Top 25 Poetry Articles on Substack

Oh. There aren't enough notebooks to contain the tally marks for the number of times the gift of your words have been my compass away from what I'm convinced every time is an inescapable loneliness. I can't wait to see you read in Denver, I bought myself a ticket the day after I came out at 37 as a gift to myself. I'll be the one sobbing in the front row.

Possible titles that come to mind after my fourth read:

I lost my wrinkle collection can I borrow yours?

One Size Fits Awe

Katie Morrison

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Brevity

Name it Brevity.

Thank you for sharing this. My life is so full of love and wonder yet I turn the shoulder to the days, as you say, looking for tomorrow.

I need to be here today. Tomorrow is never promised.

🩷

The Recovering Line Cook

May 6

A Line Cook's Rant About... Recipes

The poetry of lived experience

Hello and welcome back to The Recovering Line Cook, the home for my recipes, personal stories, and essays on all things food. I just want to thank those of you who have upgraded to paid subscriptions recently. I am a restaurant cook who loves to write, I don’t have an agent in my corner or any of that business, and your financial support makes this proje…

Wil Reidie ∙ 61 LIKES

Hanne Blank Boyd

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My recipe notebooks contain few method notes, usually just enough to remind me of oven temperatures, goal textures, and things I know I’ll forget like “add potatoes at end of cooking so they don’t go to mush damn it.”

One of my favorite cookbooks is from 1911 and is written in Slovenian with a fair bit of German mixed in for fun. Recipes are mostly ingredients lists and method notes often include the phrase “in the usual way.” As in “whip the eggs in the usual way for binding fish,” in a recipe for what I suppose could be called pike quenelles but are (translated) “lake fish dumplings for clear soup.” The recipes are uniformly good. But you do have to know what you’re doing and as for pictures… it was 1911, go whistle.

dl meckes

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19h

I hate cooking with recipes. I love the pictures and ingredient lists as a jumping-off point. There is nothing to compare to a keen sense of smell to know when something is done, timers be damned. I was a pro but am now a home cook. Nothing helps my technique more than cooking every day without leaning on favorites. I have retained few cookbooks. Pepin's La Technique takes me almost everywhere I need to go. I'm never happy with my first attempts, and as Mr. Foydel notes, repetition gets you where you want to go. The last thing I do is make it pretty, but I'm not consumed with that.

The Liminality Journal

Apr 28

announcing this year's poetry theme!

words are hope

Friends, If you’re new here, you might not know that every year we have something at The Liminality Journal called a poem a day in the month of may. It’s almost May, everyone, and I am so ready to lean into a practice of poetry writing with you! It’s one of my favorite things. Each day throughout the month of May, I’ll sen…

Kaitlin Curtice ∙ 72 LIKES

Kathryn A. LeRoy

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The Colour | Newsletter | Lab | Community

Hope is a sacred word. A word that reminds me of endless possibility. Thanks for the inspiring theme.

Karri Temple Brackett

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Apr 29

So excited!!!

Rabbit Room Poetry

May 7

Doing Theology With Poetry—Abram Van Engen

When I first fell in love with poetry, I had no idea what I was reading. The poem—a compact little thing of two stanzas by Gerard Manley Hopkins—had a series of words that all seemed to make sense individually, but simply confused when they were combined. It was apparent from the beginning, however, that the poet’s goal was not just to convey some kind …

The Rabbit Room ∙ 26 LIKES

Cynthia Ann Storrs

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Outstanding analysis with helped me to appreciate so much more! I love the density of poetry-- a poetry says in so few words what it takes the essayist paragraphs to unpack.

Michael Fox

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This is one of the most beautiful pieces I have ever read. Not only the poem, but also the lovely literary tour of the poet’s thoughts and words provided by the professor. Thanks for this.

girls that never post

May 3

On Defamiliarizing

poetry against normalization

I’m at a writing retreat these days, moving through the daily cognitive dissonance of literal birdsong outside my window while I refresh the news and read about murder, starvation, students beaten by police. Yesterday, my dear friend Camonghne and I had a discussion with our fellow residents about doing language during times of profound grief and horror…

Safia Elhillo ∙ 43 LIKES

Hazel Weng

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Thank you for sharing this! This is how I felt during the Chinese covid lockdowns while I was in Britain. Words seem so feeble, and I wish I could make more tangible changes in the world.

