Cortney Lamar Charleston
@bardsbesidebars.bsky.social
Poet & Author
• TELEPATHOLOGIES (Saturnalia Books, 2017);
• DOPPELGANGBANGER (Haymarket Books, 2021);
• IT'S IMPORTANT I REMEMBER (Northwestern Univ. Press, 2026)
https://www.cortneylamarcharleston.com/important-links
• TELEPATHOLOGIES (Saturnalia Books, 2017);
• DOPPELGANGBANGER (Haymarket Books, 2021);
• IT'S IMPORTANT I REMEMBER (Northwestern Univ. Press, 2026)
https://www.cortneylamarcharleston.com/important-links
Pinned
Poets! For the first time ever, I'm available for consultations on your full-length and chapbook manuscripts, as well as assorted packets. You can find details around services and pricing at the link in my bio. I look forward to working with you and delighting in your poems!
I need more folks to consciously accept that aiding and abetting genocide with our money and arms made safeguarding democracy exceedingly more difficult than it already is.
October 25, 2025 at 8:02 PM
I need more folks to consciously accept that aiding and abetting genocide with our money and arms made safeguarding democracy exceedingly more difficult than it already is.
You know, this makes me realize I can’t recall the last time I heard any of these so-called leaders refer to themselves as “public servants”
Politicians and political appointees are people who have signed up to have their political choices publicly and critically analyzed BECAUSE THEY ARE EXERCISING POWER OVER PEOPLE 🤷🏽♀️
October 21, 2025 at 3:45 PM
You know, this makes me realize I can’t recall the last time I heard any of these so-called leaders refer to themselves as “public servants”
Tomorrow night at The New School in NYC. Come join us!
October 7, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Tomorrow night at The New School in NYC. Come join us!
Oh wow, a powerful man being held to account for breaking the law. Wild concept. Imagine we adopted that here in this country.
BREAKING
Jair Bolsonaro, the former President of Brazil, has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison.
Jair Bolsonaro, the former President of Brazil, has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison.
September 11, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Oh wow, a powerful man being held to account for breaking the law. Wild concept. Imagine we adopted that here in this country.
I lack trust and confidence in anyone who says “fascism” here and now in the US, but couldn’t say “genocide” then and there about Gaza, or can’t say it now.
September 1, 2025 at 6:49 PM
I lack trust and confidence in anyone who says “fascism” here and now in the US, but couldn’t say “genocide” then and there about Gaza, or can’t say it now.
If you want to kill the truth, you kill the truth tellers. That’s what they’ve been doing, are doing, will do. With our weapons and approval.
August 11, 2025 at 5:43 PM
If you want to kill the truth, you kill the truth tellers. That’s what they’ve been doing, are doing, will do. With our weapons and approval.
Reposted by Cortney Lamar Charleston
This is correct and it's why public opinion doesn't actually do anything on its own. It has to be mobilized. You have to DO politics.
My sense of things has always been that most people do not have strong, deeply felt opinions on a lot of policy issues, and so their opinions can change fairly quickly depending on what’s in the news.
Why do people's opinions on a single issue change with the direction of the wind?
July 11, 2025 at 1:16 PM
This is correct and it's why public opinion doesn't actually do anything on its own. It has to be mobilized. You have to DO politics.
You don’t get spared just because you don’t pay attention to it. In fact, inattention is how you guarantee it.
July 3, 2025 at 1:28 PM
You don’t get spared just because you don’t pay attention to it. In fact, inattention is how you guarantee it.
Hope is on the menu in New York City
June 25, 2025 at 3:33 AM
Hope is on the menu in New York City
I'm elated to share the cover for my next poetry collection, It's Important I Remember, due out 2/15/2026 from Northwestern University Press and now available to pre-order. I pray that these words move you; may they be part of a movement toward one another and away from tyranny.
May 7, 2025 at 6:04 PM
I'm elated to share the cover for my next poetry collection, It's Important I Remember, due out 2/15/2026 from Northwestern University Press and now available to pre-order. I pray that these words move you; may they be part of a movement toward one another and away from tyranny.
Poets! For the first time ever, I'm available for consultations on your full-length and chapbook manuscripts, as well as assorted packets. You can find details around services and pricing at the link in my bio. I look forward to working with you and delighting in your poems!
April 2, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Poets! For the first time ever, I'm available for consultations on your full-length and chapbook manuscripts, as well as assorted packets. You can find details around services and pricing at the link in my bio. I look forward to working with you and delighting in your poems!
I'm kicking off National Poetry Month at the Academy of American Poets' Poem-A-Day series! You can read my new poem, "Magnitude and Bond," at the link below. Special thanks goes to Willie Perdomo for making space for me and these words this month.
poets.org/poem/magnitu...
poets.org/poem/magnitu...
Magnitude and Bond
that which is betwixt us of the lampooned lips and noses
poets.org
April 1, 2025 at 5:26 PM
I'm kicking off National Poetry Month at the Academy of American Poets' Poem-A-Day series! You can read my new poem, "Magnitude and Bond," at the link below. Special thanks goes to Willie Perdomo for making space for me and these words this month.
poets.org/poem/magnitu...
poets.org/poem/magnitu...
Barely lol
How are y’all handling your anger?
March 21, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Barely lol
Poetry is what you find
in the dirt in the corner,
overhear on the bus, God
in the details, the only way
to get from here to there.
