This week in the poetry blogs with @aempoet.bsky.social @clareshawpoet.bsky.social @suefinch.bsky.social @lauragraceweldon.bsky.social @billymills.bsky.social @emmalee1.bsky.social @mayacpopa.bsky.social @iralightman.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social 1/2 www.vianegativa.us/2026/07/poet...

Cool and clear, with sound out of the east: the beeping of quarry trucks and a loud scraping of metal on rock as the sun makes its way through the canopy, prompting a burst of song from a common yellowthroat.

Cool and clearing after yesterday's storms. A red-bellied woodpecker calls from a dead limb at the top of the tallest black locust, making it sway. Below him on another dead branch, a fledgling is being fed by its mother.

Breezy and cool, with the smell of smoke a bit diminished. The patter of rain. Three yellow walnut leaves flutter to the ground together. A rumble of thunder.

fire sun the far forests burning in my throat

A plein air painting of the sunrise from my front yard this morning. The Canadian wildfire haze was so thick I could just look directly at the sun. 8”x6” Oil on cradled wood panel (plein air)

Unseasonably cool with the pall of wildfire smoke over the region. It is as thick as a thin mist and burns my throat. But even though their sun is a lurid red, the goldfinches and a common yellowthroat keep singing.

The sky is white, though the weather app insists it's clear: thick haze from wildfires far to the north, I think. Goldfinches dominate the morning soundtrack, beginning to nest just as many of the migrants are wrapping it up.

not entirely sure what this one’s about, but I like the way it feels in my mouth www.vianegativa.us/2026/07/just... #erasure #poetry

Heat mediated by a breeze. A hummingbird clearwing moth visits the garden, sipping nectar from bergamot tubes with a straw-like tongue swifter than thought. I read up on the species: its migratory habits, its lack of any hearing, its taste for purple.

Sun in the treetops as the tanager revisits his hit song, no longer in heavy rotation. A firefly sails past with his light off.

This week in the poetry blogs with @johnsiddique.bsky.social @shotscarecrow.bsky.social @kathrynanna.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @jntod.bsky.social @myheadtheforest.bsky.social @richardjnewman.bsky.social @sallythomasnc.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2026/07/poet...

This week's poetry blog digest was a blast to assemble but now I'm wiped and have an early morning so will have to just drop the link without @'ing anyone www.vianegativa.us/2026/07/poet...

Clear and cool—the first morning of a dry high. A hummingbird visits the orange jewelweed below the porch. A pungent, camphor-like odor makes me think of blossoming yarrow, but I finally decide instead it's coming from the black locust limbs smashed down in a storm more than a week ago.

Breezy and cool, with enough high-altitude murk to keep the sun at half strength. A firefly circles the arm of my chair. Two more bindweed blossoms have opened above yesterday's, which hangs limp as an empty balloon.

A white bindweed flower has opened in the yard—morning glory enough for a sky more white than blue. Wild garlic heads have almost all straightened up and begun to split open.

After a downpour at dawn, the sky brightens, then darkens again. The aspen and tulip tree saplings in my yard take turns trembling in the breeze. The tanager sings.

A sun shower an hour after sunrise. Hummingbirds battle over the mop-headed bergamot. I scuttle back indoors to get things done before a scheduled power outage.

Sometimes I manage to get out of my own way enough for other voices to emerge www.vianegativa.us/2026/07/life... #writing #erasure #poetry

Overcast and cool. A hen turkey foraging at the woods' edge suddenly vaults into the air with a great flapping and clucking and lands on a low walnut limb, a red fox like an apparition melting back into the shadows.

Data center developers in Pennsylvania plan to rely on at least seven new natural gas-fired power plants that would emit climate-warming gases equal to adding 14 million cars on the road every year, according to a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project. From @insideclimatenews.org

This week in the poetry blogs with @clareshawpoet.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @wendypratt.bsky.social @jwikeley.bsky.social @kimmoorepoet.bsky.social @pearlpoet.bsky.social @cbeditions.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @suefinch.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2026/07/poet...

Excellent news.

What it's all about for me. #writing #poetry #erasure www.vianegativa.us/2026/07/avoc...

Low clouds merging into fog. In the front garden, several dozen bergamots are in bloom, rain dripping from their purple locks. A very sodden chipmunk runs past my feet.

This. rattle.com/lovers-atop-...

Foggy and cool. I sit enjoying the deep stillness, gazing at the wreckage from last night's storm—two black birches smashed down by the top half of a black locust—and anticipating the chainsaw's roar.

Cooler and less humid after last night's storms. The sun finds my face through an opening in the canopy of an oak, and I'm repeatedly dive-bombed by a butterfly—*Polygonia interrogationis*, I think. A question mark.

In the morning coolness, a groundhog lies on its belly on a flat rock beside the porch, where the soapwort is in bloom. Up in the woods, the thrush sings a few bars and falls silent.

Out early to catch the coolness, such as it is. Sunlight filtered by atmospheric murk. A breeze riffling the walnut leaves. Ovenbirds, towhees and red-eyed vireos once again making their small claims.

Warm and humid with an occasional breeze. Mosquitoes are out in force, both large and small species, flying with disconcerting speed. I clap and clap.

Humid and cool. The ruby throat of a hummingbird shimmers in front of a hanging bandanna's much blander red. From the other side of the house, the rising buzz of a cerulean warbler.

This week in the poetry blogs with @thepoetslizard.bsky.social @kathleenjamie.bsky.social @jannoble.bsky.social @webbish6.bsky.social @velveteenrabbi.bsky.social @coastalpoet.bsky.social @matthewepaul.bsky.social @richardjnewman.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2026/06/poet...

Oercast and humid. The aspen sapling in my yard sports three new leaves, still more pink than green. At the far end of the garden, a beebalm too is reddening on top.

the YouTube algorithm gets me

America 250 really is a temu dictator world fair

The govt’s effort to remove anonymity from social media/the internet is not remotely about “protecting children”, it’s about enabling stuff like this

Thin but steady rain. A moth flutters up under my end-table to roost. At the woods' edge, the bindweed has gotten to the top of its dead lilac stem, and extends a long feeler toward the lowest overhanging limb that sways just out of reach.

Oh geez. I've been getting his newsletters in my inbox ever since the demise of Cranky Geeks, on which he was the best guest, 20 years ago. RIP to a VC and tech guru with a heart.

ABSOLUTELY NO REFLECTING WILL BE PERMITTED AT THE REFLECTING POOL

Fans of poetry (and other, lesser genres) are really showing up for Red Hen Press! Good to see. Los Angeles needs this kind of independent arts organization more than ever, as AI lays waste to Hollywood. www.gofundme.com/f/we-need-yo...

Raininess without much actual raining. The low motor of a hummingbird somewhere in the garden. An aborted black walnut crashes down on the back roof.

Patches of dull sunlight brighten as the clouds thin. A distant whine of traffic is sweetened by goldfinch chatter in the treetops. Below the porch, wild garlics are beginning to raise their crane's-bill heads.

book of exodus shit

This week in the poetry blogs with @sbpoet.bsky.social @oyoguhito.bsky.social @clareshawpoet.bsky.social @thepoetslizard.bsky.social @webbish6.bsky.social @jannoble.bsky.social @jillpearlman.bsky.social @matriches.bsky.social @richfergusonpoet.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2026/06/poet...