13ThingsLA

May 7

13ThingsLA: May 8

Poetry, Public Art & Painting for your LA Art Calendar

Featured: Senon Williams The Getty Center’s Poetry in the Garden series continues on Wednesday, May 8 at 2pm with Senon Williams. Musician, painter, poet, and sometimes parade leader Senon Wiliams spent several weekends last year heading up the Sunset Hiking Club

Shana Nys Dambrot and HIJINX ARTS | 13 THINGS LA ∙ 2 LIKES

Apr 27

Make Money with Poetry

In which I make ink for an International Poetry Prize

I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music. —Joan Miro

Toronto Ink Company ∙ 40 LIKES

Michelle Lubash

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I'm not a poet, although I've written some poems (of the variety that mostly speak to me). But have always felt that poetry is the only kind of writing I could ever possibly do, should I ever seriously try to. I get why you feel that ink making and poetry making are related - both seem to involve distillation and essences and illumination, or putting one's finger exactly on the tender point.

Lisa de Nikolits

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Apr 27

I’m so curious why the crushed pink carnations wasn’t allowed. I agree - the stories it held!

I’m a constant, enthusiastic and consistently failed poet.

I’m also concerned about money. I also realized last year, what with the relentless march of the AI (among other factors), that I just couldn’t hack being a graphic designer/art director in the corporate world any more. I just don’t have the stomach for it.

So I got a grant and now I’m six months into becoming a PSW. Last week was my first stint in the LTC home and I’m already in love with all my residents and I just want to look after them forever.

This course is insane though - the sheer volume of materials - and I’m not used to studying and I’ll be so relieved if I can pass the exam in July and have my life back.

My idea was to do something more meaningful while hoping that the tide of the small book presses will turn so I can carry on writing my oddball books (self publishing isn’t an option I want to explore - I’m not judgy, it’s just not my thing).

Finding a new publisher may be a futile dream and my authorly life may well die along with my once having been a magazine art director which was, for 24 years, the reason I got out of bed.

Anyway!! Sorry!! This is just to say (and no, it’s not about the plums), that we have to somehow forge on, forage on - and keep creating and writing.

And I ❤️ Poetry Forever.

Beyond the Bookshelf

Apr 30

Terrified of poetry? Why yes, I am.

My experience with poetry and a review of Maya Popa's new collection

Welcome to Beyond the Bookshelf, a community of readers and writers sharing unique perspectives on life and literature through thought-provoking essays, captivating interviews, and influential books as we explore the challenges of life's transformative journey.

Matthew Long ∙ 95 LIKES

Maya C. Popa

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I am floored by this beautiful, thoughtful, generous review and loved reading all of your personal reflections AND the useful historical context. Thank you, thank you. 🫶🏼

Kristine Neeley

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I think one of the great beauties of poetry is that no matter what we believe about it (and ourselves in relation to it), it’s really only asking us to bear witness to it. For a long time, I forgot that poetry is less about what it meant to (or about) the author when it was written, than it is about what it brings up in and the meaning it takes on for the reader.

Thanks for sharing this review with us!

Horace & friends

Apr 25

What is a poetry magazine for?

Or rather, for whom? A review of "The Poetry Review"

I was wondering this week why I almost never see reviews of literary magazines and poetry journals themselves. On the face of it, such reviews would be helpful, since magazines are the main venue in which poets publish new work for the first time, and there’s a bafflingly enormous number of them, both in print and (increasingly) online, each with their …

Victoria ∙ 33 LIKES

Nicholas Murray

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This was a very fair and judicious review. I am far less tolerant and skim most of Poetry Review these days, finding it of little interest. A poet friend of mine says he subscribes to certain magazines in the spirit in which one buys a bunch of charity raffle tickets: to show willing. Part of the problem may be that there is such a high turnover in editors that slowly building a magazine’s character/personality doesn’t happen. That takes time. But behind this is a much bigger problem of the lack of consensus about what is good and bad in contemporary poetry. We don’t want uniformity or bossiness but some convincing sense of what might matter is the basis of any decent, intelligible criticism.

Joseph Conlon

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Another terrific article. I would comment that the combination of narrowness and emphasis on diversity does not seem at all paradoxical in contemporary British intellectual culture. The parts of universities, for example, with explicit focus on diversity also seem to be those parts where the greatest monoculture exists in terms of worldview.

Looking at the prizewinners and commended poets in the competitions the Poetry Society run (e.g. their Nation Poetry Competition and Young Poets competition) the same kind of 'house style' seems to exist as for Poetry Review, in terms of a focus on identity and a strong preference for free verse. Indeed, this preference seems so marked that something like a regular sonnet would seem to stand out as much as the late Queen wearing hotpants.

I try as hard as possible to extend maximal charity to those with different tastes than my own, on the presumption that they see things I miss, but it does seem a shame that a body with such an explicit mission to promote the totality of poetry elevates so strongly forms that have cut ties with essentially all English verse prior to about 1920 and much of what comes after.