—Elizabeth Alexander, “Ars Poetica #100: I Believe”
in the dirt in the corner,
overhear on the bus, God
in the details, the only way
to get from here to there.
—Elizabeth Alexander, “Ars Poetica #100: I Believe”
March 13, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Poetry is what you find
in the dirt in the corner,
overhear on the bus, God
in the details, the only way
to get from here to there.
—Elizabeth Alexander, “Ars Poetica #100: I Believe”
in the dirt in the corner,
overhear on the bus, God
in the details, the only way
to get from here to there.
—Elizabeth Alexander, “Ars Poetica #100: I Believe”
Critiques of capitalism aside for a moment, we should ask why a man of such demonstrable greed is willing to lead a "transition" where the equities markets are driven into the ground and prices on working people are shot to the moon. None of the possible answers are good news.
March 10, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Critiques of capitalism aside for a moment, we should ask why a man of such demonstrable greed is willing to lead a "transition" where the equities markets are driven into the ground and prices on working people are shot to the moon. None of the possible answers are good news.
Reposted by Cortney Lamar Charleston
NEW: The actions of Trump and Vance in recent weeks highlight something under-appreciated.
The American right is now ideologically closer to countries like Russia, Turkey and in some senses China, than to the rest of the west (even the conservative west).
My column: www.ft.com/content/3046...
The American right is now ideologically closer to countries like Russia, Turkey and in some senses China, than to the rest of the west (even the conservative west).
My column: www.ft.com/content/3046...
March 7, 2025 at 9:58 AM
NEW: The actions of Trump and Vance in recent weeks highlight something under-appreciated.
The American right is now ideologically closer to countries like Russia, Turkey and in some senses China, than to the rest of the west (even the conservative west).
My column: www.ft.com/content/3046...
The American right is now ideologically closer to countries like Russia, Turkey and in some senses China, than to the rest of the west (even the conservative west).
My column: www.ft.com/content/3046...
Whomever is advising the Democrats is on the other team.
Whomever is advising the Democrats right now is criminally bad at their job. The notion that they can meme their way out of fascism is truly incredible.
March 6, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Whomever is advising the Democrats is on the other team.
Stripping away your healthcare. Going to gut Social Security. Destroying the value of your retirement accounts. And you're clapping for it like a seal because you hate people even more than you love yourself. Couldn't be me.
March 4, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Stripping away your healthcare. Going to gut Social Security. Destroying the value of your retirement accounts. And you're clapping for it like a seal because you hate people even more than you love yourself. Couldn't be me.
John Cena turned heel. We’re in uncharted waters as a people.
March 2, 2025 at 4:17 AM
John Cena turned heel. We’re in uncharted waters as a people.
Reposted by Cortney Lamar Charleston
In occupied France, people would drop their used matches folded into a V, as a secret sign of resistance. People who opposed the Nazis would see them, knew they weren't alone, & felt emboldened to take action.
Some modern day equivalents here--small but powerful actions you can absolutely do:
Some modern day equivalents here--small but powerful actions you can absolutely do:
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions you can take right now which probably won't magically catalyze a mass movement against Trump but that are still wildly important
Why? Because others will see you do them, and it will make it easier for them to take their own (slightly less lonely but equally beautiful) action by your side
thewhitepages.net
February 25, 2025 at 3:21 AM
In occupied France, people would drop their used matches folded into a V, as a secret sign of resistance. People who opposed the Nazis would see them, knew they weren't alone, & felt emboldened to take action.
Some modern day equivalents here--small but powerful actions you can absolutely do:
Some modern day equivalents here--small but powerful actions you can absolutely do:
Thinking about Brother Malcolm today.
February 21, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Thinking about Brother Malcolm today.
More than any other quality, what defines broad swaths of my fellow Americans is not apathy, but dishonesty: intellectual dishonesty; emotional dishonesty; spiritual dishonesty. Dishonesty about what we’ve done, about what we’re doing, about what we’re going to do as a people.
February 21, 2025 at 5:57 PM
More than any other quality, what defines broad swaths of my fellow Americans is not apathy, but dishonesty: intellectual dishonesty; emotional dishonesty; spiritual dishonesty. Dishonesty about what we’ve done, about what we’re doing, about what we’re going to do as a people.
I'm not doom-scrolling. I'm writing sonnets about what I see.
February 18, 2025 at 10:15 PM
I'm not doom-scrolling. I'm writing sonnets about what I see.
Some of my favorite love poems of all time (and I'm sure I'm not alone on these):
"Object Permanence" by Nicole Sealey
"Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem" by Matthew Olzmann
"Love Poem Beginning with a Yellow Cab" by @joseolivarez.bsky.social
"Object Permanence" by Nicole Sealey
"Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem" by Matthew Olzmann
"Love Poem Beginning with a Yellow Cab" by @joseolivarez.bsky.social
February 14, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Some of my favorite love poems of all time (and I'm sure I'm not alone on these):
"Object Permanence" by Nicole Sealey
"Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem" by Matthew Olzmann
"Love Poem Beginning with a Yellow Cab" by @joseolivarez.bsky.social
"Object Permanence" by Nicole Sealey
"Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem" by Matthew Olzmann
"Love Poem Beginning with a Yellow Cab" by @joseolivarez.bsky.social