Sometimes, it's so hard to tell the difference between fear and intuition. I know. I know. Time will tell. But living through that time feels like torture. All that’s left is to breathe, wait, and consciously #tether to reality. #vss365

Like weeding a garden, we must free our heads from the #lingering voices of those who never wanted to see us grow. #poetry #vss365 #linger

I used to come and go like a #feral cat looking for a feeding, ears low, teeth bared. Only now that I have something more do I see: that was not love. #vss365 #poetry

I know nothing of #unalloyed joy. My heart has always been tarnished by someone's suffering, whether mine or not. I know nothing of unadulterated bliss. I'm fine this way. I know nothing of true ignorance. #vss365 #poetry

It's all chaotic #diligence and diligent chaos around here. #vss365 #poetry

To be medicinal, poetry must come from some real place: rage, grief, #affection, shock. Not affectation. Not ego. Not algorithm-pleasing. #vss365

Even if you didn't escape in #lightning time, it was still a crime. #vss365 #poetry

Don't forget: there are not only survivors but victims. There are women being drugged and raped by men with a whole community cheering them on. This is where every discussion about rape academy must end: the victims, the survivors, the empathy, the care. #poetry #rapeacademy

All ages poetry workshop 📢 -Get experience with crafting poetic imagery and metaphors -Learn the secret sauce inside every powerful poem -Learn how to adapt poems for performance -Get a chance to write and perform (if you choose) www.eventbrite.ca/e/powerful-p...

When all else fails, dare to believe in magic. There's a fascinating story behind this note to self. Read it here: open.substack.com/pub/vironika... #poetry #qotd

If you are afraid to #sing, to dance, to speak because you once battled the system and lost. Time for round two. You are more prepared now. #vss365 #poetry

If art wasn't dangerous, the algorithms wouldn't suppress it as much as they do. Every word is a weapon. Do not let them disarm you. #poetry #arm #vss365

I've been writing since I could hold a #pen, but I became a writer only when I found no safer place than the page. #vss365 #poetry

I have my mind #set on a future where I reminisce about these old, onerous days. #vss365 #poetry

What is motherhood but a million tiny choices to #revolve instead of collapsing or drifting away? #vss365 #poetry

No one will #frustrate you like a toddler. No one will amaze you like a toddler. No one will make you simultaneously question your sanity and marvel in gratitude like a toddler. I can't imagine my life without these tiny tormentors. #vss365

We can no longer #endorse the Gaia hypothesis. Mother Earth has postpartum depression. It's all hands on deck now. #poetry #vss365

Another nap time, another round of queries. It's exhausting, but I know one day, this story will inspire my kids. #amquerying #writingcommunity

Do not #waver in your integrity. It is the only asset that cannot be seized or frozen. #vss365

Growing up frozen by childhood drama, I once promised to never have kids. In this cold world, how could I ever be the #warmth they run to from life's chills? It seemed impossible. But here I am, like thousands of mothers, doing it each day. #vss365 #poetry

Black rain in Tehran while Google searches for Epstein files decrease by 95% Such #blatant evil belongs in novels and bad thrillers #vss365 #iran #poetry

Woke up on Women's Day to my youngest peeing on the bedding I specifically washed yesterday so I wouldn't have to do house work on Women's Day, and I feel like that about explains what it's like being a woman. Someone's always pissing on my work. #womensday

I don't have a high pain tolerance. I have a high threshold for pain without treatment. Don't call me brave. Truth is: unless I have a broken arm or open wound, it's nearly impossible to get taken seriously in a medical setting as a woman when pain is the primary symptom.

The Catholic Church pushes virginity. Hollywood pushes youth. Both have been revealed as complicit in grotesque levels of organized child abuse. The way out is through not only justice and accountability but also rejection of the infantilized standards we've all been force fed.

It's wild to me when people claim to be simultaneously honest/raw/sensitive and apolitical or uninformed/unbothered with current events. That type of “sensitivity” just reads like vulnerable narcissism to me.

