Chiara Di Lello
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chiaradilello.bsky.social
Chiara Di Lello
@chiaradilello.bsky.social
For if it is rash to walk into a lion's den unarmed, rash to navigate the Atlantic in a rowing boat, rash to stand on one foot on top of St. Paul's, it is still more rash to go home alone with a poet. A poet is Atlantic and lion in one. (Woolf)
Look what my Mama got me for my birthday! Eeee!
November 11, 2025 at 4:18 PM
I picked this book back up last week and just got through the chapter about community clinics during the Crisis / austerity measures in Greece ca. 2008.

Thinking about the systems we need to be building *now* to take care of each other and meet our own needs. Begin somewhere, just begin.
November 10, 2025 at 1:27 AM
📢 ANNOUNCEMENT TIME:
We're less than three months away from pub day for my debut chapbook, CHILDLESS MILLENNIAL.

Tell your friends, your English teacher, and of course all your favorite non-biological aunties.

📚 Pre-order details coming soooon

Brought to you by @gameoverbooks.bsky.social 🕹
November 9, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Today's my birthday so I climbed the local mountain with my dog. I'm grateful for the past year in so many ways. Grateful to have reached this age. Grateful to be able to get up today & decide yeah, okay, let's go climb a mountain. 🧡🍂🍁
November 7, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Good morning! Tomorrow is my birthday, and in the runup I have been doing a "fuck ICE, free Palestine" bday fundraiser. 3 weeks in, we are close to $2,500! I'm inviting folks on here to chip in if you can -- the cost of a nice coffee or your last takeout order. (Info on recipients in next post)
November 6, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Poets! Show me your favorite poetry book *cover* and tell me why it's great for that collection of poems.

My example: Emilia Phillip's EMBOUCHURE. This collage perfectly matches the book's cheeky, queer, joyful takedown of toxic masculinity.
October 27, 2025 at 1:02 AM
I have a... not small amount of woodcarving to do for tomorrow's local printmaking festival. Rec me some full albums to listen to while I work?

Been listening to many The Police albums, & today it's Janelle Monae. So...eclectic. Introduce me to something new!
October 17, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Every genAI booster in 2025:
October 7, 2025 at 4:05 PM
After school poetry class for 4th and 5th graders starts today. Hoping this lends some light amid all the terrible.

At the last second I pulled down the book of poems by my first ever 4th grade class and omg if my heart isn't melting.
October 6, 2025 at 6:48 PM
--> (see quote.) If art has helped me feel more alive, then let my responsibility be to help others feel more alive (through art or any other means), & to turn this aliveness I'm grateful to access towards our collective thriving. (fin)

(also ty @guante.info for inspiring a little Sunday musing 🙏🏻)
October 5, 2025 at 4:34 PM
--> I supposed I'm mostly paraphrasing Howard Thurman (had to go look up the quote as it floated around my brain), just adding on the idea that ONCE people come alive, it's our responsibility to turn our aliveness toward some part(s) of the struggle for justice... & now I'm thinking of Morrison. -->
October 5, 2025 at 4:26 PM
There is so much to say about this essay but if you only read one part, read THESE MFing STATISTICS and marvel that any of us ever measured ourselves against this absolute circlejerk farce.
September 30, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Just finishing my coffee and reading this beautiful @janezwart.bsky.social poem that got nominated for Best of the Net. Love that it's "about" our commonplace phrases, but these neat lil' jigsawing stanzas cover a deep emotional core. So good!
@sundresspub.bsky.social @psalteryandlyre.bsky.social
September 30, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Update: I'm still mad about this, so I wrote a letter using MY OWN BRAIN to express MY OWN OPINION.

Today, urging a local org NOT to encourage uncritical AI use counts as writing.
September 25, 2025 at 3:47 PM
ok someone else said met gala but specifically: paging Billy Porter!
September 24, 2025 at 5:12 PM
So, Hudson Valley Writers Center wants ppl to pay for a poetry class about "the ethics of AI" in which they will "experiment with" writing poems USING AI.

This is aimed at HIGH SCHOOL English teachers.

Do they see how insulting this is to everyone involved? Line this man's pockets to peddle slop?
September 18, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Fuck me up, Mary Ruefle!
September 17, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Kinda how being a human feels today. (From Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
September 14, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Not sure I even know about the blog posts. This is what I remember
September 6, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Can't remember HOW this ended up on my tbr (library hold took ages to come in) but now I'm reading it and I definitely understand WHY it was on the list. Damn.
September 2, 2025 at 9:48 PM
It's September 1 - perfect day to read "September 1, 1939" by Auden. A poem that just keeps on being so necessary.
Do yourself a favor and read the whole thing.
Be one of the ones to "show an affirming flame."
poets.org/poem/septemb...
September 1, 2025 at 6:50 PM
A bit of mis-translation that sums up this time of year quite nicely ⚠️🍂
August 31, 2025 at 2:07 AM
I and the fur-child would like to inform you all that we are just ✨️five months from pub day✨️ for CHILDLESS MILLENNIAL. Can't wait to share these poems with you!
@gameoverbooks.bsky.social
August 27, 2025 at 2:31 PM
I went vintage for today's #sealeychallenge read. Rich has the perfect description of this time of year, embedded in a poem searching for 19th-c foremothers in histories of suffragists.

To be fair, the sunflowers in my neighborhood are definitely in all caps right now too. 💛🌻
August 25, 2025 at 12:55 AM
In Leo Leonni's Frederick, the titular poet mouse gathers experience and sensations while his mice-fellows gather food for winter.

I'm entering my Frederick days of the year.
August 24, 2025 at 3:27 PM