Some good poems up in the new issue of Poems for Persons of Interest, from me, @shaneschick.bsky.social, Isabel Chenot, Brad Skow, and many others. Check it all out here-- pfpoi.blogspot.com/p/december-2... --and here's my poem:

This will definitely be my last publication of the year, but I'm very grateful to Alex Rettie and Poems for Persons of Interest for including 'Authorization' in their December issue, which you can find here: pfpoi.blogspot.com/p/december-2...

'Consumerism consumes all questioning. The past becomes obsolete.' John Berger perfectly capturing the state of global tyranny in 2025 (except this was from 'Bento's Sketchbook,' first published in 2011).

'As if the beautiful world has no end.' Loved this Dan Rosenberg poem from the latest @sixthfinch.bsky.social

Starting off the week with a grateful return to Traces Journal, which published my poem 'Everything.' Thanks as always to Maya, its editor, for supporting my work.

Guys, my sports-obsessed, video game-loving 17-year-old son asked to borrow my copy of Emily Dickinson's collected works. Not for an assignment. Like, to read. For fun. I think my work here is done.

"You who now claim to be poets, humble yourselves before what you should be." Raymond Queneau

Watching "Come See Me In The Good Light" about the late Andrea Gibson and I don't think I've ever seen a pair of lovers editing a poem on film before.

Good morning. 📸: Me

"The pen, the pot of ink, the strewn pages." Goodnight from Raymond Carver.

Saw a submission call asking for writers to send poems that "perform Olympic feats with language." Bro, I'm lucky if I achieve Little League feats with language.

Can't stop, won't stop. 📸: Me

A little spark of a poem from me for #smallpoemsunday. Cheers to @tomsnarsky.bsky.social amid the imminent publication of his new book!

Hold your fire. 📸: Me

So grateful for my three kids but also always missing my own father, which is why I'm resharing this poem that was originally published in Juniper: A Poetry Journal.

A while back something really terrible happened to our church. We got through it as a parish but I couldn't stop thinking about it. Grateful to the editors of a Christian literary magazine called Traces for publishing the poem I wrote as a result. tracesjournal.ca/p/exhortation

Missing my father on what would have been his birthday. Reshaping my poem 'Volition' about his final days, first published in the South Florida Poetry Journal.

Oh please, world, open for us. Please, unfold your delicate petals. Please, color this landscape that's been dark for so long. Please blossom. Please bloom. (📸: Me)

Me and my idea for a poem before we've figured out how to actually write the poem. (From Antonioni's 'L'Eclisse,' 1962)

Good morning. Happy Easter. He is risen.

Not necessarily my most productive year so far, but at least I still enjoy the challenge. (Image: from Anontioni's 'The Vanquished,' 1953)

I wrote a sad poem and it felt so gooooooooood

I probably spent a collective two-plus hours walking in the city today. At one point I stopped in a coffee shop to write a poem and now I'm about to write another and I don't think it's a coincidence.

It's a poem about aging, the joy of living and the relationship between fathers and sons. It's also a poem about sneakers, of which there can never be too many. Thanks to Brandon for including this in @mgliterary.bsky.social! www.moonlitgetaway.com/poem/tread-r...

"Write from a feeling of untapped life that has become so huge that it is like a massive mountain gathering inside of you." A little craft talk tucked inside 'The Book Against Death' by Elias Canetti.

Saturday mornings are for coffee, reading poetry or fiction (okay, a few essays too) and generally not leaving my favorite space.

"And every night I look through my telescope to see if anything's fluttering or sputtering" Why take drugs when you can just read James Tate?

"I still walk into a bookstore or a library convinced that I might be on the threshold that will open up onto what I most need or desire." Rebecca Solnit on the power and pleasure of books.

The latest from me!

Well, it took until Feb. 20 but I just got my first poetry acceptance of 2025 and boy, am I grateful someone actually wants to publish something I've written again.

I bought a notebook with a white cover that got smudged. The stationary store used these paper bags with old advertisements all over them that I loved, so I re-covered the notebook with it. Small joys, small victories.

Long before we were Mommy and Daddy, or even Mr. And Mrs., we were just Me and You. No matter what, we'll always be Us. #valentinesday 📷: AJ

"In the dark I thought of a radiant ordinariness That burned, that burned and burned." (Robert Hass, 'A Sunset') 📷: Me

Create anything, even just a bad haiku. Then make it better.

Every time I manage to write a poem lately, like tonight, I feel like I've successfully managed to walk a mile against a gust of strong wind. (Or maybe, to be more precise, hot air)

Just got another poetry rejection. That means it must be the weekend!

Reading this Wendell Berry poem might have to become my new nightly ritual over the next four years, and possibly beyond.

This Saturday I'm doing everything by the book.

I haven't been as active on here lately, for what are likely obvious reasons. Now that we're fully in the bleakness of winter, though, it feels like the right time to share my poem 'Junker,' recently published in the latest issue of @coolbeanslit.bsky.social.

Reading the journals of John Cheever tonight and I think I've found my new year's resolution

My future answer to the question, "How was your vacation?"

"For memories too have their moment." Richard Flanagan.

Good morning. 📷: Me

In the darkness, in a story, with strangers. The ideal Saturday scenario.

Recently lost my Airpods so I bought a cheap set of traditional earbuds (with wires), and people downtown are looking at me like I just stepped out of a time machine from the early 2000s.

I am seeing a matinee of All We Have Is Light and I'm already prepared to rave about the popcorn the way critics have been raving about this film.

Good morning. 📷: Me

This will probably the last poem I'll get published this year. Written long before the election, it feels even more relevant now. Sincere gratitude to @peripelicanlit for selecting it. www.periwinklepelicanlit.com/post/hue-and...

As if I wasn't going to share this beautiful thing.

So excited to finish the work that pays the mortgage and immediately dive into the work that delivers a payoff on multiple levels.