I've been querying for the past year and would not recommend it unless you want a shattered ego. Also so confused who is reading horror in this horrific world. If that's you, explain yourself in the comments. I just don't understand. 🫠 #poetry #amquerying #WritingCommunity

Having 2 toddlers is humbling. They have no impulse control, no empathy, and a poor understanding of physics. It's a circus every day, and I'm not as patient as I thought. Must evolve into a better mom instead of devolving into a short-tempered, red-eyed, frizzy-haired nightmare.

Read more on my latest Substack article: "Call Me Crazy But I Don't Want Inner Peace Right Now." open.substack.com/pub/vironika... #writingcommmunity #substack #NoPeaceWithoutJustice

How strange that we equate #dark with twisted when bright white sheets cover the deplorable and the dead #vss365 #poetry

Zero amber alerts for Epstein victims and indigenous kids. Get your loud fakery off my phone. #poetry #everychildmatters #EpsteinFiles

I wish I read something just like this ten years ago. open.substack.com/pub/vironika... #mentalhealth #recovery #healingjourney

There is too much real #blood spilled daily in the name of "progress" for me to use bleeding as a metaphor in my poems. #vss365 #poetry

RIP Alex Pretti, Renée Good, Keith Porter Jr, Jaime Alanis García, Silverio Villegas González, and countless others assaulted and murdered not just by ICE but also by fascism that only got this far because the people who looked like Alex and Renée thought they were safe. #poetry

When the rejections compliment your writing and encourage you to keep querying, you know you're on the right track 🙃 #amquerying

I will not #veer from this long and difficult path because I know the road back is longer than the one to life's next intersection. #vss365 #poetry

The query trenches are not for the weak. And I am weak. I'm postpartum. I'm sleep deprived. I have a baby and a toddler and way too many headaches. But I'm here. And I'm not leaving until I get my manuscript the cheerleader it deserves. #amquerying #WritingCommunity

There's nothing like revealing your truly authentic self—the one that is sometimes raging, often irritated, sometimes crying, often unwilling to do what it's told—and hearing crickets from the very people who once dubbed you honest and all your words #heartfelt. #vss365

When we #stoop to casual apathy, as the system begs us to do, that is a type of violence. #vss365 #poetry

She was a poet. She was a mother. She was murdered. I know what I saw. #ReneeNicoleGood

whom was I fooling silencing my melody to sing off-key in this deafening #symphony muffling my heartbeat to march off-beat in this mandatory parade my biggest fool was me #vss365 #poetry

Literally a publication for eight-year olds 40 years ago

Querying is one thing. Querying postpartum with two under two is a special kind of hell. Please tell me someone out there knows this feeling. #amquerying #WritingCommunity

#Poetry is medicine. First, brew it for yourself. Then, share it with others who might need it. Refuse to edit? Can't brew a potent potion. Can't heal yourself. Refuse to share? Can't spread your medicine. Can't support others just by existing. Keep writing. Keep editing. Keep sharing.

#Abstraction is not only a safety net for our too-real details, it is also a megaphone for our too-complex emotions. Some wounds bleed art to heal. #vss365

As someone with a relative in forensics, I know too well that people #shoot and stab each other this time of year. Turn on local news, suicide and murder. Turn on world news, starvation and genocide. It may not seem like enough to just eat and #survive today, but it is. #vss365

We (as in, those whose wreckage is only metaphorical) must win the #fight against apathy for those whose wreckage is dangerous and censored and real. #vss365 #poetry

Each time I feel my rumbling belly, may I be #humble and remember the starving children and protesting prisoners. #vss365 #poetry

minutes turn to hours gratitude is noticing life's mundane magic #vss365 #poetry #haiku

What is a poem if not a #memory captured or an idea immortalized? #vss365 #poetry

Some people don't want to bring kids into this greedy, heartless world. Every generation plays #successor to the problems of the last. But children are more than the dysfunctions they inherit. Those small, curious eyes: irreplaceable beacons of hope. #vss365 #poetry