A movie that takes place where you’re from:

tfw your 91-yr-old dad lends your poetry book about your mother’s mental illness to yet another neighbor, this time an 80-something vet, and she loves it. @icefloepress.bsky.social #Poetry #ThanksDad #NoStigma #TalkSmackToAHurricane

Scenes from the ceremony

Great news out of #Missouri: Justin Hamm @mdwstscribbler.bsky.social installed as our state’s poet laureate! A proclamation, an oath of office, a moving reading & an emotional, absolutely beautiful song frm the Mexico (MO) High School Noteworthy Choir. Photos in comment. #Poetry #FlyoverCountry

Right now at the Missouri State capitol. Photo shows a fraction of thousands here from across the state. This is what democracy looks like—a big NO on illegal redistricting!!!

Hey mid-Missouri! On Thursday 5/22 I’ll be reading at Cafe Berlin with the fabulous @amiewhittemore.bsky.social. We read and open mic follows. 6-8, limited menu, full bar, great vibe. Come share your writing! Buy books! Hear some never-before-shared poems! #CafeBerlinComo #Poetry #Writing #Spoken

Woohoo! My copy of Father Tectonic AND a broadside are on the way from @the-ethelzine.bsky.social. Y’all, @rfredekenter.bsky.social creates 🔥🔥 w/ his vispo and writing. Robert takes you to an edge in a very good way. Buy it! www.ethelzine.com/when-we-were... #Poetry #Vispo #Fathers #MentalHealth

Last night went to #Poetry at Gumbo Bottoms in Jefferson City—lots of laughter, tears, hugs & applause for every soul there. Y’all the open mic is a monthly miracle of creativity & acceptance 💕 @barbaraleonhard.bsky.social featured w her new The Lost Book of Zeroth—fab satire on #AI & #BeingHuman

Mama would’ve been 91 yo today. April Fool’s baby who thought her parents really wanted a boy, who never thought she was pretty, who had 100s of shock treatments that emptied her good memories, who loved me fiercely—though I didn’t feel it for years #Motherhood #MentalIllness #TalkSmackToAHurricane

Last year on my birthday I read James Tate poems for the first time. I read a few at a time every month or so and every single poem astounds and thrills me. Today’s little bite: “The Formal Invitation” “A More Prosperous Nation” #Surreal #Poetry #WritersImagination

I’ve had Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha on my TBR list for a few years now. Today I kept looking for a few lines to excerpt but it’s impossible bc each phrase needs all the rest—words, spacing, unexpected order and syntax—my body feels the story and purpose, my brain can’t get it yet.

Yay! I have 3 readings coming up, all in Missouri at really great venues! I get to read w/ two fabulous poets who are also kind & genuine—Barbara Harris Leonhard on 11/19 & Melissa Fite Johnson on 12/1. On 11/21 I’ll read poems & talk abt process #PoetryCommunity #MidwestPoets #PoetryReadings

First full day at a 6-day writing residency! I got an email on my bday in August saying I received a scholarship to Dairy Hollow in artsy Eureka Springs, AR. My room has walls of windows facing woods. I brought way too many books, but they make me happy 💕 #AmWriting #WCDH #Poetry #WritingCommunity

tfw you have a poem in print alongside work by Marge Piercy, Ellen June Wright and other amazing writers. I can’t stop writing about my mama. In LIPS poetry journal, avail frm laurabosspoetryfoundation.org/order-lips. #WritingCommunity #Poetry #MentalHealth #NoStigma

Welp, yesterday I spent 8+ hours cleaning my office. I reorganized bookshelves, traded dog-pee carpet I still loved for a clean rug, moved furniture, etc. Here’s the before and after!

My office is a wreck and I am having trouble getting motivated to straighten it up. Accountability? Consider this the before pic 😉

Currently
gobsmacked while reading The Inconvenience of Grief by @lanniestabile.bsky.social. Y’all, buy this book. Recommend it to your libraries. animalheartpress.net/the-inconven...

Yay for Yellow Dog Bookshop in Columbia, MO! Going to use “Medieval Romances” for erasures! And I felt the electricity of the collab between Molly McCully Brown and Susannah Nevison just glancing at pages