem about the night I was diagnosed with MS, which was also a Blood Moon Eclipse.) Feeling incredibly fatigued, in pain, and slow-brained and clumsy, we’ve also had to deal with a crown complication, an error made to make the accessible bathroom counter six inches too high (which we have to pay to fix, even though it was the company we hired to design an accessible bathroom’s mistake), and dwindling money and health, plus terrible political news. It has all been very draining. So if I owe you something and you need it urgently, let me know – right now I am postponing things like crazy and trying just to rest and drink fluids until I’m feeling a little better. I am also prepping for AWP and hoping I feel better enough to attend. I could also talk about putting together how submitting a book manuscript can feel incredibly dispiriting and hope-inspiring at the same time, how going through a home renovation is hard on the body and on marriages and checkbooks (so don’t underestimate it!), or how trying to guess how to manage money when a madman has ahold of the economy and is seemingly trying to strange it is tough. Lunar eclipses usually portent a shift in energy. Let’s hope it’s a shift for the better.

Also, here is a link to an excellent Chuck Jones cartoon that you (and hopefully Trump and Elon) can watch to see how valuable it is to have a Department of Health and not to release raw sewage into drinking water (thanks, Trump Supreme Court!) I found HBO Max had taken down all the Looney Tunes classic cartoons just when I need them the most! Boo, Max!

Signs of Spring in a Time of Turmoil, Accessibility and Travel, and Reimagining Your Creative Process

Pink Rhododendrons, Kirkland

Signs of Spring in a Time of Turmoil

There are some signs of spring in the neighborhoods around us, if not quite in my own garden yet – flowers starting to bloom, despite a heavy cold rain that keeps pushing us indoors here in the Pacific Northwest. I am still not able to stay in my home much as the house renovations continue on, slowly, and the house is full of fumes, but I keep trying – going to tidy up, spend time petting and combing the cats, do laundry, rearrange and vacuum things.

The politics of the country do not seem to have improved in the last week, but the shift to Daylight Savings Time better matches my sleep patterns, and longer days seem to help my mood. I am trying to find the joy in small things that I can. I visited a cat cafe in Kirkland, walked along the water (despite cold wind,) visited the dermatologist (no skin cancer, yay, but the doctor was puzzled by apparent allergic reactions to almost nothings that were pretty severe) after my father had melanoma surgery this week (he is recovering just fine.) Self-care during this time feels off. I keep dreaming about packing and repacking suitcases – on the titanic, on a doomed flight, before earthquakes – signaling my body is feeling the stress. So, this week I have some major dental work I’m nervous about – two front crowns, no novocaine, as usual. I hope my body can handle it without major MS flareups. In the meantime, I am waiting for flowers. I hope AWP will be good, despite my usual trepidation about flying (made worse by recent airplane mishaps) and finding a way to navigate LA as a disabled person.

First cherry blossoms, Kirkland

Disability and Travel – Is It Feasible?

So let’s talk about accessibility and travel. Selma Blair was on the cover of Travel & Leisure this month, talking about the difficulties of traveling with MS, which is a strange disease that acts up under stress, illness, and change in routine – which travel pretty much comes with. She is a celebrity with money, and still runs into many challenges. As I have been staying in hotels around the town, I have found “accessible” rooms mean one thing in one hotel, and a completely different thing in another. I booked an accessible room in one hotel, only to find it was “hearing-impaired accessible,” not wheelchair accessible. I booked a different accessible room in another hotel, only to find it had a deep tub/shower combo – I think that would be considered inaccessible to almost anyone, not just me, who was short or didn’t have great balance. So this week I spent a lot of time explaining my disability over the phone and at hotel desks, only to be met by mostly blank stares by people who have never had to deal with this kind of difficulty in their lives. (I have mentioned that valets who tend to be young men are the most empathetic – usually because they’ve had action-oriented accidents that rendered them immobile for a period of time – a broken leg, arm, back, or collarbone from football, or driving, or skiing.) But it was a reminder that the world really does not design for accessibility – even in hotels that tout accessibility and accessible rooms may not have any idea what that means. I’m not even in a wheelchair,  as a reminder – I use a cane but have balance problems that make tubs and stairs difficult. If I was in a wheelchair, some minor inconveniences for me might render a trip impossible. And what about food allergies? Well, some restaurants could easily accommodate no wheat – some could not. Other allergies – for me, garlic, citrus, and tomatoes – were harder to avoid. Some hotels don’t have room service for some meals, and when they do, there are limited options. We can wish for a world that better accommodated disability and food allergies – but I’ve made sure to mention to hotel managers where things are good and where things are not so good, hopefully to help others. (One “accessible shower” had a crazy slippery floor, for instance, and not big enough for a bench.) I have been wanting to go on a big adventure, but doing a little travel around my own neighborhood has shown me the pitfalls of expecting things to be easy for disability, food allergies, etc.

