it’s not you. everything’s especially chaotic now. just saying.
Jay Besemer
@divinetailor.bsky.social
poet•author•artist•fool. aging, tr^ns, qu♾️r, sick/disabled, autistic. he/they. 🛑DO NOT ADD TO STARTER PACKS WITHOUT CONSENT!🛑 http://www.jaybesemer.net
POETS BEWARE—USE CAUTION AND DO NOT APPROACH. if you encounter plums in a refrigerated environment, be advised that they may be engaged in poet-catching activity & therefore pose a significant risk to your personal safety. this risk increases with groups of plums. to report plums: 1-800-ATE-PLUM
Adoptee friends & others impacted by adoption: I'm a librarian planning a display for November (National Adoption Month). These are just some of the books that'll be on display—I'd love your suggestions!
For the teachers! I added a section at the bottom of my guide for reading and writing visual poems that allows you to download the entire packet as a single PDF, or as chapters. This should make it far easier to print out. You can find everything here: keithswilson.com/secret-page/
Secret Page – Keith S. Wilson
keithswilson.com
observing (late) lammas, & the 2-year anniversary of jet’s death. swamp mallow, every path becomes a stream. across the dangerous road, in the woods, two stags dash ahead. i used to wake up to this smell every day, unzip my tent & breathe.
i get these periodic urges to go to the town where i was born, to follow the history of my birth families west, to be in the places (the land) where they lived & worked. i don’t know what i am seeking in this; maybe a fuller bodily relation with the places i’m/they were from or made lives…
the funny thing about relying on other people’s fear for one’s sense of (or actual) power is that it means you fear other people. when they lose their fear of you, your hold over them is gone. i learned about this in my origin family & from bullies, & i witness it at every gradation of scale.
i so love the kono “rekorder” repurposed b&w sound film…that deeeeep daaaark black, super-detailed sharpness…whew⚡️ some frames have pre-exposed timestamps for added surprise & mystery
I created a reading guide for visual poetry! It's designed as a companion piece to my book Games for Children, but I wrote and designed it so it would be useful for readers and teachers of any visual poetry collection. Good for the Sealey Challenge! Link: keithswilson.com/secret-page/
i want to talk more about zen but so much of it is not really possible to articulate in words, the stuff that really matters can only be experienced & practiced. i’m starting to get why there are so many misconceptions about it, & there’s nothing i can do about that. it’s not comfortable to accept
i put a glow-in-the-dark MYOPIC BOOKS sticker on the back of the black phone case of my black phone & i feel very pleased with my oddball strategy for finding my phone in the dark. now i only have to remember to lay it face down every time. sure, that’ll be easy!🙃
feeling wildly lucky to get such a personal and insightful response to BUFRAT in Matthew Bookin's review at Zona Motel zonamotel.substack.com/p/review-buf...
REVIEW: Buffalo Free Rapid Transit by Joe Hall
How do you truly claim a place as home?
zonamotel.substack.com
do you ever find yourself performing for the security cameras?
another old punk on a ramble to shake out arthritic limbs, check storm damage, & touch base with the neighborhood.
frustrated with & disappointed by yet another offering on addressing online toxicity whose rhetorical moves mainly just reinforce, repeat & retrench the very language behaviors it purports to critique & remedy. we don’t have time for that.
may be setting up a reading/signing/❓ for ON BEING HALF-IMAGINARY at chi tardis…sent the initial email this morning. as i told a friend, i’m still a bit ambivalent about combining work with play—CT has kind of been my birthday vaycay for the past some years. but looking at what i do there, i do see
i can’t believe i didn’t know we were expecting a “lurking cat” front this afternoon!
volunteering at chicago tardis con was a great experience last year, though it’s not something i can do again. if you’re curious about it, def give it a try! there are many options for a fit with your interests & skills.
Chicago TARDIS@chicagotardis.bsky.social · last wk.Volunteers are essential in the time and space adventure that is Chicago TARDIS! Take the opportunity to apply to volunteer for our con through the end of the summer: chicagotardis.com/volunteer
lots of domestic machinery fails this weekend (window AC unit, garage door spring, etc.) so we find ourselves again contemplating the fine line between necessity & liability. or i do, anyway. also mourning the passing of a world where such things have *become* necessities. i’m not a luddite, but.