Sad news about a Seattle poet, Red-Winged Blackbirds and Superhero Poems, and Some Vision Boards and Kitten Pics to Cheer Us Up

Juvenile Red-Winged Blackbird

A January Post with Sad News About a Seattle Poet

I meant this to be an upbeat blog post but it’s hard to feel upbeat and I want to be authentic in this blog. I was sick all week (hence the lack of selfies) and it was cold and foggy out, absolutely the kind of weather you don’t want to go out in. I had a strange harbinger—a beautiful juvenile red-winged blackbird at my feeder, which I thought was unusual (they don’t usually visit feeders). Then tonight I learned about the death of a poet/friend/editor of Menacing Hedge, Kelly Boyker Guillemette. She was also a Seattle poet, so it impacts this community that I live in. I was sad I didn’t get to tell her how much I appreciated her, or even get to have coffee with her, just to visit. This pandemic has been so isolating, I realize, that I’ve lost touch with friends I shouldn’t have.  

The news has been pretty relentlessly terrible, too. Outside today we had some sunshine, and I had been in bed, barely leaving the house even to get the mail this week with cold, miserable fog every day, so I took a short walk, but in the end, it was too cold to stay out long. I noticed how fallow everything was—all my usual walks, usually with some flowers or greenery even in winter, looked unusually barren. January is a hard month for many reasons. Anyway, readers, hug your friends and editors, tell them you appreciate them, buy them a coffee. 

Superhero Poems and Being a Poetry Influence

A friend sent me a notice about a poem featured on the Poetry Foundation site this week he thought I would like, a poem called “Chinese Female Kung-Fu Superheroes” by Teresa Mei Chuc that bears a little resemblance to a poem of mine called “Female Comic Book Superheroes” from my first book, Becoming the Villainess. And look at the end of the poem. I was really…touched. It’s cool that a poem you wrote over sixteen years ago could inspire someone now. And it’s a really fun poem, and it was featured on Poetry Foundation’s web site. Anyway, it made me feel simultaneously old and happy that someone had found the poem and been inspired to write their own commentary on kick-ass superheroines in a completely different decade.

Kitten Charlotte with crossed paws

Vision Boards and Kitten Pictures

Remember when I said up at the top this was going to be an upbeat post? And it was supposed to be! I was going to post pictures of kitten Charlotte as she’s getting bigger and healthier and pictures of the vision board I barely squeaked into January, just under the wire for 2023. You might notice some themes in the visuals—butterflies, foxes, and typewriters, which all feature in most of my vision boards in some way. I am also hoping and hopefully manifesting more parties, more healthy days in the year, and of course, hoping the new book will connect with an audience in a positive way.

I enjoy doing these kinds of artistic/craft projects even though I am no collage artist, because it requires me to do things I don’t normally do, like wield a glue stick with poster board and scissors, to think visually instead of linguistically.

Kitten Charlotte underneath the vision board (it has her teeth marks on it already…)

I am feeling sentimental tonight and playing the song “Turn Turn Turn” by the Birds. The weather report swears the sunset will happen after 5 PM this week. My garden and trees that look bare and brown now will (hopefully) be full of color in spring. The older cat, Sylvia, in sitting on my lap as I type this, reminding me not to be too sad (she is good at picking up on emotional distress). Let’s hope February brings more love, more light, more health, and more hope to us all.