Sunset

Reimagining Your Creative Process

As I’ve been doing this, I’ve been hacking around at my latest book manuscript to get it ready to send out to publishers. I’m trying to integrate the frustrations with politics and disability and being a woman in a non-woman-friendly universe into it without making it unfun to read. I’m trying to come up with working metaphors for the barriers in my life that could be universal, if that makes sense. I’m trying to re-think the way I write a poem, what a poem might look or sound like, for me. Something beyond growing into your own voice, but creating your own vehicles, vessels, forms. I haven’t had much mental space for this, but I feel it is important even in the midst of chaos and uncertainty to continue trying to create. The process of trying to explain my disability over the last few weeks to people over and over triggered a poem about monsterism and disability, the way that the world will make you feel monstrous for not fitting into norms. Not to mention a government that’s suppressing free speech, disappearing pictures of women in government and even pictures of the Enola Gay (because it has the word “gay” in it – these guys are not the sharpest tools in the shed, either.) How do we reshape our creative process in a country that doesn’t even want you to exist, that wants to erase your existence – because you’re a woman who’s not a trad wife, gay, an immigrant, disabled, or even just inconvenient to their narrative? Art is one way to keep people’s ears and eyes open to the cognitive dissonance in the news and in the mouths of politicians. Americans have lost science literacy, math skills, reading skills, over the past few years, so when they encounter lies, how will they even know the difference? Don’t expect journalism to save us – it can be muzzled too easily, see: Gulf of Mexico, Ukraine – but maybe art can. Subversion, irony, the art of observation even when you’re told something doesn’t exist or isn’t there – can help keep reality more survivable for everyone during an oppressive regime. I hope you are surviving and even thriving, that you can find your place to make art and keep your eyes clear.

New Poems at Villain Era, Losing a Writer Friend, A Few Bright Days, and America, the Ukraine, and Appeasing Bullies

New Poems Up at the Villain Era

Charles Jensen has a new online lit mag called Villain Era, and since there’s never been a better time to be in your villain(ess) era, I have two poems up at the venue. Check them out at this link! Sneak peek of one of the poems below.

A Few Bright Days of False Spring

We had a few bright days of “false spring” here during the last week while Glenn painted the bedroom and bathroom (saving us literally thousands of dollars) and here we are out in a well-deserved break at J. Bookwalter’s and Willows Lodge.

We’re still immersed in renovation dust, paint, and unfinished electrical and plumbing. This kind of project is not for the faint of heart. Making a house accessible in incredibly time-consuming and expensive – it would be so much better if homes were designed with accessibility in mind. Chaos is not good for me – I keep having asthma attacks and allergic reactions. Part of this might be other stress related to the news (see: later in this blog post) and just bad news in general. I am ready for more hope and light and good news and health.

