#colorado springs poem

[wegonowheresaidtheone]

Need writer

Me and a friend have been working on making nice music stuff together for a couple years now in csprings we play guitar&drums, and would like a writer to join us.

I heard there are writers on tumblr, so I thought a post may be worth a try.

We specify writer rather than vocalist here, someone who loves words, and enjoys writing is what we need.

If you like writing poems/stories/words, and think this sounds interesting, send me an example or two of something you have enjoyed writing, and I can share some of the sounds we are working on.

Ty for reading, hope your having a nice day.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Taken from the cemetery in Cripple Creek, west of Colorado Springs, CO. Mt. Pisgah is on the right. Photo: Michael Olson (2022)  :: [Scott Horton]

* * * *

“The birds have vanished into deep skies. A last cloud drifts away, all idleness. Inexhaustible, this mountain and I gaze at each other, it alone remaining.” — Li Bai, from Reverence-Pavilion Mountain, Sitting Alone; Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China (tr. by David Hinton)

[rayehendrix]

This poem of mine is going around again on Twitter, so I figured I'd share it here too. Queer joy is queer survival. We will win.

[brew-moon]

For those who were lost and injured at Club Q

For those who just wanted to dance

[c0nfidencekill3r]

growing up in america

means knowing it’s not a matter of if

but when

[all-the-write-reasons]

some poems

don’t sound pretty

until they’re read out loud

some boys

don’t seem beautiful

until you spread them out

a little bit of time is all I need

just a little time

another day, another hour

all i ask for is another

another minute, another second

i see a boy with his arms spread wide

i see a boy who wishes for more clouds

so he can point to the sky

behind my closed eyelids

and the tears that sneak out

most of all i see a future

robbed from so many

[basilpaste]

On Love As An Ending.

Mary Oliver, Dogfish | Hozier, Like Real People Do | Etel Adnan, The Spring Flowers Own & The Manifestations of the Voyage | Joseph M. Martin, The Awakening | Richard Siken, War of the Foxes | Mary Oliver, Dogfish (Cont.) | Hadestown, Flowers | Julian Gough, End Poem | Mary Oliver, I Worried | The Altogether, Goodbye | Everybody's Worried About Owen, To: Myself In Colorado | Emily Palermo, What I Could Never Confess Without Some Bravado

fine fine the poetry blogs in my notes win, ive made another web weave.

[nico-nico-suavecito]

I am so excited to announce that my full-length poetry book "The Weeds Grow Anyway" is available for preorder. This first edition handmade Iimited run is going to feature a linocut printed soft cover and I will be binding the books at home.

A blurb about the book, by Mallory Everhart:

Nico Wilkinson's debut full-length poetry collection "The Weeds Grow Anyway' is a celebration of that which lies beyond resilience in the face of adversity: audacity. Writing from Colorado Springs amidst a time of anti-trans violence, they examine the relationship of trans people to this world through the lens of nature's relationship to humans. What makes a plant into a weed, something deemed unacceptable to the landscape? The poetry within much like the local flora and trans people who live there is rooted in the experience of queering the inhospitable landscape that is Colorado Springs.

About the book's creation:

Last year I made one hardcover copy of The Weeds Grow Anyway (pictured above) to visualize the manuscript I'd been working on as a real tangible book. In doing so, I remembered just how much lenjoy the bookmaking process. I realized it would be a joy to make these books myself.

I will share the book-making process as I go on my social media, mostly Instagram (and possibly YouTube, coming soon). If you are a poet who would like to learn how to create their own books, follow along and show you how.

This book is made possible by community. By the people I create alongside, the people who support my work, who connect with me about the experiences we have living in this world. It is such a gift to finally be able to share these words with my community, including poems that have been known and loved, and many, many poems that have never been seen before. I can't wait for you to read them.

The photos of the first hardcover handmade book above are by my friend Corri Mercy.

[loneberry]

What have I done today? Very little. (Secretly, I like doing very little—if I had my druthers I’d spend my days in bed, reading and writing in my journal.)

