“There is power in naming, as today’s poem reminds us," host @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1390 of The Slowdown. "Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Nor should you." Read “The Poem Climbs the Scaffold and Tells You What It Sees" by @natashaoladokun.bsky.social: bit.ly/49At8by

Lust (I) by @natashaoladokun.bsky.social From @yalereview.bsky.social

Happy to have a new queer poem out at @yalereview.bsky.social 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

smaller. bombs

#FreePalestine “For those of us who write, it is necessary to scrutinize not only the truth of what we speak, but the truth of that language by which we speak it.” –Audre Lorde, “Transformation of Silence into Language and Action”

Free Palestine motherfuckers

black paramore fans are the backbone of society

I've officially migrated my newsletter away from Substack! (And away from a paid subscription model overall.) Here's how and why I did it:

Guess I’m crawling back here

So glad to be in such a stacked issue. 💖 www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/derric...

I’m in the September issue of Poetry Magazine with two poems including this anagram elegy for André Leon Talley.

[middle of lunch rush] Are you mad at me chef

Ostrobogulous [OS-truh-BAWG-yuh-luhs] (adj.) -Slightly risqué/indecent; bawdy/slightly off-colour -Bizarre, interesting, or unusual -Harmlessly mischievous Used in a sentence: “I can honestly say that I’ve never met anyone quite so ostrobogulous as Lady Octavia.” My book: https://bit.ly/GWOTDbook

We're open for proposals for craft workshops/panel discussions for the @barrelhouse.bsky.social conference in Philly on 9/23! We pay $50 per participant. No fee to submit. Send us good stuff! https://barrelhouse.submittable.com/submit/270714/conversations-and-connections-philadelphia-2023-proposals

Good morning let’s read Lucille Clifton together ☀️☀️☀️☀️

cannot believe that we taught rocks to whisper Secret Numbers so vast that their names have never before and will never be spoken again in the long span of human time, and we use them to key databases for e-commerce systems

“We *are* our final vocabulary, and how we use it. / There is no secret contingency. / There’s only the rearrangement, the redescription / Of little and mortal things. / There’s only this single body, this tiny garment / Gathering the past against itself, making it otherwise.” –Charles Wright

Girl dinner [pb&j at 4:00pm]

@natashaoladokun.bsky.social and me having a movie night

“If I knew that a fascist was a great poet, I'd shoot him anyway.” —Martín Espada The Sealey Challenge, #4. #poetry

What is the English word for emotional horniness?

Paging @natashaoladokun.bsky.social for The VVitch, live mas edition

🌮😈

It’s time to pay homage to the melanistic fox

Staring at my pile of shit that needs become an organized assembly of shit before I can get on this plane to Sewanee at the crack of dawn tomorrow…nothing stresses me like packing 😭

Like poetry and film? I say join me for a one day poetry workshop on zoom writing about ALIENS. It’s the only way to be sure. https://poetryschool.com/courses/short-controlled-bursts-poems-inspired-by-the-movie-aliens/

Okay so, I’m glad to have Bluesky as a backup social, I really am—and also I really just have to ask if I’m the only one on here who’s finding things to be a little dry? 😭

Writing prompt

“Art and activism brunch” is sending me 😭

One more deadline and then I'm basically out of work so, um, hi, as a reminder, I'm a very prolific book critic (I write other cultural crit too, but books have become my much bigger niche) and I would love to write for you!!

absolutely not. the posts will continue until everyone is in love with me

All religions are NOT equal when we talk about “freedom of religion” in the US.

Hubert François Gravelot, Border for Engraved Portrait by Houbraken: Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk,

It’s Sundayyyy. What poems are you reading today? ☀️📚😊

My birth certificate

This childish ass country

Shameful

I sweater God you people are animals for saying skeet so casually like this I hope you all know that

from Inheritance by Taylor Johnson (Alice James Books)

Unfortunately I need another Grimace Shake

I believe in the gospel of Biscuitville, the prophet of hashbrowns, and the disciple of iced vanilla lattes

Your girl spotted in the wild

Black writers (comics, prose, poems, essays, biographies, etc) - mutual or not - if you see this, I would love if you respond to this with examples of or links to your work!