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Kat Lehmann

@songsofkat.bsky.social

A Beloved Fire Becomes the House (Red Moon Press, July 2026)🏠 Co-EIC @whiptailjournal.bsky.social🦎 Winner, Rattle Chapbook Prize 🐦 Creator of the multi-haiku form sudo-ku. Hampshire College F87 🦄 & Ph.D. Biochemistry https://katlehmann.weebly.com/

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Kat Lehmann@songsofkat.bsky.social · last mo.

I had grown accustomed to people physically backing away when I shared even the smallest hint of my life with my mother. Stigma creates a double life. But it is the silence itself that must burn. A braided #haibun from A BELOVED FIRE BECOMES THE HOUSE (Red Moon Press, July 2026)

Timothy Green@timothygreen.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The rule of a train poem is that you have to keep typing at a steady pace without stopping until the poem comes to a conclusion, so that it's like a train rolling out of the tunnel of your subconscious mind. Surprising things emerge if you force that. From Poems for Katie:

A Noble Gas everywhere I’ve ever lived is tucked inside a blue balloon loosened in a child’s hand she’s standing in her fourth grade field her classmates counting down the soccer lines look almost real beneath her feet in painted grass an unseen bee inspects a clover waiting for the shade to pass when all at once their strings let go as if the sky itself could gasp and everywhere I’ve ever lived is pressing on the inner walls and pulling up her written note and when you find it tangled in the neighbor’s fence I hope you’ll call the number and tell whoever answers where it went
Kat Lehmann@songsofkat.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Every book I’ve published has had a certain “before and after” feeling to it. After six books, the pattern feels familiar now. The Book Birth Day is followed by a Dead Week where the book is live but few have read it yet. Then the reader responses trickle in, which is another adrenaline wave.

Timothy Green@timothygreen.bsky.social · 2mo ago

If you haven't seen it, check out The Poetry Shop—a curated online bookstore just for contemporary poetry with the browsable shelves you wish your local had. They feature a weekly poet interview with book recs. This week it was me and Poems for Katie:

Poetry Shop 5: Timothy Green, author of Poems for Katie

Say the name Timothy Green and the literary journal Rattle comes to mind. If you write poetry (and submit it) you've likely received Green’s kind-hearted rejection, and maybe even the thrilling email ...

thepoetryshop.com

Kat Lehmann@songsofkat.bsky.social · 2mo ago

What a thrill…Stacy Nigliazzo and I won First Place in the Haiku Society of America Rengay competition! Congratulations to everyone recognized. Thanks to the judges, Sarah Paris for coordinating the awards, and of course Garry Gay who invented this inspiring form! #rengay

Reflection alpine lake a single acorn blurs its tree blue sun my mother's eyes contrail we move through the what ifs beak of breath I don’t know how to begin the quiet rustle of hours and worms cymbal splash resurfacing wet wings Kat Lehmann: 1,3,5 Stacy Nigliazzo: 2,4,6Reflection rewards rereading in a way that few rengay do. Its associative linking moves effortlessly between the outer world and inner experience, each verse opening intuitively into the next. The progression is so seamless that the collaboration reads with the ease of a single poetic voice. Memorable images, such as “the quiet rustle of hours and worms”, continue to reveal fresh resonances. Together, these qualities set Reflection apart as our first-place winner.https://www.hsa-haiku.org/rengayawards/2026-rengay-judges.htm
Kat Lehmann@songsofkat.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I’m thrilled to share that my haibun “Body Work” was chosen as the favorite haibun of Modern Haiku 57.1! Many thanks to editor Roberta Beary for curating it and to editor Paul Miller and the anonymous selector! What an honor to receive this wonderful surprise recognition for a favorite #haibun 🎉

"Body Work I am a table. This woman loves the table. Her octopus hands. She ensures that nothing heavy is placed on me. Every knot is polished into yes with the scent of a ripe orange grove. The initials of old lovers wilt like a willow no one owns. resting pulse a thicket of swaying sea grass Her tentacles bend and shape me into something new. Curved ribs. Scrolled neck. Arched back. No longer a table, I pluck what I learned of her water sounds. And float in her ink cloud as the tides pull me under. trigger points loosening a lower octave of violin"
Kat Lehmann@songsofkat.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I’m deeply grateful to my kids for making me a mother and changing the meaning of Mothers’ Day, which was a day I dreaded for most of my life. Gentle landings to all who struggle on this day. another mother's day band aid for the exit wound -Kat Lehmann ONE ART Haiku Anthology, 2024 #onelinehaiku

another mother's day band aid for the exit wound -Kat Lehmann ONE ART Haiku Anthology, 2024
Kat Lehmann@songsofkat.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Received a moment ago from the current #HampshireCollege president: “…the Hampshire campus as we know it will not endure in its current form. It will need to become something different for the College to meet its obligations.” 😭 Oh, my heart…a special home lost that we keep losing 💔

My Hampshire ID… I am 87F. We received these stickers each semester to pile up to show we were a current student. I guess the rest fell off (the pile became rather piley by the time we graduated).
Rattle Poetry@rattlepoetry.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Congratulations to Kat Lehmann for winning the Haiku Foundation's Touchstone Distinguished Books Award for her chapbook no matter how it ends a bluebird's song! rattle.com/publications...

No Matter How It Ends a Bluebird's Song - Rattle: Poetry

Kat Lehmann « Rattle Chapbook Prize Winner » Winner of a 2025 Distinguished Books Award from the Haiku Foundation. In no matter how it ends a bluebird’s song, Kat Lehmann stipples a journey from sickn...

rattle.com

Kat Lehmann@songsofkat.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I was a First Gen student at Hampshire College and was fleeing a bad situation. It was impossible to out-weird there. Hampshire became my place to deeply discover, to see interrelatedness and complexity. Find home and belonging. The college closure is devastating to everyone I know who went there.

Me with my nana in the Hampshire College library quad, 1988.
Chen Chen@chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 5mo ago

we need the experimental schools, the wacky places, the schools that don't care about grades or majors, the places that allow/empower students to create their own weird paths, to be weirdos. & yes, we need such education to occur outside/beyond the existing university structures.

Chen Chen@chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 5mo ago

hampshire is where i did my undergrad and where i realized that yes, i need to be a poet. very sad about this and about the state of education in general. www.masslive.com/education/20...

Kat Lehmann@songsofkat.bsky.social · 5mo ago

What a loss…both to the academic community and to me as an alum. I studied science, but Hampshire gave me the courage to evolve when my passion for reading poetry became a need to write my own. We learned how to learn, how to self-direct, how to expand into ourselves. How many kids need that now?

Hampshire College@hampshirecollege.bsky.social · 5mo ago

“This is an incredibly painful moment for the Hampshire community, and we are doing everything to support our students in completing their studies and assist our faculty and staff in navigating what comes next.“ — President Jennifer Chrisler www.hampshire.edu/closure-info...