Julia Bouwsma
@juliabouwsma.bsky.social
Poet + Farmer + Librarian + Editor + Teacher + Maine Poet Laureate
DEATH FLUORESCENCE (Sundress Publications, forthcoming June 2025), MIDDEN (Fordham University Press, 2018), WORK BY BLOODLIGHT (Cider Press Review, 2017)
DEATH FLUORESCENCE (Sundress Publications, forthcoming June 2025), MIDDEN (Fordham University Press, 2018), WORK BY BLOODLIGHT (Cider Press Review, 2017)
Reposted by Julia Bouwsma
Read the full poem + subscribe: ecotonemagazine.org/poetry/bless...
@juliabouwsma.bsky.social
#Ecotone #TheMoonIssue #LitMagLove
Blessing for the End Times - Ecotone
We can’t stop counting backwards & why not? Tonight’s moon, blood- blistering her eclipse as our necks crane star-ward, should be answer enough.
ecotonemagazine.org
July 11, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Read the full poem + subscribe: ecotonemagazine.org/poetry/bless...
@juliabouwsma.bsky.social
#Ecotone #TheMoonIssue #LitMagLove
Reposted by Julia Bouwsma
Old North Church in Boston last night on the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere's ride.
April 18, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Old North Church in Boston last night on the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere's ride.
I’ll be reading Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride” at the Maine State House tomorrow.
“In the hour of darkness and peril and need, / the people will waken to listen and hear…”
“In the hour of darkness and peril and need, / the people will waken to listen and hear…”
So… this was supposed to be about Paul Revere’s ride, but the Senator just unloaded about the Trump administration and its Republican enablers. Far more newsworthy than I expected. (You can probably see me shifting to “crap, this was not the interview I prepped!” but the result was memorable.)
@hcrichardson.bsky.social interviews Senator King www.youtube.com/live/5YHvpx3...
April 18, 2025 at 1:04 AM
I’ll be reading Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride” at the Maine State House tomorrow.
“In the hour of darkness and peril and need, / the people will waken to listen and hear…”
“In the hour of darkness and peril and need, / the people will waken to listen and hear…”
Reposted by Julia Bouwsma
"Everything we write
will be used against us
or against those we love.
These are the terms,
take them or leave them.
Poetry never stood a chance
of standing outside history."
Adrienne Rich, from "North American Time"
will be used against us
or against those we love.
These are the terms,
take them or leave them.
Poetry never stood a chance
of standing outside history."
Adrienne Rich, from "North American Time"
April 7, 2025 at 4:49 PM
"Everything we write
will be used against us
or against those we love.
These are the terms,
take them or leave them.
Poetry never stood a chance
of standing outside history."
Adrienne Rich, from "North American Time"
will be used against us
or against those we love.
These are the terms,
take them or leave them.
Poetry never stood a chance
of standing outside history."
Adrienne Rich, from "North American Time"
Reposted by Julia Bouwsma
Reposted by Julia Bouwsma
Reposted by Julia Bouwsma
I'm still putting the story together. I'm sharing limited info and request for more info anyone seeing this message might have. I understand that DOGE showed up today at the Institute of Museum and Library Services and rapidly began sending employees home. This was presaged in an executive order...
March 20, 2025 at 8:40 PM
I'm still putting the story together. I'm sharing limited info and request for more info anyone seeing this message might have. I understand that DOGE showed up today at the Institute of Museum and Library Services and rapidly began sending employees home. This was presaged in an executive order...
Reposted by Julia Bouwsma
March 16, 2025 at 3:18 PM
I think a lot of people missed the news that the IMLS was eliminated via EO on Friday. IMLS is the federal funding source for public libraries. It goes to state libraries to fund staff positions and state-run programs used by local libraries.
www.ala.org/news/2025/03...
www.ala.org/news/2025/03...
ALA statement on White House assault on the Institute of Museum and Library Services
An executive order issued by the Trump administration on Friday night, March 14, calls for the elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the nation’s only federal agency for America...
www.ala.org
March 17, 2025 at 11:03 AM
I think a lot of people missed the news that the IMLS was eliminated via EO on Friday. IMLS is the federal funding source for public libraries. It goes to state libraries to fund staff positions and state-run programs used by local libraries.
www.ala.org/news/2025/03...
www.ala.org/news/2025/03...
Reposted by Julia Bouwsma
‘It is hard to live within constant striving. It is hard to live within the word “degenerative”, which means that, however I strive, I do not win.’
Anne Carson on living with Parkinson’s: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Anne Carson on living with Parkinson’s: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Anne Carson · Beware the man whose handwriting sways like a reed in the wind
This is an essay about hands and handwriting. I think of handwriting as a way to organise thought into shapes. I like...
www.lrb.co.uk
March 6, 2025 at 11:18 AM
‘It is hard to live within constant striving. It is hard to live within the word “degenerative”, which means that, however I strive, I do not win.’