Wilderment

May 1

The Source of Poetry

An Homage to Poet and Mentor Linda Gregg (Sept 9, 1942 – Mar 20, 2019)

On the first day of graduate poetry workshop with Linda Gregg in 2006, I was surprised when she began class by talking about her daily practice of walking around her neighborhood (NYC’s East Village), and then went around the room so that each of us—by way of introduction—could share what we did for exercise. Though I don’t remember her exact words, the…

Sarah Rose Nordgren ∙ 9 LIKES

Shana Youngdahl

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May 1

Beautiful! I've loved Linda Gregg's poems for a long time and it is wonderful to read about who she was as a teacher and friend--it's inspired me as both writer and teacher today. Thank you!

ADPList’s Newsletter

Apr 23

Data-Informed Design

The data-design poetry department; dilemma & anthology how-to guide.

Hi, I’m Felix! Welcome to this week’s ADPList’s Newsletter; 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 weekly advice column. I write high-quality insights on designing products people love and leadership in tech. If you’re interested in sponsoring us, let’s chat!

Felix Lee ∙ 29 LIKES

The Soup

May 4

April is for Crying (and Poetry)

my collaboration with Drew Jackson, Seattle tears, and BBQ pork

April is for crying in public, or maybe it’s just me. Every year around this time I fly to Seattle to spend a few days with my favorite people at the Inhabit conference. As part of the Parish Collective fellowship, I’m always asked to contribute in some way. Being in that room each April, among people who see the world through the lenses of faith and pl…

Shannan Martin ∙ 39 LIKES

Beth Mork

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Beautiful. Thanks for sharing about parish collective as well.

What a beautiful theme to pray into. Solidarity. This is my favorite quote so far. So true. So beautifully Jesus. Reframes it all for me when I pay attention. Thank you!

His life was tuned to the rhythm of ordinary, relentless, togetherness. Slow and often boring.

He shows us a way of being that it so basic, we risk missing its magic

Megan Sciarrino

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Thank you for sharing these stunning words and a bit about how you stitched them together across long roads and shared sky.

I’m holding onto this one for sure. ⭐️

Incidental Comics

Apr 23

How to Make Poetry Comics

Six Exercises in Creating

To celebrate National Poetry Month and the publication of my book POETRY COMICS, I’m sharing this post from one year ago. If you’re inspired to use these exercises in your creative practice or in the classroom, please share them and tag me on social media @grantdraws—or tag

Grant Snider ∙ 172 LIKES

Binu Sivan

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Apr 23

I have never tried sketching my poems! I think I may be able to do it for a poem of mine called Cats. I will do it and tag you :). Thanks for this lovely article. It's making my 51 year old brain excited to try something new.

Olivia Truong

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Apr 23

Thank you for the guidance, i would love to share it for little kids

Shaw and Moore

Apr 29

Self Care for Writers of Tough Poetry!

You Do Not Have to Suffer (Much) For Your Art

by Clare ShawShaw and Moore is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I think the title of this essay would make a good name for an album of fairly self-conscious folk-rock music by men with beards. But in actual fact, it just does what it says. Because the myth of the tortur…

Clare ∙ 11 LIKES

Bethan Rees

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I love this. You are true ambassador for therapeutic writing!

Ann Grant

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On Being and Timelessness

This was a great blog and I loved your list. My list includes deep breathing practice, watching Ted Lasso, cuddling my dog Barbara, going for a walk and shadow boxing xxx

The Commonplace

Apr 26

5 Quick Things #328 ✍️

commonplace notebooks, distributism, men + poetry, & support your local bookshop

Hey there, I don’t know where you’re at while you’re reading this (mentally and emotionally, I mean), but if you’re a metaphysical neighbor of mine, you’re spent. My boys have two weeks left of classes and three weeks left of homeschooling with me (hello, Vietnam War, end of the Cold War, and 9/11 — so, low-key chill topics), Tate comes home from her fir…

Tsh Oxenreider ∙ 73 LIKES

Dixie Dillon Lane

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Apr 26

So glad to see you highlighting Annelise's series! I get so frustrated with the constant calls to "reduce your stress" that come with absolutely zero bits of realistic advice for how to do that. This series is the opposite of that!!

I am with you on feeling spent...and also on longing for the opportunities of the summer ahead.

Teresa

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Apr 26

Thank you so much for this!

It is wildly comforting to know that so many of us are just trying to sort through stress and find time to do all of the things (or to stop doing all the things).

I am always so appreciative of how things slow down in Lent and I focus on less and take in less... then Eastertide comes and I hit the ground running like one of those pull-back racer cars on overdrive!