If I had to make an inventory of my day’s activities it would look something like this:

Megaformer pilates class

Grocery shopping

Reading by the sea

Cooking

*

Yet at the end of the day, as I was crying during the conclusion of Woolf’s first novel, The Voyage Out, all the details of my day surged forth with such a powerful force that I felt, how can I describe it, it was something like pure love. I want to be better. I want to tell my beautiful friends how much they mean to me. How full a day is, even when nothing happens. Isn’t that what Bernadette Mayer taught us in her durational poem written on the winter solstice? It began with a dream. So did my day.

Every night for the last week I’ve woken up in agony—it is the recrudescence of my mysterious autoimmune condition, which waylaid me for 6 months this year. I wake up in the middle of the night covered in hives and can’t go back to sleep. During the day I struggle to focus or function. At night I take four different antihistamines and every otc sleep remedy (magnesium, melatonin, valerian, kava, Benadryl, herbal tea, CBD) plus my prescription sleep med. Nothing works.

When my hives woke me up at 3am I was dreaming. Of Laura. I go to check the time on my phone. Uncanny, the only notification is a text from Laura. She sends a picture of Walter Benjamin’s memorial. Half-asleep, I write her back:

Wow I was just dreaming you wrote a brilliant novel called “diaries of a terrorist” (funny my friend wrote a book w that title)… it was somehow about the geometry of revolt, about an elaborate coordinated action in Red Square that took the shape of a pentagram, aimed at revealing an invisible structure… but the action misfired because there was a flaw in the original hidden design of the structure. There were more points than the five of the pentagram…

Red Square… was it Russia? No, it was somehow Germany. But it looked like the Red Square of Moscow… perhaps because earlier in the day I was thinking about my trip to Russia. Was the pentagram of the dream drawing attention to some latent demonic presence in Russian society? Lord. How I wish I could sleep.

What do I do when I can’t sleep… listen to podcasts with my eyes closed while in bed, my usual rotation of news, political economy, politics, and war. So much emotion in the voices of strangers, how it stirs me. Richard Fierro, the man who disarmed the Club Q gunman in Colorado Springs, is talking about the incident, calmly narrating the actions, when suddenly he starts weeping about the people he could not save. It cuts through everything, like the testimonies of Ukrainians I listen to daily. On another podcast, Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina speaks beautifully about her memories of Maidan, of the university of the streets, the transformational eros of revolt, and how useless literary writing feels during times of war, how she switched from writing novels to investigating war crimes.

News. It never stops. Ariana’s mother is dead. Bernadette Mayer is dead. A 2-day old Ukrainian baby, dead. More civilian infrastructure in Ukraine has been destroyed by Russian missiles. A maternity ward. All the cities in candlelight. No water in Kyiv. Germany builds an LNG terminal. Meanwhile in Virginia: another mass shooting. Turkey is attacking the Kurds. Who will help the Kurds?

I rearrange my wilting gillyflowers into smaller vases. There’s the smell of clove as I cut the stems. Gilly…I knew you simply as “stock.” Others call you “hoary”—a word I once used in my journal to describe a vision of my future: “…a hoary woman alone in the stone house, clutching her shimmering memories.”

Meditate on Sophrosyne. When will I ever get a handle on this monkey mind? Cook tilapia and pasta. Think about the dead. Call Ulysses. UC on strike. Call from Lily, mom in the hospital again. “Toss a penny to the sky. Heads or tails. Who knows, not I…” Conversations on the pier, while the crows, seagulls, and pigeons loitered for scraps. How the pelicans flew overhead in their enormous formations, then dipped and glided just above the water. The face of the young man with the fishing rod as he looks up when I bike past him.

All the words I read. Free associating in the marginalia, that tender compassion I felt for Virginia Woolf, the exposed nerve that was her mind, too sensitive for the world. I think of the death of her brother Thoby, of the sexual abuse she endured in childhood, all the things she never got over. The sea, the water closing over the head. So much in a day. There are people I can’t protect. You can’t protect the dead. I think of the dead. She died without dignity. Does anyone die with dignity? Yes, some do. “Poetry doesn’t tell you how to bury the dead,” though I often think, as I’m looking at a patch of light while tidying my house, that poetry is the last defense of the sacred.

