some news: my third full-length book of poems, Quintessential Earthly Activities, will be out next spring with @boa-editions.bsky.social. more info soon! ❤︎

talked with the students of the sydney university poetry society on zoom. they asked such thoughtful questions. i love talking about poetry. i love poetry

saw a squirrel hopping around with a slice of pizza dangling from its mouth. so yes, joy is still possible. for squirrels, anyway.

Take a thousand naked pictures of yourself now. You may currently think, "Oh, I'm too spooky." Or, "Nobody wants to see these tiny boobies." But, believe me, one day you will look at those photos with much kinder eyes and say, "Dear God, I was a beautiful thing!" —Catherine O’Hara as Moira Rose

mary ruefle was right when she said that people would rather read an essay about poetry than read a poem. it reminds me of when people in a museum read the explanatory caption before having their own experience of the art. you fear not "getting it" when you should fear not living

less parasociality and more socialism please 😭

If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive. —Audre Lorde, from "Learning from the 60s"

not religious but there should be more queer gods. i want a whole hot queer pantheon. for fun!

my first drafts are usually dreadful. rewriting is where the real writing happens.

more world-building does not automatically lead to richer story, the way more information/detail about a character does not necessarily lead to deeper characterization or emotional truth. often you don't need "more," you need right and revealing.

one thing that makes me very sad & angry is when languages get cut from education. my parents are Mandarin teachers & have always worried about losing their jobs, despite the language's recent popularity & "usefulness." cutting languages is anti-intellectual & it's anti-human.

Poetry is a matter of life, not just a matter of language. —Lucille Clifton

favorite recent-ish reads: poetry collections - After Image; Green of All Heads; Scattered Snows, to the North; Disintegration Made Plain & Easy; All of It Singing novels - Cinema Love; Nights in Aruba nonfiction - Sempre Susan manga - The Summer Hikaru Died (through vol. 6)

writers who only use social media to promote a new publication or class are much healthier than i am lol

The Wild & Precious Life Series wishes you a creative, joyful, & safe National Poetry Month! Let these book covers carry you back through six years of virtual readings—and don’t forget: we celebrate our 6yr anniversary tonight! #poetrysky #poetrynews #poets #nationalpoetrymonth #poetry #writers

i should’ve just consulted Tessa before posting. you’ve put it much more succinctly. are you a secret poet?

i also teach writing (which always includes reading a lot), i judge book competitions & fellowships & other prizes, i have edited many manuscripts, i’m about to read another thesis. i’m not saying i’m the authority; i could be wrong, i have been wrong. but i’m speaking from a ton of experience.

random replies: who do you think *you* are, expressing *your* random opinion on the (checks notes) random opinion sharing site??

it's stan culture applied to books. it's not literary, it's shallow and demanding.

love getting replies on here that are like NO YOU’RE WRONG with zero counterargument. also i’m not here to argue. yes, i expressed an opinion about reading and writing. and i think it’s an informed one as i have a PhD in English and Creative Writing, and have published several collections of poetry.

apparently i’m the weird one for not having a preference. i don’t want or enjoy one more than the other. like, with my favorite writers i really don’t care what POV they write in next. i don’t care whether Jhumpa Lahiri’s next book is in first or third. i just want to read her next book.

one of the best uses of second person in fiction is in the opening chapter of Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler. you are missing out if you just blanket reject second person!

i think having a POV preference for the books you read is kinda silly. it’s the mindset of a consumer expecting to be catered to, rather than that of a reader who’s open to anything good.

my poet’s ego is flattered of course, but i came to poetry as a failed novelist! i don’t think i could write a novel now. probably i’d have to write two failed novels first. i have respect for any serious practitioner in any genre. but yes, everyone should read more poetry. it will help your prose!

Reminds me of the famous Faulkner quote: “I’m a failed poet. Maybe every novelist wants to write poetry first, finds he can’t and then tries the short story which is the most demanding form after poetry. And failing that, only then does he take up novel writing.”

nearly every literacy discourse that goes viral is about fiction and everyone’s always like “read more.” yes, read more poetry, essays (including criticism and theory), plays, etc. read more SHORT STORIES as they will show you more about the art of fiction than the average novel

wait. april???

i love a looooooong sentence, like paragraph-long, page-long, even the length of a few pages, i’m talking italicized lyrical monologues revealed within parentheses nestled in parentheses containing unitalicized subterranean narration hiding out in sexy brackets why not, gimme

not taking on any more blurb requests this year. sorry but i am truly blurbed out

just finished writing my craft book omg

An artist is not special. An artist is an ordinary person who can take ordinary things and make them special. —Ruth Asawa

When students are searching for their voice, they are searching for poetry. When they find their voice, they will have found poetry. When they find poetry, they will live to regret it. —Mary Ruefle, from "Short Lecture on Voice"

writing (good) poems is hard, but writing *about* poems is also hard. maybe especially about poems you admire because you're trying to explicate, not just praise

better to be interesting than to be “cool”

also, having a good editor who understands your work *and* pushes you to improve it is better than any computer, any app, any AI “co-writer.” an actual editor, who also puts in the work and knows how to talk about writing

I asked how can you ever be sure that what you write is really any good at all and he said you can't   you can't you can never be sure you die without knowing whether anything you wrote was any good if you have to be sure don't write —W.S. Merwin, from “Berryman”

Polka dot Cats by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama #Womensart

writing is also very very fun, but you can’t have the fun without experiencing everything else. and you have to kinda like the everything else if you’re going to be doing this long term

if you’re trying to “save time” as a writer by using AI, i suggest you find another profession. it takes time to write well, time to write exciting books. it takes time to write one good poem. i’ve spent years on a single poem. the time spent learning one’s craft is everything

i think i rhyme more in my prose than in my poems lol

writing poems will always be more important to me than being a Poet

people keep asking me to write essays but i need to get back to poems soon

can't believe i haven't used "vis-à-vis" in any of these essays i've been working on. nor have i used "apropos." what am i even doing

i love emily dickinson and gay porn

i need a polka dot shirt

editing is so funny because you really can make something worse and then you have to trace back your steps and it's like oh i shouldn't have changed this whole paragraph, just these two sentences.

The more I paint the more I like everything. —Jean-Michel Basquiat

thank you gay poetry and art

there's a lot of sex in my craft book, is that normal? like, sexuality, sure, yes. but also just a lot of talking about sex. in these craft essays lol

craft is writing badly, terribly, shittily, then less so