Also... where is that incredible Tolstoy quote from?? I think that I need to read the entire piece.

God Bless you and your family,

Teresa

Apr 28

Passover Poetry Salon--Part II

Jenny Barber's gorgeous poems--a small selection

I remember when I first read Rigging the Wind by Jennifer Barber more than twenty years ago. I desperately wanted to talk about these poems of the Spanish Inquisition, conversos, prophecy, time, and quiet with someone; instead, I ended up reviewing the book for

Aviya Kushner ∙ 5 LIKES

The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor

May 2

THE WINNERS of THE WRITER'S ALMANAC POETRY CONTEST

We received quite a number of poems for our contest celebrating National Poetry Month. The assignment was to write a two stanza poem that talked about the love of words and poetry. Our winning poems are listed below.Untitled 'Tis nearly too much to ask Of most any mortal hand To lift the pen for such a grand, Supremely glorious task. Yet summit this he…

Garrison Keillor ∙ 42 LIKES

The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad

Apr 28

Prompt 293. On the Floor

& the poet Joy Sullivan on prayer

Hi friend, These last few weeks, I’ve been spending long days in my studio, pushing myself quite hard. Painting in large format has been wonderfully challenging but also exhausting. Each day I reach a point when my body feels leaden, when my mind is all “blankness and junk” (

Suleika Jaouad ∙ 246 LIKES

Nancy Shebeneck

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To pray, no words are necessary.

Be still in the silence.

Listen. Breathe.

You will know.

Lisa Philip

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Unmapped Storylands with Elif Shafak

A few years ago TIJ had a prompt asking us to compose a prayer. I just revisited what I wrote at the time. To sum up the prayer I composed I prayed for happiness, health and freedom for all. For the ability to give others the benefit of the doubt. The capability to hear both sides of a story without rushing to judgement. The willingness to be kind to others and to treat them as we would want to be treated ourselves. The ability to be patient and compassionate with those whose decisions we feel are harmful to them and the capability to be empathetic towards those who are not ready to change. Finally I asked for the willingness to forgive those who have wronged me even if they are not sorry so as not to experience the pain of holding a grudge. These are all things I pray for. And aspire to. Another part of prayer I find very important is taking the time to be grateful for what I have already even though I may be going through difficult times.

I recently returned from a trip to Italy with my husband. Italy is the land of churches. We visited countless churches and one beautiful synagogue. At every church my husband stopped to pray. Sometimes I too prayed alongside him, but I also took the opportunity to appreciate the beauty and age of these buildings.We saw several churches that were built as early as 386 CE. The fact that people were able to build these massive buildings with so few tools and that the buildings are still standing albeit with additions and repairs is awe inspiring. The depth of belief in God and the beauty of the artwork depicting those beliefs are indescribable.

I do not know exactly what prayer is and to whom I am praying, but for me it is important to try to take the time to be grateful for what I have, to wish the best for others and to appreciate that I am but a small speck in time and in the universe.

Poetry Unbound

May 5

The other ...

... as the lens to view the self

Dear friends, I hope this finds you well. I am back in Ireland this week, opening the post that arrived while I was away and enjoying the familiar familiar. We are deep in prep for a small mini season of Poetry Unbound that’ll be released later this month — we’ll be publishing several episodes ov…

Pádraig Ó Tuama ∙ 131 LIKES

Patrick Watters

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Home…

Excerpts from Little Gidding by TS Eliot

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

Not known, because not looked for

But heard, half-heard, in the stillness

Between two waves of the sea.

Quick now, here, now, always–

A condition of complete simplicity

(Costing not less than everything)

And all shall be well and

All manner of thing shall be well (Julian)

When the tongues of flames are in-folded

Into the crowned knot of fire

And the fire and the rose are one.

Holy Homesickness — Center for Action and Contemplation https://cac.org/daily-meditations/holy-homesickness/

Karen Ehrens

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Ok, I am crying after reading a few of the “other” poems recommended by Pádraig this week including one of his own. I encourage all to read them.

May 5

Writers Need to Walk the Earth

When I was in my early twenties, one breezy afternoon in Istanbul, I discovered a word that brightened my day but then darkened my mood almost simultaneously. I encountered that curious word between the pages of a book and admired it for some time without daring to approac…

Elif Shafak ∙ 236 LIKES

Marita Rathnow

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I love your writings and story telling

Bhavana Sarin

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Absolutely exquisite. I could visualise you as a flàneur, up and about and around. I've read Rebecca Solnit's book and could understand the reference of the urban nomad. And as you were describing going around the city, morning to night, the first thought which came up in my mind was-how fortunate you are to be in this safe city and then you almost run into those two men you described. Perhaps there will be a day, when urban nomads and flàneurs shall be gender irrelevant.