[poem-today]

A poem by Ted Berrigan

A Certain Slant of Sunlight 

In Africa the wine is cheap, and it is on St. Mark's Place too, beneath a white moon. I'll go there tomorrow, dark bulk hooded against what is hurled down at me in my no hat which is weather: the tall pretty girl in the print dress under the fur collar of her cloth coat will be standing by the wire fence where the wild flowers grow not too tall her eyes will be deep brown and her hair styled 1941 American         will be too; but I'll be shattered by then But now I'm not and can also picture white clouds impossibly high in blue sky over small boy heartbroken to be dressed in black knickers, black coat, white shirt,         buster-brown collar, flowing black bow-tie her hand lightly fallen on his shoulder, faded sunlight         falling across the picture, mother & son, 33 & 7, First Communion         Day, 1941— I'll go out for a drink with one of my demons tonight they are dry in Colorado 1980 spring snow.

Ted Berrigan (1934–1983)

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Cloud formation over Palmer Park, Colorado Springs, CO. Photo: Christine Miles Kincaid (June 28, 2023) :: [Robert Scott Horton]

* * * *

"follow the cloud to a new place. see the grace in undoing everything you’ve done."

from “moving” in There Is a Future: A Year of Daily Midrash by Amy Bornman, p. 43

[rayehendrix]

Sharing this poem from years ago because it's horrifically relevant. Again. I'm so tired.

AFTER ORLANDO

​The week after the shooting             every shower feels like violent baptism—symbolic rebirth             performed too literally—water too hot, skin too red. I let it blister             peel it off in layers until I can’t until my body is not a body             I recognize—becomes a diagram of the bruised blue threads             of nervous systems, bloody and exposed—and then             I ask you to hold me. We don’t know any of the dead             but when they read out the names on the evening news             we take turns weighing them on our tongues, marvel             at how something spoken can be so heavy, can choke             into throat. After that, we shower together. Say their names against             each other’s pruning skin. Say our own with the same reverence—as if             for the first time, or the last.

[newstfionline]

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Spring starts early as US winter was warmest on record (AP) Across much of America and especially in the normally chilly north, the country went through the winter months without, well, winter. In parka strongholds Burlington, Vermont, and Portland, Maine, the thermometer never plunged below zero. The state of Minnesota called the last three months “the lost winter,” warmer than its infamous “year without a winter” in 1877-1878. Michigan, where mosquitos were biting in February, offered disaster loans to businesses hit by a lack of snow. The Great Lakes set records for low winter ice, with Erie and Ontario “essentially ice-free.” For a wide swath of the country from Colorado to New Jersey, and Texas to the Carolinas, spring leaves are arriving three to four weeks earlier than the 1991-2020 average, according to the National Phenology Network, which tracks the timing of plants, insects and other natural signs of the seasons.

US ‘prepper’ culture diversifies amid fear of disaster and political unrest (Reuters) Thirty-year-old Brook Morgan surveyed booths at the “Survival & Prepper Show” in Colorado that were stocked with boxes of ammunition, mounds of trauma medical kits, and every type of knife imaginable. Morgan is one of a new breed of Americans getting ready to survive political upheaval and natural catastrophes, a pursuit that until recently was largely associated with far-right movements such as white nationalists since the 1980s. Researchers say the number of preppers has doubled in size to about 20 million since 2017. Much of that growth is from minorities and people considered left-of-center politically, whose sense of insecurity was heightened by Donald Trump’s 2016 election, the COVID-19 pandemic, more frequent extreme weather and the 2020 racial justice protests following the murder of George Floyd.

