Jen Borkowski
@jenmaicha.bsky.social
Poet, essayist, translator, etm. Thought bubble with black scribble.
Just saw that SEPTA has renamed the Philadelphia subway and trolley lines. Suddenly I've become... one of those old people who still thinks in terms of the BMT and the IRT. Gulp.
December 5, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Just saw that SEPTA has renamed the Philadelphia subway and trolley lines. Suddenly I've become... one of those old people who still thinks in terms of the BMT and the IRT. Gulp.
Earlier in the week I rediscovered the joys of kale. Now, candles and music in the late afternoon when the sun starts setting hard before five. How did I forget all this?
November 21, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Earlier in the week I rediscovered the joys of kale. Now, candles and music in the late afternoon when the sun starts setting hard before five. How did I forget all this?
Now that the garden is mostly done for the year, I miss having friends to check in on every day... which is how I find myself attempting to grow oyster mushrooms and lacto-ferment blueberries. Maybe I'll get along well with bacteria and fungi on their own? Fingers crossed.
November 19, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Now that the garden is mostly done for the year, I miss having friends to check in on every day... which is how I find myself attempting to grow oyster mushrooms and lacto-ferment blueberries. Maybe I'll get along well with bacteria and fungi on their own? Fingers crossed.
Reposted by Jen Borkowski
Whomst among us hasn't felt a little vacuum about snackie all done
November 18, 2025 at 7:02 AM
Whomst among us hasn't felt a little vacuum about snackie all done
Inherited a flannel-print fleece shirt that shrank in the wash, and I have never felt more cozygrunge in my life.
November 12, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Inherited a flannel-print fleece shirt that shrank in the wash, and I have never felt more cozygrunge in my life.
Peloton, Kirkland, Stihl... Recalls are hitting close to home for my social circle today. Good info to pass along.
Once more into the unsafe products. It's Recall Thursday!
November 6, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Peloton, Kirkland, Stihl... Recalls are hitting close to home for my social circle today. Good info to pass along.
A lovely essay that I'd like to reread and branch out from on a day when I have time to explore and experiment afterward.
A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden
A newly revived philosophy for publishing personal knowledge on the web
maggieappleton.com
October 25, 2025 at 12:40 PM
A lovely essay that I'd like to reread and branch out from on a day when I have time to explore and experiment afterward.
Big "someone is wrong on the internet" feelings today... and I don't have time for another 13-mile walk. Sigh.
October 24, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Big "someone is wrong on the internet" feelings today... and I don't have time for another 13-mile walk. Sigh.
I think my body is just... calibrated weird. Been feeling cranky for weeks. Yesterday I went out for a 13-mile walk, and now I feel so much better. Like I know how to be a person again. (The person I want to be.)
October 22, 2025 at 12:17 PM
I think my body is just... calibrated weird. Been feeling cranky for weeks. Yesterday I went out for a 13-mile walk, and now I feel so much better. Like I know how to be a person again. (The person I want to be.)
Looking forward to this for a little creative refuge in a tough week 🖤
This Friday, a free @sarabandebooks.bsky.social zine workshop for yr lunch hour. My heart in that postscript. 🖤 We will wander through John Berger, little birds, and Rosa Luxembourg to write a p.s. zine. Register below. Come do words with me.
us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
October 7, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Looking forward to this for a little creative refuge in a tough week 🖤
Reposted by Jen Borkowski
I wrote about Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ezra Klein, why swallowing live frogs is a bad idea, and how context and history can release you from bright-kid syndrome, the illusion that you yourself are going to have every answer or fix the world.
You don't have to swallow frogs
Klein and Coates show that if you don't know what your core beliefs are, you're going to get played.
degenerateart.beehiiv.com
September 30, 2025 at 8:43 PM
I wrote about Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ezra Klein, why swallowing live frogs is a bad idea, and how context and history can release you from bright-kid syndrome, the illusion that you yourself are going to have every answer or fix the world.
How is it the end of September already.
September 30, 2025 at 10:08 PM
How is it the end of September already.
Reposted by Jen Borkowski
One of the most life-changing things my therapist ever taught me is to stop responding to emotional subtext from others. You are not obligated to meet needs and feelings that others refuse to acknowledge even exist on their end. Others have to use their words to get their needs met.
September 2, 2025 at 8:54 PM
One of the most life-changing things my therapist ever taught me is to stop responding to emotional subtext from others. You are not obligated to meet needs and feelings that others refuse to acknowledge even exist on their end. Others have to use their words to get their needs met.
Can't believe I've had this massive sage plant for three years and just now thought to try brewing it. This tea is delightful.
August 26, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Can't believe I've had this massive sage plant for three years and just now thought to try brewing it. This tea is delightful.