Anne Carson on living with Parkinson’s: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Anne Carson on living with Parkinson’s: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Julia Bouwsma
Reposted by Julia Bouwsma
History says we forgave the executioner.
—Sharif
—Sharif
![Social Skills Training
by Solmaz Sharif
Studies suggest How may I help you officer? is the single most disarming thing to say and not What's the problem? Studies suggest it’s best the help reply My pleasure and not No problem. Studies suggest it’s best not to mention problem in front of power even to say there is none. Gloria Steinem says women lose power as they age and yet the loudest voice in my head is my mother. Studies show the mother we have in mind isn’t the mother that exists. Mine says: What the fuck are you crying for? Studies show the baby monkey will pick the fake monkey with fake fur over the furless wire monkey with milk, without contest. Studies show to negate something is to think it anyway. I’m not sad. I’m not sad. Studies recommend regular expressions of gratitude and internal check-ins. Enough, the wire mother says. [ran out of space. poem also here: https://tinyurl.com/sharifpoem]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qlmttkf54je7ie22kz7oymca/bafkreigd6yv4wvtxd2uwuzf27xbt62mpxep67ljta2edqmjeywqi7zfmhu@jpeg)
February 8, 2025 at 5:29 PM
History says we forgave the executioner.
—Sharif
—Sharif
Despair is not the poet, just someone who knows them really well.
"The artist’s job is not to succumb to despair but to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence."
--Gertrude Stein, b. 3 Feb, 1874
--Gertrude Stein, b. 3 Feb, 1874
February 3, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Despair is not the poet, just someone who knows them really well.
Reposted by Julia Bouwsma
When the Patriot Act was passed, libraries got requests for patrons’ borrowing history. We were prohibited from disclosing those requests.
We deleted and shredded those records and stopped tracking reading history for that reason.
ALSO.
We deleted and shredded those records and stopped tracking reading history for that reason.
ALSO.
January 29, 2025 at 6:23 PM
When the Patriot Act was passed, libraries got requests for patrons’ borrowing history. We were prohibited from disclosing those requests.
We deleted and shredded those records and stopped tracking reading history for that reason.
ALSO.
We deleted and shredded those records and stopped tracking reading history for that reason.
ALSO.
Reposted by Julia Bouwsma
“May all dead things lie down in me / and be at peace, as in the ground.”
—Wendell Berry 💙
—Wendell Berry 💙
January 28, 2025 at 11:05 PM
“May all dead things lie down in me / and be at peace, as in the ground.”
—Wendell Berry 💙
—Wendell Berry 💙
Reposted by Julia Bouwsma
One more thing! If people need a toolkit to show up to school board meetings, here's a good one:
uniteagainstbookbans.org/guide-to-att...
uniteagainstbookbans.org/guide-to-att...
Guide to Attending Library and School Board Meetings
Make sure local officials know you support the library and access to books of all kinds by attending, listening, and speaking out against censorship.
uniteagainstbookbans.org
January 19, 2025 at 5:54 PM
One more thing! If people need a toolkit to show up to school board meetings, here's a good one:
uniteagainstbookbans.org/guide-to-att...
uniteagainstbookbans.org/guide-to-att...
Reposted by Julia Bouwsma
“And now I am here, an unwanted steward, unneeded / witness. I am here, and this topography has made a debt of me. The debt / began before we ever arrived.”
—From “After We Wound the Land to Maps” by @juliabouwsma.bsky.social
kenyonreview.org/piece/after-...
—From “After We Wound the Land to Maps” by @juliabouwsma.bsky.social
kenyonreview.org/piece/after-...
kenyonreview.org
January 17, 2025 at 6:31 PM
“And now I am here, an unwanted steward, unneeded / witness. I am here, and this topography has made a debt of me. The debt / began before we ever arrived.”
—From “After We Wound the Land to Maps” by @juliabouwsma.bsky.social
kenyonreview.org/piece/after-...
—From “After We Wound the Land to Maps” by @juliabouwsma.bsky.social
kenyonreview.org/piece/after-...
Apropos of nothing, I think my favorite two lines of poetry might just be Anne Sexton's "My body became a side of mutton / and despair roamed the slaughterhouse."
What are yours?
What are yours?
November 24, 2024 at 8:28 PM
Apropos of nothing, I think my favorite two lines of poetry might just be Anne Sexton's "My body became a side of mutton / and despair roamed the slaughterhouse."
What are yours?
What are yours?
I feel like my first post here should be something grand, but my energy for words is currently on empty. So here is my cat Griselda instead.
November 24, 2024 at 8:09 PM
I feel like my first post here should be something grand, but my energy for words is currently on empty. So here is my cat Griselda instead.