“Everybody’s using AI for everything nowadays, and if you don’t, you’re a misfit outsider who should be stoned to death in the town square, and then resurrected virtually from your data so you can be stoned to death in the virtual town square, for infinity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/o...

Hey US-ians, have y'all called your reps yet today? Seems like now is as good a time as any to say "I'd prefer fewer war crimes, please."

Normally I have my ducks more or less in a row, but we've hit the point in the semester when my to-do list is doing one of those slapstick routines where all the clowns get stuck trying to fit through a door.

If someone asks for a list of Jews at your institution, the correct thing is to give them a list of people who saved Jews in WWII. "Sure, you want Loukas Karrer...Chrysostomos Dimitriou... Can't forget Miep Gies... My pal Oskar Schindler..."

one of my strongest and clearest takeaways from spending all of Lent knee-deep in ICE death reporting is that Camp East Montana should be razed to the ground and every single person who built it, worked there or approved their decisions deserves criminal charges. it is beyond what I imagined.

This is just what I thought — in his coterie of malicious incompetents, the only ones he bothers firing are all women?

If Trump is firing people who make him look bad, I have a suggestion for who should be next in line.

"All writers use AI" yes that book I published in 2010, totally AI-generated, I'm so glad that I have a timeshare piece of this AI-access time travel portal with Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath, and Ray Bradbury.

I 100% support the right of anyone, regardless of gender identity, to wear whatever the hell they want. What I do not support is their right to demonize trans people while doing it. Where's my pitchfork? Grr.

I'm teaching John Lewis' *March* today in my Graphic Novels class and it is exactly what I need right now.

"Gosh it's surprising how old ladies can express such intense rage" listen, my great-aunt Eleanor would stab you with a fork if you beat her at croquet or failed to use the subjunctive; if she were still alive she would be wearing Stephen Miller's skin as a coat by now.

I wrote a poem about an exiled octopus and I am so happy that it has found a campsite at 32 Poems.

Some of my students are such awesome, smart, responsible, hardworking people that it actually helps me get up in the morning despite the entire rest of the goddamn world.

I'm really proud of how my finely tuned multitasking skills allow me to freak out over Iran and the revocation of trans Kansans' drivers licenses and ICE's kidnappings and murders all simultaneously.

We're not a country. We're a drunk guy in a bar randomly punching people for looking at us funny, and then weeping "I really love you, bro" into Putin's neck.

If anyone asks, please let them know that we do currently have enough snow, thanks.

Tonight! I have a slight cold and may be in the process of developing laryngitis, so this is your opportunity to hear my work being read in a voice that sounds like a bullfrog going through puberty.

I've told this story on ContrabandCamp but it's worth sharing for BHM because it's one of the greatest stories ever. A thread.

Art helps.

This is what they've done.

O tempora, o mores! For the record, the problem with David Brooks is not that I disagree with him. I don't agree with anyone, so that doesn't make him special. No: the problem with David Brooks is that he is an idiot.

Training isn't enough. Reform isn't enough. Firing figureheads isn't enough. Abolish ICE. Tell your reps.

I was at a small protest last Tuesday and a guy came up to me and the woman I was standing next to and asked, sounding like he actually wanted to know, "you guys get paid for this?" I wonder what he makes of what's happening in Minneapolis.

Here is a new poem. Already revised, alas. But for what it’s worth: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202... Many thanks to Jeff Shotts and Kevin Young.

Me in September: That article? I'll write it during January break. Me in October: That review? I'll write it in January. Me in November: Spring syllabi? That's what January's for. Me in December: Whew, I'm burnt out. But I can catch my breath during break. Me in January: Ooops.

Two poems — one by me, one by Charles W. Brice — about the murder of Renee Nicole Good, up today at Vox Populi.

Once again, I have said to my spouse, "leave me alone, I can't pay attention to you right now, I'm writing you a love poem." Being married to a poet must be so romantic.

I'm spending the morning putting together a PowerPoint on the current state of federal threats to higher education, so I guess I can skip cardio today.

Demonstration on Waltham Common tomorrow 4:30-6. #mapoli

a few friends told me they got something out of reading this poem when they were feeling down, so I am reposting it here. The subtext emerges when you read about George (Giorgos) Seferis's subsequent career, fwiw. I strongly recommend his Levant Journal. psalteryandlyre.org/2025/08/18/s...

Felt a migraine coming on; took my migraine medication; was able to edit two essays and write several I-don't-know-how-to-approach-this-one emails instead of going to bed for three days. But please tell me more about how we can solve all our health problems by avoiding seed oils & eating beef

I wasn't going to repost this, but—

Next year we'll all be too poor to eat anything else but the rich.

'My year end reading statistics' (originally for @theguardian.com books). p.s There's still time to pick up new book Physics for Cats at good bookshops and online www.tomgauld.com/comic-books-v2

SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going— SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti— SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE

Looking forward to this!

AI-generated student research papers. I set you kids up with a magnificent kitchen, stocked with the finest ingredients, and you give me microwaved leftover Taco Bell.

Great culture can save lives. Literally. Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

Septimus: So, the Improved Newtonian Universe must cease and grow cold. Dear me. Thomasina: Yes, we must hurry if we are going to dance.

I've got an article in this cluster on C.D. Wright—look at the gorgeous company it's in!

To be fair, the AI-hallucinated plots in the papers some of my students have turned in sound like pretty good stories. They just aren't the stories they say they're writing about.

This review is worth your time, and the book it's reviewing is really, really worth your time.

Last night I made a really delicious pot of soup, and I am now using the magic it generated to cast a curse on everyone in power anywhere who creates hunger. We harvest more grain than we can store in the US. Why the hell aren't we letting more people eat it?

You know how in nursing homes, they put signs like "Debbie's Room" in a big legible font on the doors of dementia patients, and it's somehow sweet and very sad and weirdly condescending all at the same time, and gives you existential dread? Well—

It was so fun getting to talk about bird cognition, experiments, and a list of beloved books with @robmclennan.bsky.social!

When you're writing, you come up with clever little devices and think, "I wonder if anyone will ever notice what I've done here?" Well, Sara Stoudt just reviewed my book in @psalteryandlyre.bsky.social, and she caught every. single. one. I'm thrilled and honored and kind of flabbergasted.

Two All Soul's poems from @havehashad.com last year 🖤 Why I prefer All Souls to Halloween The day the license expires some revelers decide to never give up their wigs knives beards talons glitter www.havehashad.com/preview/hadp...

In MA, folks enrolled in SNAP who have active EBT cards with at least a $1 balance will still be able to access fresh produce with their cards through the Healthy Incentives Program. That funding doesn't go away Nov. 1, when SNAP does. www.mass.gov/info-details...

I'm so excited for this reading with @heatherchristle.bsky.social and Martha Ronk, introduced by @martin65.bsky.social! Thursday, November 13, at 7:00, Grolier Poetry Bookshop, Cambridge, MA. Links to preregister for in-person and Zoom options below!