Yehuda Amichai from Open Closed Open. So felicitously said! The point is as universal as it gets— we have to fiercely guard hope. And particular for Yom Kippur — be strong and strengthen your heart. Life isn’t for the weak hearted.

A taste of my chapbook, “Diaspora of Things.” Every poem could be accompanied by a sad monkey, though this one is particularly apt. Launch: 9/27, 6pm, Riffraff, 60 Valley St, Providence, RI.

Thinking about our commandant-in-chief, who loves to mock but can’t bear being mocked

My sister tactfully decided not to discuss my will so close to my birthday. We moved on to the demise of our country. #JimmyKimmel

They don’t know what they’re doing. - Tomaz Salamun

When control rests in the hands of the few, then the few control the rest of us.

Your silence will not save you! #AcademicSky

so many dead canaries and we just keep on mining

[everyone posting cool Redford photos] [posts one with former Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms, on the set of Three Days of the Condor, October 1975] [record scratch]

Untitled Clear and still, with dew dripping off the roof and a pair of phoebes yelling "Phoebe!" at each other. Twenty-four years ago, the sky was just this clear.

Clifford Brown & Strings "Memories Of You" youtu.be/yAand_kXMds?... #Jazz #JazzSky #JazzMusic #Music #MusicSky 🎧

If I have any credibility with you from 20 years of reporting on rightwing & fascist movements, please listen when I beg you not to celebrate Charlie Kirk getting shot. Leave aside morality: this isn’t a match in dry grass, it’s a torch. We do not want what this could ignite & we would not win.

Poet Gillian Allnutt has flown under my radar. The poems highlighted by Victoria Moul are startling and gorgeous. The beginning of a new poetic fascination? Gillian Allnutt, "lode" open.substack.com/pub/vamoul/p...

Another bang-up edition of the Poetry Blog! Poetry ripens in the September harvest. Many thanks, Dave!

The Guardian's own brilliance in putting #Alcaraz-#Sinner in context: "There’s something profoundly moving about two young people captivating the world with their brilliance; in the sense that by watching them, we’re participating in art and history at the same time." @us.theguardian.com #usopen

The disappearing sea, whales, ICE and icebergs, summer tremors recorded by poets and gathered by the inimitable Mr. Bonta!

What a beautiful July outing! Full of feeling. Poets are ripening in the mid-summer sun.

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." — Voltaire

I see the Washington Post is platforming an op-ed by Krisi Noem, because apparently they're still pissed they missed their opportunity to publish Goebbels in the original German.

When I read, may I be relaxed as Geoff Dyer and keep one hand in my pocket in case i need a sneezing instrument. (Or an instrument of magic.) Riffraff, Providence, RI #homework #books @literaryhub.bsky.social

Teaching a Celan seminar brought out the best in me and readers. It's deep stuff, so we were all talking from our depths, groping along as our poets did. No need to dumb down anything! Just guide. Often our best work is done in collaboration. Given the intensity of each day, we need each other! #Lit

Just in case anyone wants a reminder of how Trump helped create the situation he's now using as justification to bomb Iran. abcnews.go.com/Politics/ira...

If you're arrested in Illinois protesting against Trump's war on Iran for Israel, I can represent you pro bono. Email me at [email protected].

Could there be a more perfect Solstice poem for right now? Threadsuns by Paul Celan, tr. Michael Hamburger

An ode to a chamber poet....The poem has a certain je ne sais quoi! The experience of emptying a family home has a hallucinatory quality. It resonates with many losses of things you think you hold. Grief, our trickster. finishinglinepress.com. Diaspora of Things. paddockreview.com/2025/06/18/a...

I wrote about a recent visit to Fallingwater and how both the house and the vision are holding up, almost 100 years in www.vianegativa.us/2025/06/fall...

So much thoughtful, inspiring stuff! It's almost like hearing poets think aloud.

Is 50501 the zip code of Utopia? If not, could someone enlighten me? #50501

New Haven doing that New England thing of gathering on the town green to oppose tyrants. #NoKings

“No Kings” demonstration, Ocean Beach, San Francisco

personal favorite that i saw today

As much as I love “Resistance,” language gets tired and has to be renewed. How about one of these for a new slogan? #nokingsday #nokingsprotest

They don’t call Providence, RI “The Creative Capital” for nothing! Carry on, my good man, carry on!

The NYPD and ICE 'mistakenly' arrest a Chilean woman on vacation in New York City, leaving her 12-year-old daughter (who was with her) on the street alone.

When non-citizens reside with you in your land, you shall not wrong them. Rather, the non-citizens who reside with you shall be to you as your citizens; you shall love each one as yourself, for you were non-citizens in the land of Egypt: I God am your God. Leviticus 19:33-34

Trump: Well, we're going to have troops everywhere.  Reporter: What’s the bar for sending in the Marines  Trump: The bar is what I think it is.

Hello. I live in Los Angeles. The president is lying.

In case there is any confusion

Resting on my laurels!

I find these images from Yael Bartana’s video haunting and moving. She repurposed purged and lost art of Otto Dix, considered #DegenerateArt by the Nazis, for her video of mechanized #endlesswars. The march of the mutilated is particularly to the point.

I am thrilled to introduce my chapbook, Diaspora of Things! Things - banal, beloved, caught in the web of possession -- are freed. Last witness to the family tissue! @yetzirahpoets.bsky.social @deborahleipziger.bsky.social @velveteenrabbi.bsky.social @ren-powell.bsky.social @tomsnarsky.bsky.social

I thrilled to introduce my chapbook, Diaspora of Things! Things - banal, beloved, caught in the web of possession -- are freed. Last witness to the family tissue! @alinaetc.bsky.social @rebeccaloudon.bsky.social @thetenderbetween.bsky.social @avecsesdoigts.bsky.social @romanaiorga.bsky.social

I am thrilled to introduce my poetry chapbook, Diaspora of Things. Things-banal, beloved, caught in the web of possession- are freed. Last witness to the family tissue! @robmclennan.bsky.social @krislindbeck.bsky.social @kristybowen.bsky.social @davebonta.bsky.social @thepoetslizard.bsky.social

I am thrilled to introduce my poetry chapbook, Diaspora of Things, cover by Raina Wellman, photo by George Lange. Things - banal, beloved, caught in the web of possession - are freed. I dwell on them as the last testament to the tissue of mother-daughter dynamic. #flpauthor #preorder #memory #art

Sharing what Rachelle Toarmino posted elsewhere— because it’s such a fantastic Notley quotation, that element of being-in that central to her poetics. That shamanic energy 🖤

If “our country is woke no longer,” does that mean we are asleep or dead?

When you’re the ones gaming the system…

Engraving on the exterior of the United States Department of Justice headquarters.