Human Stuff

May 5

What I'd tell her

37 things

Human Stuff is a weekly-ish newsletter. Please feel free to share parts of this letter that connect with you, or send to someone you love. Thank you for reading, sharing, commenting, subscribing, for being here. It means something.

Lisa Olivera ∙ 406 LIKES

Lisa Olivera

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PS. Parenting has been full-on lately... responding to comments has felt near impossible. But please know I read every single one, sometimes multiple times over, and am always so moved by your resonance and reflections. Thank you thank you thank you for reading and sharing what connected with you. It makes these letters feel like part of something outside of myself and that means everything. Hopefully I'll be back to responding soon. xx

Christie Mar

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Your words always bring a deep breath of relief and a softening… thank you 🩵

The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad

Apr 21

Prompt 292. Letters from Max

& the playwright Sarah Ruhl on art that enlivens and endures

Hi friend, Recently I got a message from the wife of my late friend, the poet Max Ritvo. She was going through some old boxes and found a note he’d written to me after their wedding but had never sent. She wanted me to have it; she asked for my address. When I opened it and saw my nicknames scrolled across the top and read the buoyant jo…

Suleika Jaouad ∙ 259 LIKES

Dr. Joanie Tool

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Apr 21

I honestly am awake at 4am and too ill to make proper use of this amazing prompt. But I could not let it go by without letting you know how your stunning tribute to Max has left me in tears of bittersweet joy. Because I have a friend like Max. And I have his letters. Ones that are either questions or answers to letters of mine (long-handed chicken & egg) since we wrote to each other every week all through undergrad, when we were in schools across the country from one another. We knew etiquette says you wait to receive your letter before writing back but sometimes we’d get so excited that our ‘return’ letters would cross in the mail and deciphering what had happened and what was yet to come became an Agatha Christie-level mystery of epic proportions. Those letters are now, decades later, in a clear waterproof tote in my attic. And just seeing his handwriting on the envelopes through the walls of that tote … it always brings all those beautiful memories of racing to the dorm mailbox to check for a letter, flooding back with sweetness and joy and tinge of sadness for a simpler time and one of the sweetest pleasures I’ve known … those loooooooooooong-handed letters of complete vulnerability with a most trusted and well loved best friend. Thank you so much for those specifically treasured emotions, long dormant. I’m truly sorry for your loss. Sending love.

~ Joanie

Terri Balog

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Apr 21

Lying in bed, relishing the quiet, soft, white sky out of the window (we are expecting rain today), and reading today's prompt I immediately thought of the song Mr. Blue Sky by ELO. After my 30 year old daughter passed in 2022, I was grieving deeply. I took on a part time job as a nanny.of a sweet two-year old girl named Elizabella, Ellie for short. To lift my spirits, I would play that song over and over for us, while we were driving in the car. Ellie, bouncing in her car seat, would ask for the windows down and the sunroof opened so we could dance in our seats, point to the sky and address it's blueness with loud singing voices, lifting our spirits as we giggled and sang loudly. When the song ended, little Ellie would shout out "Again! Again!" in her sweet, high-pitched, two year old voice and I thought, grinning ear-to-ear, God has surely given me this song and this child to heal my heart. ♡

Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis

May 6

When there became here, and then became now

Holocaust Remembrance Day has never felt this way in Israel before. Hopefully, it never will again.

It slipped out of one of the papers that arrived at our doorstep on Friday. I took all the papers out of their bags at almost the same time, and dropped them all at once on the coffee table. So when this pamphlet slid off the table and onto the floor, I wasn’t sure which paper it had come out of. I’m still not certain.

Daniel Gordis ∙ 47 LIKES

Djaja Baecke

Apr 30

Body Poetry : the membership

We'll explore all the nuances that I weave into my dance-medicine, month by month in this membership together.

Hey dearest woman, Welcome to my first ever dance-membership. It is an online continuation of the “Jaya Pura Dance” - workshops that I held in the past. That project was founded on 3 pillars : Drawing…

Djaja Baecke

Tusiata Avia

Apr 30

This is not a Satire

This is our government on the arts

You read this article in Newsroom while you’re in the middle of a novel (Prophet Song by Paul Lynch, winner of 2023 Booker Prize) . The book is set in contemporary Ireland and borrows directly from real life events (both in Ireland and other countries, such as Egypt and Syria) re silencing those who speak against the government.

Tusiata Avia ∙ 100 LIKES

Paparoa

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Brave and true. He is an ignorant wrecker let loose in a house he could never have built.

Mark McGuire

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