I am deep down a rabbit hole of research at the moment, working on a new installment for my revision class series that I’m excited to say I’ll have some news about soon. But I have a critical mass of peripheral miscellany begging to be shared in a round-up.
I enjoyed this NPR segment on blues poet and musician aja monet, especially the question in her work “Is love a commons?” That led to this gem of a quote towards the end: “I think if our leaders reflected the love that we know we need and deserve, we would have a very different way of organizing systems in society. So I look forward to a people that demands love from their leaders.”
Speaking of gems of quotes, this one from John Cage also jumped out at me, said in 1992 but still very relevant today: “We live in a time I think not of mainstream, but of many streams, or even, if you insist upon a river of time, that we have come to a delta, maybe even beyond delta to an ocean which is going back to the skies.” (Found in a quite dated blog post at Poetry that may only be interesting to me because it describes a poetic context I came out of, but that may not be very relevant anymore. For example, does anyone still think about Flarf?)
Finally, yesterday I discovered the delightful Poetry Postcard Fest, run by Cascadia Poetics Lab. From their description: “The fest is a self-guided 56 day workshop in spontaneous composition and community. Initiated in 2007, by poets Paul Nelson and Lana Ayers, it involves people signing up to send 31 original poems on postcards to folks on their list between July 4 and August 31.” Last year participants hailed from 8 countries.
This blog post will give you a good idea of what they mean by “spontaneous composition” and is also a lovely reflection on “Postcard Poems as Peace Process.” The Resources section in the site menu has a lot more.
If that sounds like a fine way to spend your July and August, you’re just in time! It’s not clear when the last day to sign up is, but they’re verifying addresses on June 22nd. I’m going to give it a try if I can think of a way to get 31 postcards for under $15-$20 or so. There is a $27 fee to participate (the good news is if you’re reading this too late, early bird registration for 2026 apparently opens in September). Or, if you are willing to forgo getting postcards back, maybe take this as inspiration to send something to 31 people you already know (or don’t know?) on your own.
Finally finally, an assortment of poems:
“Dear Emerging, Pre-Emerging & Post-Emerging Poets” by Brenda Hillman. “All a writer needs are four true readers & one of them can be a tree.” (A quintessentially tender, motherly, and strange Brenda line.) You can hear her read it and get a little more of the context in this YouTube video.
“The Rivals” by Mark Van Doren. It’s worth scrolling down to see the “About this Poem” section in the right sidebar.
“Somme” by Andrew Soye.
“A Child of Immigrants” by Ángel García. For me, this one dovetailed well with an experience I’ve had of watching the father of one of my daughter’s preschool classmates diligently following the recommendation for raising bilingual kids and always speaking to her in his native Spanish. I asked him, “How’s it going?” and he glumly said while she understands she won’t speak it, in a way that made me feel bad for asking and like I pried into a touchy subject. I later had the realization that despite living with a native speaker parent, she may never speak the language as she would had she grown up in his country, and how strange that must be from the parent’s point of view.
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