Jude Hopkins
@heyjudenotjudy.bsky.social
My novel "Babe in the Woods" available. Essays in Los Angeles Times, Women Writers, Women's Books, other places, other times.
http://judehopkinswriting.net
http://judehopkinswriting.net
"The [Xmas display] window was art, all its sensory charms intact, art constructed of equal parts color and texture, sight and invitation to touch—wonderment, imagination, order, longing, and intense, fondly remembered pleasure. Take away the glass wall, the mystery vanishes."
#SundaySentence
#SundaySentence
December 21, 2025 at 3:32 PM
"The [Xmas display] window was art, all its sensory charms intact, art constructed of equal parts color and texture, sight and invitation to touch—wonderment, imagination, order, longing, and intense, fondly remembered pleasure. Take away the glass wall, the mystery vanishes."
#SundaySentence
#SundaySentence
Winter Solstice.
December 21, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Winter Solstice.
"How innocently life ate the days" — John Updike, "Couples"
December 12, 2025 at 12:16 PM
"How innocently life ate the days" — John Updike, "Couples"
It's all about the boundaries (personal and otherwise) in Sylvia Plath's poem "Spinster," in which she writes of the order and control of winter — "heart's frost discipline / Exact as a snowflake," as contrasted with spring's "rank wilderness of fern and flower." #metaphors
December 10, 2025 at 1:11 PM
It's all about the boundaries (personal and otherwise) in Sylvia Plath's poem "Spinster," in which she writes of the order and control of winter — "heart's frost discipline / Exact as a snowflake," as contrasted with spring's "rank wilderness of fern and flower." #metaphors
I am thrilled to see my poem "Stargazer" in the just-released issue of Constellations.
December 5, 2025 at 5:59 PM
I am thrilled to see my poem "Stargazer" in the just-released issue of Constellations.
In the excerpt from the Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem below, Norman H. MacKenzie notes that "just as Mary embraced and nurtured Christ, so does the air nestle every hair and snowflake, nourishing even the least significant living creature."
Feed your spirit. Don't let You-Know-Who drag you down.
Feed your spirit. Don't let You-Know-Who drag you down.
December 5, 2025 at 1:32 PM
In the excerpt from the Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem below, Norman H. MacKenzie notes that "just as Mary embraced and nurtured Christ, so does the air nestle every hair and snowflake, nourishing even the least significant living creature."
Feed your spirit. Don't let You-Know-Who drag you down.
Feed your spirit. Don't let You-Know-Who drag you down.
Poet Elinor Wylie reminds us that snow doesn't always mean storms and destruction.
December 3, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Poet Elinor Wylie reminds us that snow doesn't always mean storms and destruction.
If for no other reason, the use of "pavane" to describe the falling of snowflakes, "half lured to heaven yet."
December 1, 2025 at 2:21 PM
If for no other reason, the use of "pavane" to describe the falling of snowflakes, "half lured to heaven yet."
"Save the gerund and screw the whale" — Tom Stoppard, "The Real Thing"
(July 3, 1937 - November 29, 2025)
#SundaySentence
(July 3, 1937 - November 29, 2025)
#SundaySentence
November 30, 2025 at 10:21 AM
"Save the gerund and screw the whale" — Tom Stoppard, "The Real Thing"
(July 3, 1937 - November 29, 2025)
#SundaySentence
(July 3, 1937 - November 29, 2025)
#SundaySentence
Leave it to John Updike to express the after-holiday ennui when the anticipation has dissipated, and reality sets in, "when marriages closed in on themselves like flowers from which the sun is withdrawn."
November 28, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Leave it to John Updike to express the after-holiday ennui when the anticipation has dissipated, and reality sets in, "when marriages closed in on themselves like flowers from which the sun is withdrawn."
Here's a beautiful Thanksgiving Day poem by the great Sharon Olds to help you forget that turkey in Mar-a-Lago.
November 27, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Here's a beautiful Thanksgiving Day poem by the great Sharon Olds to help you forget that turkey in Mar-a-Lago.
"Life is all conjunctions, one damn thing after another, cows and wars and chewing gum and mountains; art—the best, most important art—is all subordination: guilt because of sin because of pain" — John Gardner, "On Moral Fiction"
#SundaySentence
#SundaySentence
November 16, 2025 at 12:54 PM
"Life is all conjunctions, one damn thing after another, cows and wars and chewing gum and mountains; art—the best, most important art—is all subordination: guilt because of sin because of pain" — John Gardner, "On Moral Fiction"
#SundaySentence
#SundaySentence
John Updike wrote stand-alone poetry in addition to that intertwining his prose. Here is his tribute to a Bendix, the first automatic home washing machine. And I love his use of the word "jugged" meaning imprisoned, with an overtone of a rabbit stewed or boiled in a covered pot.
November 15, 2025 at 3:27 PM
John Updike wrote stand-alone poetry in addition to that intertwining his prose. Here is his tribute to a Bendix, the first automatic home washing machine. And I love his use of the word "jugged" meaning imprisoned, with an overtone of a rabbit stewed or boiled in a covered pot.
Such a tribute to the life force. Things move, like Wordsworth's Lucy, "roll’d round in earth’s diurnal course, with rocks, and stones, and trees." Sometimes they even breathe.
November 11, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Such a tribute to the life force. Things move, like Wordsworth's Lucy, "roll’d round in earth’s diurnal course, with rocks, and stones, and trees." Sometimes they even breathe.