Reposted by Jen Borkowski
"we need to focus on kitchen-table issues"
hey wtf are you talking about at your kitchen table, if not the military being deployed to your cities and your family members being kidnapped by ICE and the genocide in Gaza going on two years and states maneuvering to make elections less democratic and
hey wtf are you talking about at your kitchen table, if not the military being deployed to your cities and your family members being kidnapped by ICE and the genocide in Gaza going on two years and states maneuvering to make elections less democratic and
August 25, 2025 at 5:31 PM
"we need to focus on kitchen-table issues"
hey wtf are you talking about at your kitchen table, if not the military being deployed to your cities and your family members being kidnapped by ICE and the genocide in Gaza going on two years and states maneuvering to make elections less democratic and
hey wtf are you talking about at your kitchen table, if not the military being deployed to your cities and your family members being kidnapped by ICE and the genocide in Gaza going on two years and states maneuvering to make elections less democratic and
Rewatching season 2 of The Bear and it's really making me crave having a partner and creative pursuit that I'm neck deep in.
August 21, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Rewatching season 2 of The Bear and it's really making me crave having a partner and creative pursuit that I'm neck deep in.
Reposted by Jen Borkowski
It's not a career. It's not a calling. It's a terminal hobby. You will die doing this. Become a writer.
August 20, 2025 at 1:00 AM
It's not a career. It's not a calling. It's a terminal hobby. You will die doing this. Become a writer.
It's bourbon and peach slices for me tonight as I fact check a couple lines in a poem I might submit.
~50 hours until this next call!
@megannn-lynne.bsky.social wants your list(poem)s!
Call opens Sunday, August 3rd, 11am, EST.
Capped at 150 submissions.
(sub call in image/alt text/replies)
@megannn-lynne.bsky.social wants your list(poem)s!
Call opens Sunday, August 3rd, 11am, EST.
Capped at 150 submissions.
(sub call in image/alt text/replies)
August 2, 2025 at 1:36 AM
It's bourbon and peach slices for me tonight as I fact check a couple lines in a poem I might submit.
Lavender dressing might be my favorite discovery of the summer. // Other small joys: fruit and herb salads, a surprisingly pleasant black bean dip with fresh oregano, finally figuring out how to make decent quinoa, watching the watermelon grow.
July 30, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Lavender dressing might be my favorite discovery of the summer. // Other small joys: fruit and herb salads, a surprisingly pleasant black bean dip with fresh oregano, finally figuring out how to make decent quinoa, watching the watermelon grow.
Been spending the summer working through various backlogs and honestly—once you can tell that you're making real progress—it's not a bad way to spend a summer.
July 28, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Been spending the summer working through various backlogs and honestly—once you can tell that you're making real progress—it's not a bad way to spend a summer.
Looking through a pile of old poem-a-day drafts, I think maybe I've been slowly writing something along the lines of Apocalypse at Tinker Creek: suburban pastoral shot through with foreboding. All snow and trees and deer, and a wordless dread that I swallow rather than speak.
July 22, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Looking through a pile of old poem-a-day drafts, I think maybe I've been slowly writing something along the lines of Apocalypse at Tinker Creek: suburban pastoral shot through with foreboding. All snow and trees and deer, and a wordless dread that I swallow rather than speak.
Reposted by Jen Borkowski
Place your ladder on a firm, flat surface and always have a spotter!
June 25, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Place your ladder on a firm, flat surface and always have a spotter!
Further things that have made this week survivable: The most deeply green basil I have ever grown. Abundant oregano and mint. Watching a fawn have the zoomies in my backyard, heat be damned.
June 25, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Further things that have made this week survivable: The most deeply green basil I have ever grown. Abundant oregano and mint. Watching a fawn have the zoomies in my backyard, heat be damned.
Grateful for the @ofpoetrypodcast.bsky.social back catalog today for introducing me to Tom Snarsky and Carla Sofia Ferreira, and for reminding me to be a writer again after too much time away from that version of myself.
Episode 4: Carla Sofia Ferreira (Of Newark, Eurydice, and Cherry Blossoms)
Carla Sofia Ferreira, author of Ironbound Fados (Ghost City Press, 2019) Listen: On Apple, Spotify, and Elsewhere Read: Carla’s Chapbook Ironbound Fados and her craft chap Eat a Persimmon Car…
ofpoetrypodcast.com
June 25, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Grateful for the @ofpoetrypodcast.bsky.social back catalog today for introducing me to Tom Snarsky and Carla Sofia Ferreira, and for reminding me to be a writer again after too much time away from that version of myself.
Reposted by Jen Borkowski
new little post up on the personal site™️ about how there can and should be joy in alt text :)
bryn.codes/writing/the-...
bryn.codes/writing/the-...
Finding the Joy in Alt Text | Bryn Newell
Finding the Joy in Alt Text | by Bryn Newell
bryn.codes
May 14, 2025 at 1:42 PM
new little post up on the personal site™️ about how there can and should be joy in alt text :)
bryn.codes/writing/the-...
bryn.codes/writing/the-...