Joseph Fasano
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josephfasano.bsky.social
Joseph Fasano
@josephfasano.bsky.social
18K followers 290 following 1.2K posts
Writer, Teacher | helping people write and be heard | Founder, Fasano Academy, educating the whole human being
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Joseph Fasano @josephfasano.bsky.social ยท Dec 3
I will never, ever get over this.
josephfasano.bsky.social
Thank you for being open to these words and witnessing what's happening in our world.
February 4, 2026 at 3:31 PM
josephfasano.bsky.social
My heart breaks for the children who get no justice in this world.
February 4, 2026 at 3:03 PM
josephfasano.bsky.social
"as long as love / runs, it is earthsong"

(originally published by The Missouri Review)
Coda Now my father is departing into the valley where his mares are. Alone, he lets his hands drift over the deep chords in their bodies, closing his blind eyes to that music. The wind wades in dark boots from the orchard, steadying his shoulder through his hard time. ย  Now he is listening for beginning. Now he is lying among that sinew, asking, as a boy would, where his song goes. ย  But he knows, he knows, he knows. He knows as long as love runs, it is earthsong; it is wild to be ridden in its irons to another world. Another world. This one. โ€”Joseph Fasano
February 4, 2026 at 2:16 PM
josephfasano.bsky.social
I wrote this when I was in a very rough place, and I'll leave it here for anyone who may need to hear it.

โค๏ธ
Joseph
February 4, 2026 at 12:16 AM
josephfasano.bsky.social
"Penelope and Odysseus," a poem from The Last Song of the World (BOA Editions):
February 3, 2026 at 5:33 PM
josephfasano.bsky.social
I'm grateful to @oneart.bsky.social for publishing these words of mine, especially at this moment when voices are being silenced.
February 3, 2026 at 2:46 PM
josephfasano.bsky.social
โค๏ธ๐Ÿ™๐Ÿผ
February 1, 2026 at 9:56 PM
josephfasano.bsky.social
This is the most beautiful thing. Thank you for doing the work you do.
February 1, 2026 at 9:56 PM
josephfasano.bsky.social
If you're out there writing poemsโ€”in a shadowy room, on the night shift, between your child's naps, hiding in your car, anywhereโ€”you're keeping the human soul alive. You're doing the work we all need. And I absolutely love you.
February 1, 2026 at 9:49 PM
josephfasano.bsky.social
I think we can change it, but I also need to hear this voice sometimes.
February 1, 2026 at 8:49 PM
josephfasano.bsky.social
There are so many ways of being despicable it quite makes oneโ€™s head spin. But the way to be really despicable is to be contemptuous of other peopleโ€™s pain.

โ€”James Baldwin
February 1, 2026 at 8:44 PM
josephfasano.bsky.social
The ending is a nod to Neruda's beautiful words about the Spring. ๐Ÿ–ค
February 1, 2026 at 7:06 PM
josephfasano.bsky.social
For Renee Good

"We haven't forgotten youโ€”
not the blood, not the plushies
in the glove box, not the voice
that called out like ours..."
For Renee Good We haven't forgotten youโ€” not the blood, not the plushies in the glove box, not the voice that called out like ours, the poems left unfinished that winter. We haven't forgotten what a poet is. Not you, not Hughes, not Dickinson, not Whitman as he knelt over the soldiers, whispering his verses as surgeons worked. We haven't forgotten Death is strong. Breath-friend, who could sing us through this winter? Whitman? Bishop? Dickinson? And when the bullets began in their madness, did you, too, hear America singing? Did you open, and stay open, in a brutal place, enough to hear the music moving through you, the battle cry, the mother's cry of a country, the singing that is everyone's, and endless, and that says that the powerless have power, and the earth is words, and the spring is more than flowers? They can kill the singers but they cannot kill the song. They can kill the singers but they cannot kill the song. โ€”Joseph Fasano
February 1, 2026 at 7:03 PM
josephfasano.bsky.social
Every. Single. Word. Of. This.

Charlie Chaplin in 1940 is *exactly* what we should have the courage to say in 2026.
January 29, 2026 at 1:00 AM
josephfasano.bsky.social
The teachings of Jesus have nothing to do with those who wear his crucifix during White House press briefings.

To prove how radical and unpopular he was, imagine what you'd never hear at those briefings:

"Love one another."

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
January 28, 2026 at 9:50 PM
josephfasano.bsky.social
In a world where too many are staying silent, Bruce Springsteen used his gift to do this. Listen to this song.
brucespringsteen.net Bruce Springsteen @brucespringsteen.net ยท 7d
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. Itโ€™s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
youtu.be
January 28, 2026 at 8:51 PM
Reposted by Joseph Fasano
josephfasano.bsky.social
for Alex Pretti
For Alex Pretti Because his last words were for a woman; because he asked, are you okay, are you okay; because he had learned to say it by standing each night beside the dying; because sometimes he held their hands; because he had lived only as long as the scent of childhood in an album; because he was a son; because he sang once; because of all of it, because of all of it, because of all of it, tell it, tell the story: a breath has left; a country is dying; and a man laid his face on its pavement today as though he were listening to a patient's heartโ€” even then, even at the endingโ€” to do what he was there to do: heal. โ€”Joseph Fasano
January 26, 2026 at 4:57 AM
josephfasano.bsky.social
The pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was murdered by the Nazis for resisting their tyranny.

Shortly before his execution, he wrote these words:
January 27, 2026 at 8:14 PM
josephfasano.bsky.social
for Alex Pretti
For Alex Pretti Because his last words were for a woman; because he asked, are you okay, are you okay; because he had learned to say it by standing each night beside the dying; because sometimes he held their hands; because he had lived only as long as the scent of childhood in an album; because he was a son; because he sang once; because of all of it, because of all of it, because of all of it, tell it, tell the story: a breath has left; a country is dying; and a man laid his face on its pavement today as though he were listening to a patient's heartโ€” even then, even at the endingโ€” to do what he was there to do: heal. โ€”Joseph Fasano
January 26, 2026 at 4:57 AM
josephfasano.bsky.social
We forgot / that we could listen.
Words Left by Humanity in the Ruins after Heaney Sometimes we gave water to our neighbors. Sometimes we didnโ€™t hunt each other. Sometimes our fathers weren't dragged out back and told to kiss their land that would be ashes. Sometimes there was bread and milk on the tables and sometimes, sometimes we remembered every mother was every child's mother; every child was every mother's child. Sometimes there were hearts that we could hear. Listen. We forgot that we could listen. Sometimes, when the fires died, it was dark enough; we walked out and we looked up and we saw it: the starlight, the great fires that had made us. Winter, and our children still had wonder. Sometimes there was moonlight; there was music. Sometimes no one lay in any ruins with seven braids in her half-done hair: a braid for every year sheโ€™d had. A braid for every year. โ€”Joseph Fasano
January 25, 2026 at 2:49 PM
josephfasano.bsky.social
๐Ÿ™๐Ÿผ
January 13, 2026 at 4:14 PM
josephfasano.bsky.social
for everyone feeling exhausted
January 13, 2026 at 4:04 PM
josephfasano.bsky.social
Why is this our world?
January 13, 2026 at 3:57 PM
josephfasano.bsky.social
If you'd like to purchase my new course, The Craft and Magic of Poetry, email me at joseph.fasano@gmail.com.
January 13, 2026 at 3:43 PM
josephfasano.bsky.social
I love this.
January 11, 2026 at 8:31 PM