i am rather certain i will continue to disappoint anyone who insists on telling me i am not who & what i am

one of my letter-writing friends & i have a sort of faux-competition about quirky substrates or treatments of letters. he started it by collaging his initial letter onto a cycling map & seems to be continuing that general mode. my last was a long skinny letter rolled up in a snap-top plastic film

a year ago today this dorkpants came into our life & totally reshaped it.

still just awash with love for my friends. i have not been saying so as often as i once did; things are more crowded & fast around here. but it’s always true, always there. thank you all for being in my life💚

whanged my back prepping the garden for winter yesterday so i didn’t finish today. but i did order seeds & supplies for next year…

on the group text a message comes in asking for help in “how to get today” & despite autocomplete’s error generation i think we can actually all use some help in “getting today.”

quiet studio day today.

actually we don’t talk about horses at all. well, maybe a little. little horses. very small.

s’posed to go below freezing later this week, so i’m getting the garden put away today & tomorrow. i moved some things indoors, emptied small buckets & fabric pots, drained compost tea & set tumbler on its edge, pulled up okra stalks & tomato plants—i save the okra stalks for bed markers come sowing

i love autumn so much—the light & colors make me feel like i’m walking around inside a stained glass window, & all the earthy spicy outdoor smells, the air on my skin…i am wide open & totally filled with/part of my surroundings. i get super autistic, filling with the silence of deep engagement…iykyk

sonny indicates that puffy cat season has begun

i think the next t-shirt i make will say “trust me, i’m a poet”

dreamed i was walking with someone in a place of low hills such that our view was very limited. no visible horizon. it was what one might call “rolling grassland”, though not tall grasses, perhaps grazed by sheep or goats. we were searching for a gathering & there were no paths.

samhain was always my favorite. blessings for the new year—may all our needs be met.

she’s outstanding in her field

i’m the type of anarchist who works both intimately & collectively to get people fed, housed & cared for. i’m not very keen on blowing shit up. i make choices that empower vulnerable people, myself included, & co-create community. at my best, i make other worlds, other futures, other lives possible.

chicago is so beautiful🥲

the humming of the electrical pylons & wires overhead, the slithering sound of pampas grass leaves rubbing together in the wind…birch leaves making a sound like running water…a flotilla of gossiping juncos

i think this is a shaggy mane inky cap, but my guidebook is for the northeast, not the midwest.

the gift of trust. wow.

i just got the most…inexpressably wonderful message from a friend who provided the final blurb for ON BEING HALF-IMAGINARY, my anti-memoir autotheory thing coming out early next year. i am teary & wobbly from joy! i need to let it happen more, to let myself receive as well as give. oh thank you🥲

time change always confuses me. what is clock? i’m on cat time.

showed r. how to do diacritical marks on the phone keyboard & now nobody’s safe

shoutout to the bus driver sporting a fantastic enamel pin collection on the strap of his shoulder bag, on which we bonded

not sure how i like the new chumbly refit

Urgent fundraising need: a member of our community was detained this morning, but is the sole caretaker for his quadriplegic son. A lawyer has been obtained but there are urgent legal and medical costs. Please donate as possible and share. Thank you!

sonny’s earned himself a new nickname: bag of ferrets

trying & failing to show you this lovely chaotic three-dimensional spider web

woot! it’s @inauthenticity.bsky.social !!

didn’t say much about what i was doing yesterday, but i did some good stuff. managed to place more poems out in the wild per the site-specific project, knowing now that chicago as a whole is the site (& the project has many stages).

self-portrait reflected in a space helmet

at the rose garden in grant park & thinking of you, @hystericalblkns.bsky.social 💚

i know very well who my audience/readers are, but i’m also very fortunate to know that specific people i love & admire have been/are reading my books. i know the love & admiration are reciprocated. these are the people i imagine as i write. what a difference to write from this awareness!

don’t overthink the dream about overthinking, jay

didn’t post today because i was writing letters & cooking soup. 🤷‍♂️

gaffer tape hot glue fabric markers light bulbs small battery-op tea light stencils block printing ink sticky vinyl letters top hat but no spoilers no spoilers

& in the mess there still arrives a new contract version, a heartening announcement, a recipe idea, a book delivery. the immediacy of life. “what is right in front of me now?” asks my teacher, & attending to that is part of how i keep life foremost, not swept up in others’ dominance/death agendas.

that’s my pal!

i can’t help but think that all the apparent delight in deliberately creating mass misery is a mask, behind which hides an unendurable suffering. vast private suffering that can’t be acknowledged or engaged—only reproduced on a massive scale. even so, the facade slips. we see the desperate core.

all right, whose idea was this?! 🙉🙈🙊😹

laying out the ms of SEMAPHORE TROUSERS, when all of a sudden

welcome to the house of big oatmeal

recorded a writing podcast conversation in which i feel i may not have said enough about writing…but then again, it’s probably apt, because i said a lot about how everything else enters my writing, about how embodied it all is, & how it’s…life…

this is it, my comic book glamour shot. featuring the round shades i’ve had for, oh, 40 years.

bad news, mates: my venmo & cash app accounts, & one of my credit cards, have been compromised. not too much damage was done but i had to delete the ven & cash accounts. if i’ve sent you or paid you money through those apps, you may want to change your passwords & take other security measures.

i can so easily get myself in a knot thinking i must do more against the tide of hatred & violence. the trap isn’t so much thinking there’s more to be done; it’s in the starting point, the narrative i repeat, saying that i am not doing anything. i’m doing plenty! no one person can be enough.

Found this postcard in my air purifier, it's nice to know that in desperate times your air purifier sends you postcards.

i’m being asked to be on podcasts again. i enjoy that, despite my speech difficulties. mostly these are poetry/writing-focused ‘casts, but one in the works is not…& i can say no more until it’s more fully fleshed out. but it’s v exciting! so i guess if you want me to talk about something, lmk!

today’s jewelry: a strand of pearls given to me by a random stranger in dupont circle 30 years ago (in my previous regeneration shall we say) as part of some religious grouping’s entry requirements; & a rusted cable clamp found on a railway embankment, hung on a cord. pretty much the gamut!

one of the deep signs of life from when i was out earlier today.