hiii!! I know I said I was starting a Substack and all, but I realized in the last week that it probably makes more sense to just start posting on here since I already have a custom domain, fully built website, etc. lolol.
Like, I get that Substack is new(ish) and cool and has a ton of writers on it, but I started to notice patterns on the platform that compare to other social media–the biggest being what content performs well. On YouTube, TikTok, and many other sites, cultural analysis, deep dives, and pseudo-intellectualism are still on the rise. And lo and behold, Substack is a victim of the same stuff–not that there’s anything inherently wrong with that content. But for me, I don’t want to be beholden to yet another algorithm or be tempted to trade quality and authenticity for high-performing yet ultimately uninteresting/meaningless posts.
So, long story short, I’m gonna stick with my own space for now. And what better way to start off my blogging era than with a post inspired by the one and only Rama Duwaji (aka the 1st lady of NYC, Zohran Mamdani’s wife)! For a while, she’s been posting pictures on Instagram titled ‘Things I saw in X month that made me want to make art’. It’s just what it sounds like–a collage of things that inspired her, an artist, to make art. This is the same thing with poetry!
1. “Lullaby for the Sixth Extinction” by Julia B Levijne, in Liminal Spaces Magazine
This poem is gorgeous! I am obsessed with the title, the imagery (the gas stove of spring, daffodils sizzling yellow, the cell mutations + breeding of fish and flies, etc.), and the urgency + realism. As someone who is sooo tired of hearing about intangible climate hope/optimism without action (often as a way for people to justify having bio kids or doing actions that are not always the most friendly to the environment), I felt this one hard…so hard that I will be printing this out and hanging it up on my poetry wall (yes, I have a wall just for poetry).
2. “Court-Ordered Group Therapy: Week 36” by Charlie Peck, in Poetry Magazine
The voice is incredible!! And I might have to steal the ‘sun juicing itself.’
3. “Jerry wants to argue about the existentialists again” by Leslie Sainz in Poetry Magazine
The form! The layeredness! The poetic techniques–genius!
4. The statue of Athena inside Nashville’s Parthenon
This was actually on December 31, on my NYE trip to Nashvile, but close enough! Standing by the ornate goddess and reflecting on the abandonment of indigenous European religious traditions after the brutal colonization and erasure by Abrahamic religions had me in tears…and then I thought, I should write a poem about this.
I love the role spacing plays, how thought-provoking and interesting these ideas are, the whole ‘impression’ stanza, and how the ending hits you. Everything about this poem captivated me. The control and movement, the feelings it invokes, and the interconnectedness. Stunning!
6. “Apologetic” by Robert Wood Lynn in Poetry Foundation
The tape aspect coming back!! So good!
There’s so many more poems and moments that inspired me or impacted me, but I’m going to stop here to avoid dumping my entire brain on the Internet! These poems (+ art) all stopped me in my tracks as I listened to the great big heartbeat a good poem has–you know the one, the aliveness that gnaws and pulls and awakens something not easy to let go.
Finally, I want to start doing these monthly so I can look back through them when I need inspiration! I also thought I could include any of my own publications from the month at the end (this doesn’t feel worth a separate post, in my opinion)…so for January, I had one (kind of): Vellichor Literary announced on their Instagram that my poem “an ex-federal worker’s eden” was one of the winners for their December monthly poetry and prose contest! 🎉
https://www.instagram.com/p/DTjWfcugfoV/?img_index=3
I hope these poems resonate with others in the way they did with me. What poems or art inspired you this month?
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