Losing a Writer Friend and Honoring Her Voice

My friend and fellow Pacific MFA alum Susan DeFreitas died after a year-long struggle with cancer just a few days ago. After losing several friends in the first few months of 2025, this one hit me hard, especially as her story, described in the essay below, echoes so much of my own experience – not being able to have kids, going back to an MFA at 32 (the same age as me!), expecting to be read earlier and more than she was. Women writers with ambition tend to be talked down to, often discouraged, as students, as emerging writer, even by family and friends, and even more so as their careers advance and as they age. I hope that the essay encourages you to read more of Susan’s work.

Fighting to Be Heard as an Emerging Woman Writer

Sunflowers, blue sky

America and the Ukraine

I was so upset by what Trump/Vance did to Zelensky this week (the shameful Putin-groveling, bullying, the gaslighting) that I have to reiterate my position here and say I stand firmly with Ukraine, and I know I am not the only American to do so. Trump/Vance have sided with Putin and North Korea against all of our allies, including most of Europe – they are on the side of evil, not good. What can we do about it?

Again, we can give to Ukrainian charities, we can write to our representatives and tell them to speak up on Ukraine’s behalf. Have people forgotten what happens when you try to appease a dictator? Appeasement never works. See: WWII, Hitler.

So I am praying for the people of the Ukraine in their brave fight against Putin. And I will encourage Americans to stand up against the despot in charge of our government. Protest, speak out, vote with your dollars. Do not shut up. Do not give in. Do not pretend everything’s okay when it’s clearly not.

I wish all of you a safe and happy week ahead, but also a week of letting your friends know how much they mean to you, not letting discouragement get in the way of doing good work both in art and life.

Supporting Each Other in Difficult Times, and Recommendations for Young Poetry Fans

Charlotte in a basket

Supporting Each Other in Difficult Times

Hello there, readers! I hope you are all doing as well as possible. Last week, as you might have noticed, I was feeling somewhat distressed. But this week, my perspective is a bit changed, mostly by the interactions I’ve had with other people, old friends, new friends, and even almost-strangers. Charlotte is a basket is a picture I hope will give you some comfort, too.

I had a long talk with a super intelligent writer a little older than myself, full of incredible stories and incredible ambition. I got in touch with two old friends who are both going through hard times through no fault of their own, but it was so good to hear from them. All of these peoples’ stories put my own worries in perspective, and the news in perspective as well.

The conversations have also made me think about my own goals in writing. Should I only be writing poetry? Should I try memoir, or fiction, which would surely get bigger audiences? I had a dream that was such a fully realized YA novel that I actually wrote down the details, though as to next steps, I’m a big baffled.

But though this week was filled with the chaos of a house full of cardboard and plastic and shuttling between the house and a hotel, and then having an allergic reaction to the hotel food (after specifically telling them I was allergic to wheat, sigh.) I’ve had a minor head cold. The news, I’m sorry to say, has not gotten any better, but my feeling about the ability to make a difference is perhaps a bit more bolstered? The courts – and even stranger, popular opinion – may change the course of Trump and Musk’s destructive ideas. Perhaps connecting with others is more important than I imagined. Getting out of your own head. Seeing that there may be others who need your help.

Recommendations for Young Poetry Fans

Someone wrote me a question about what her young daughter should read, if she enjoys my poetry, but couldn’t find other poetry like mine. I thought hard about the poets that had inspired and influenced me when I was a young girl, although I was certainly a somewhat unusual reader – Edna St. Vincent Millay, Emily Dickinson, Carl Sandburg, E.E. Cummings, and Louis Simpson as a ten year old. I was reading my mom’s college poetry textbooks and encountering T.S. Eliot and Yeats and Robert Frost. In college, definitely inspired by Rita Dove, Louise Gluck, Margaret Atwood, and of course, Sylvia Plath. If my own work seems somewhat unusual, it could be because it was the kind of poetry I wanted to read and couldn’t find – funny and pop culture-y and dark and not afraid. Of course, besides poetry, I was very influenced by mythology and fairy tales, prose like A.S. Byatt and Margaret Atwood and Terri Windling’s collection “The Armless Maiden” and later on, Kelly Link. I read a lot of male science fiction writers as a kid, from Isaac Asimov to Ray Bradbury, but also read female science fiction writers, like Andre Norton and Anne McCaffrey and Madeleine L’Engle. What recommendations would I make to a young person today? There are so many more young women writing and getting published than when I was a kid.  Who would you recommend?