"There were some things that had to come in time if they were to come at all. If they didn't come in time, they were lost forever ... live all you can; it's a mistake not to." — Henry James, "The Ambassadors"
November 9, 2025 at 5:59 PM
"There were some things that had to come in time if they were to come at all. If they didn't come in time, they were lost forever ... live all you can; it's a mistake not to." — Henry James, "The Ambassadors"
I wonder how many people at Trump's ostentatious Gatsby party over the weekend had actually read "The Great Gatsby"?
I know of at least one who hasn't (upper right corner).
I know of at least one who hasn't (upper right corner).
November 3, 2025 at 4:44 PM
I wonder how many people at Trump's ostentatious Gatsby party over the weekend had actually read "The Great Gatsby"?
I know of at least one who hasn't (upper right corner).
I know of at least one who hasn't (upper right corner).
At long last the month of November, where my book, "Babe in the Woods," is featured in my publisher's calendar.
November 1, 2025 at 2:01 PM
At long last the month of November, where my book, "Babe in the Woods," is featured in my publisher's calendar.
"When spring comes / we promise to act/ the fool" — from Rita Dove's magnificent "November for Beginners."
I used to see Ms. Dove at Arizona State University when she was a creative writing professor and I an adjunct.
I used to see Ms. Dove at Arizona State University when she was a creative writing professor and I an adjunct.
November 1, 2025 at 11:58 AM
"When spring comes / we promise to act/ the fool" — from Rita Dove's magnificent "November for Beginners."
I used to see Ms. Dove at Arizona State University when she was a creative writing professor and I an adjunct.
I used to see Ms. Dove at Arizona State University when she was a creative writing professor and I an adjunct.
Today is John Keats's birthday. As the incomparable Helen Vendler has written in reference to Keats's "Ode to Autumn,"
"[Therein] the work of creation...is illimitable: there are always more boughs to bless, more honeycombs to fill, more flowers to be brought to bud." #JohnKeats
"[Therein] the work of creation...is illimitable: there are always more boughs to bless, more honeycombs to fill, more flowers to be brought to bud." #JohnKeats
October 31, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Today is John Keats's birthday. As the incomparable Helen Vendler has written in reference to Keats's "Ode to Autumn,"
"[Therein] the work of creation...is illimitable: there are always more boughs to bless, more honeycombs to fill, more flowers to be brought to bud." #JohnKeats
"[Therein] the work of creation...is illimitable: there are always more boughs to bless, more honeycombs to fill, more flowers to be brought to bud." #JohnKeats
National Chocolate Day is actually tomorrow, but in these crazy times, let's start celebrating a day early.
Here's a poem by Barbara Crooker extolling the wonders of such a divine confection.
"Chocolate stays up late and gambles, / likes roulette. Always bets / on the noir."
Here's a poem by Barbara Crooker extolling the wonders of such a divine confection.
"Chocolate stays up late and gambles, / likes roulette. Always bets / on the noir."
October 27, 2025 at 12:23 PM
National Chocolate Day is actually tomorrow, but in these crazy times, let's start celebrating a day early.
Here's a poem by Barbara Crooker extolling the wonders of such a divine confection.
"Chocolate stays up late and gambles, / likes roulette. Always bets / on the noir."
Here's a poem by Barbara Crooker extolling the wonders of such a divine confection.
"Chocolate stays up late and gambles, / likes roulette. Always bets / on the noir."
I'm taking a break from the weekly participation in the best sentence I've read all week and celebrated on Sundays online.
Why? I read a lot—and deeply—but sometimes I don't come across a sentence that is both substantive and stylish, which I feel should be the basis for selecting it.
Why? I read a lot—and deeply—but sometimes I don't come across a sentence that is both substantive and stylish, which I feel should be the basis for selecting it.
October 26, 2025 at 12:17 PM
I'm taking a break from the weekly participation in the best sentence I've read all week and celebrated on Sundays online.
Why? I read a lot—and deeply—but sometimes I don't come across a sentence that is both substantive and stylish, which I feel should be the basis for selecting it.
Why? I read a lot—and deeply—but sometimes I don't come across a sentence that is both substantive and stylish, which I feel should be the basis for selecting it.
In the poem "Binsey Poplars," G.M. Hopkins bemoans the thoughtless cutting down of a row of aspen trees that were beautiful to him. The sentiment is the same in a more-recent event in which something beautiful was heedlessly demolished: "O if we but knew what we do
When we delve or hew."
When we delve or hew."
October 24, 2025 at 11:18 AM
In the poem "Binsey Poplars," G.M. Hopkins bemoans the thoughtless cutting down of a row of aspen trees that were beautiful to him. The sentiment is the same in a more-recent event in which something beautiful was heedlessly demolished: "O if we but knew what we do
When we delve or hew."
When we delve or hew."
Trump was required to get permission from the National Capital Planning Commission, which approves construction work and major renovations to government buildings in the Washington area, before gutting the East Wing of the White House for the ballroom, NPR said. And, he did not. Because he is king.
October 21, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Trump was required to get permission from the National Capital Planning Commission, which approves construction work and major renovations to government buildings in the Washington area, before gutting the East Wing of the White House for the ballroom, NPR said. And, he did not. Because he is king.
Jackson reminds us that "the summer, pale, / Steals back alone for one more song and dance."
And those performances are numbered.
And those performances are numbered.
October 12, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Jackson reminds us that "the summer, pale, / Steals back alone for one more song and dance."
And those performances are numbered.
And those performances are numbered.
Just some searing images from T.E. Hulme to keep you believing.
October 8, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Just some searing images from T.E. Hulme to keep you believing.