Friends, I'm honored to share with you that the MacMurray College Foundation and Alumni Association will present me with the Notable Career Award during Homecoming Weekend this year to recognize my accomplishments as a poet and more than twenty years service as a public school teacher and librarian.

You're invited! Join us August 12th for Around the Campfire Online Reading Series featuring Glenn North and Palowski Moore plus open mic! Link to sign up for Zoom below. forms.gle/WUZog35qzHFx...

I'm now six months out from my heart surgery, and I'm completely myself, just a little more appreciative of everything around me. I wake up most days and don't even think about what I've been through. As I said, that's most days.

Hi, friends. Justin here. In January, I had open heart surgery to repair a valve. The alternative was, basically, to die. So many beautiful souls helped my family. This is my new chapbook, THE HUMBLE APARTMENT OF MY CHEST. I'm giving it to the world as a free download to say thank you. Link below.

Friends—just a note to say I’ve got signed copies of O Death again if you’d like to snag one. I’m kind of proud of this little book and the mix of prose poems and erasures that comprise it. Let me know and I can put one in your hands.

Poet Baseball Cards Series F Card #1 Arden Levine is a phenomenal poet and it is a huge thrill to kick off Series F with her card! Poet Baseball Cards thanks Osage Arts Community. OAC provides residencies for artists of all types in the Ozarks of Missouri. osageac.org

Always thought this was one of my better winter photos—from some Missouri winter of the past.

Thought about this one again when I had the chance to read it for students at Troy Buchanan HS last week and show them a little of their teachers’ perspective.

The last four or five months have been my quietest in terms of events in several years. Just needed a break and I’ve also been worried about traveling with my Dad’s health. But I’m ready to take O Death on the road. If you’re interested in helping me fill out this tour poster, let me know.

Greetings from the snowy Midwest.

It is with great pleasure that I announce I am not doing squat today, except maybe laying around and ordering some new flannels I don’t need. Please shoot me links to some poems, lit magazine issues, art, and new music you’re digging these days. Bonus if any of it is by your friends.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Hamm family to yours.

A Thanksgiving poem . . .

Looking forward to watching the Bears lose to the Lions tomorrow just to give my self that extra fuel for a long afternoon of unhinged emotional eating. Every Caleb Williams sack will mean another gravy-slathered roll at supper.

Poet Baseball Cards Series E is now available Let’s do a Thanksgiving Poet Baseball Cards giveaway. Share this post and I’ll enter you for a chance to win a set of Series E Cards. I’ll choose four winners early next week.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Tangled Up in Blue

Let’s celebrate! Series E is now officially in the world. This marks 100 poets honored by Poet Baseball Cards Poet Baseball Cards Series E Card 18/20

Poet Baseball Cards Series E Card #16/20 Meet a fantastic poet, editor, and person — Dustin Brookshire! Poet Baseball Cards thanks Osage Arts Community. OAC provides residencies for artists of all types in the Ozarks of Missouri. osageac.org

Fell down the stairs yesterday. Tonight I’m living on a Tylenol and ibuprofen mix, laid out in the recliner with two heating pads while signing books. Oof. On the plus side I’ve got eight copies of O Death left. $17.50 shipped or $23.50 with a copy of Drinking Guinness with the Dead.

“Composed to Jelly Roll Morton’s Hyena Stomp” from O Death (Spartan Press, 2024). It’s intended to accompany the song, so link in comments.

Poet Baseball Cards Series E Card #19/20 What a thrill it is to commemorate the work of one of my favorite writers ever in any genre, Shane MacGowan. Thank you to Victoria Mary Clarke Angels for permission to include Shane in this project and to Mark Berriman for assisting with the contact.

Gave up on Bluesky the first time around, but looks like the poets are showing up? Hi, everybody. I’m around.

Here is the updated list of available Poet Baseball Cards. If you’d like to order some sets to have on hand for AWP to collect autographs, let me know ASAP, and I can fill orders quickly.

As Poet Baseball Cards grows and develop, it’s nice to have these little resting points to celebrate. With publication of Brandon Amico’s card, Series D is officially complete. This means we have now featured eighty poets. Really grateful that the project continues to thrive.

Poet Baseball Cards Series D Card #14/20 Hall of Famer Phillis Wheatley Poet Baseball Cards thanks Osage Arts Community. OAC provides residencies for ar tists of all types in the Ozarks of Missouri. osageac.org

Poet Baseball Cards Series D Card #19/20 Tom C Hunley Poet Baseball Cards thanks Osage Arts Community. OAC provides residencies for ar tists of all types in the Ozarks of Missouri. osageac.org

Poet Baseball Cards Series D Card #18/20 Crystal Wilkinson crystalwilkinson.net Poet Baseball Cards thanks Osage Arts Community. OAC provides residencies for ar tists of all types in the Ozarks of Missouri. osageac.org

Poet Baseball Cards Series D Card #17/20 So glad to Paul Guest on the roster! Paul Guest is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Because Everything Is Terrible, and a memoir, One More Theory About Happiness.

Poet Baseball Cards Series D Card #15/20 Everyone knows J. P. Dancing Bear, fabulous poet and editor of Verse Daily! Poet Baseball Cards thanks Osage Arts Community. OAC provides residencies for ar tists of all types in the Ozarks of Missouri. osageac.org