Happy Valentine’s Day But Did You Notice We’re All in Hell?, Lesley Wheeler’s Newest Book Mycocosmic, the Full Snow Moon

Glenn and me on Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day (But Did You Notice We’re All in Hell?)

Has it been Valentine’s Day already? I have to admit I was not feeling very romantic this particular Valentine’s Day, what with the world burning down all around us, and how we must live not only with it, but act against it.

I posted this poem on Valentine’s Day, originally published in Poets and Artists Magazine and part of my new manuscript. I hope you enjoy it.

Lesley Wheeler’s New Book, Mycocosmic, from Tupelo Press

A book that you should own immediately—I promise, it will make you feel better, even as it tears itself apart—is Lesley Wheeler’s Mycocosmic, which explores the family, the world, and the body in metaphors of mushroom, is her most direct and moving piece yet. I loved her fiction, Unbecoming, and I think this book will actually finally get her into the light where she belongs. Some of the poems, like “Sex Talk” and “Smart” (the ultimate poem for all smart girls, I mean it should be an anthem.)

Mycocosmic with mushrooms

Just a fragment from “Map Projections:”

When my father died,
I said to my sister
I’m sorry I let
him do that to you.

My sister said: No,
I wasn’t even on his radar. 
He didn’t think I 
was worth it.
He aimed for you. 

The whole book, like the mycological systems it describes, has an underpoem that runs underneath the individual poems. It’s such a unique and moving book, whimsical and witty. It’s ecological in a way that makes you believe again in the superpowers of nature and feminist in a way that makes you examine your own behaviors and shames. It’s hard to explain, but you should get yourself a copy. Lesley is the kind of writer that you must respect, one whose work ethic puts others to shame, and the kind of friend who tells you that you can get through anything. Not just a great writer, but an exemplary kind of human.

Full Snow Moon

An ominous full snow moon

Meanwhile, the bath renovation drags on and on, costing more and more money, and keeping me unsettled and unhomed while waiting for the dust and toxins to abate. I am a creature of routine—maybe that is more because of my chronic illness and disability than my actual personality, which I might describe as more adventurous and outgoing. But right now, I’m hardly able to get any work done, although I have written three poems in the last week and had a poetry acceptance at a new journal that I think is very promising. My plans for Ireland and France aren’t exactly on the back burner, but I’m taking my time with research.

In my own neighborhood, I’m looking forward to a new reading series at J. Bookwalter’s winery, maybe widening my circle of friends in a time when it seems enemies and paranoia are everywhere. It pays to be kind, always, but you know, smart and kind. Wise as serpents, as the prophet said, innocent as doves.

Valentine’s picture in which I look like I might hit someone with a lot of tulips

In case you’re not already doing this, update your driver’s license, your passport, get a passport if you don’t have one, keep a copy of your passport (card sized) in your wallet. Keep your papers in a safe at home—your birth certificate, your social security card. Show your papers is a new American pastime for the new Nazi regime. Yes, urge your representatives to actively work against prejudice, sexism, destruction of American constitutional rights, the environment, protections from corporate corruption. But also, protect yourself. As the seventies song For What It’s Worth tells us…well, just listen to the song. I have had bad dreams almost every night since Trump’s re-election, some about the destruction of women’s rights, some about the destruction of the American economy, some about the extreme isolationism. Oh, and bird flu. Anyone who tells you it’s not that bad is not paying enough attention.  Cassandra is rarely listened to, but remember, she was always right.

A grim time, indeed, my friends, but don’t lose hope. Joy and hope can radiate a little light, and who knows who needs that light right now?