UnitedHealth could take months to fully recover from hack (Reuters) UnitedHealth Group, the largest U.S. health insurer, is likely to need several months to make a full recovery from a cyberattack that has been one of the most disruptive hacks against America's healthcare infrastructure, security experts said. The insurer’s Change Healthcare unit processes about half the medical claims in the US and its offerings touch a third of US patient records. In short, it’s a smorgasbord for hackers. The company expects its payment platform to be operational on March 15, and its claims network three days later. Doctors face a hard choice because of the hack: stop treating patients or stop paying staff.

Foreigners trapped in violence-torn Haiti wait desperately for a way out (AP) Dozens of foreigners, including many from the United States and Canada, are stranded in Haiti, desperately trying to leave the violence-torn country where anti-government gangs are battling police and have already shut down both of the country’s international airports. They were in Haiti for reasons ranging from adoptions to missionary and humanitarian work. Now, they are locked down in hotels and homes, unable to leave by air, sea or land as Haiti remains paralyzed by the mayhem and the gangs’ demands that Prime Minister Ariel Henry resign. “We are seriously trapped,” said Richard Phillips, a 65-year-old from the Canadian capital, Ottawa, who has traveled to Haiti more than three dozen times to work on projects for the United Nations, USAID and now, a Haitian nonprofit called Papyrus.

A lonely radio nerd. A poet. Vladimir Putin’s crackdown sweeps up ordinary Russians (AP) A lonely man jailed for criticizing the government on his ham radio. A poet assaulted by police after he recited a poem objecting to Russia’s war in Ukraine. A low-profile woman committed to a psychiatric facility for condemning the invasion on social media. President Vladimir Putin’s 24 years in power are almost certain to be extended six more by this month’s presidential election. That leadership has transformed Russia. A country that tolerated some dissent is now one that ruthlessly suppresses it. Along with opposition politicians, independent journalists and human rights activists, ordinary Russians have been increasingly swept up in a crackdown reminiscent of the Soviet era.

Turkey’s Erdogan says March election will be his final, state media reports (Reuters) Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said local elections scheduled for March 31 would be his last vote, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Friday. Erdogan, modern Turkey’s most successful politician, has led the country for more than two decades. A winner of more than a dozen elections since 2002, Erdogan was re-elected for a five-year term during hotly contested elections in May 2023.

The Taliban once smashed TVs. Now it fosters YouTubers to promote its image. (Washington Post) The Taliban-run government is fostering a thriving community of YouTube influencers and video bloggers in Afghanistan, seeking to shape a positive narrative about the country by rewarding those who have welcome viewpoints with access to stories that can draw millions of views online. The Taliban, which smashed televisions and burned films in the 1990s during its first stint in power, is now using modern video technology in its radical campaign to remake Afghanistan. The regime grants influencers coveted broadcasting licenses that put them on an equal footing with TV networks and radio stations, and threatens to withdraw the licenses of those who break official rules. Influencers whose work is seen as benefiting the regime have been allowed to embed with government ministries and showcase their achievements. Meanwhile, videos that are critical of the Taliban have largely disappeared from platforms such as YouTube over the past two years as a result of Taliban pressure and self-censorship.

With Unusual Speed, Hong Kong Pushes Strict New Security Law (NYT) Under pressure from Beijing, officials in Hong Kong are scrambling to pass a long-shelved national security law that could impose life imprisonment for political crimes like treason, a move expected to further muzzle dissent in the Asian financial center. The law known as Article 23 has long been a source of public discontent in Hong Kong, a former British colony that had been promised certain freedoms when it was returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Now, it is expected to be enacted with unusual speed in the coming weeks. China has sought to tighten its grip over Hong Kong after massive antigovernment protests in 2019 engulfed the city, posing the greatest challenge to Beijing’s rule in years. Many protesters had taken to the streets to push back against Beijing’s encroachment over the city and its erosion of Hong Kong’s civil liberties, but Chinese officials said the demonstrations were instigated by Western forces seeking to destabilize the territory and China.

Taylor Swift gave Singapore’s economy a massive boost (Washington Post) Singapore is set to earn big money and a big reputation from hosting global pop sensation Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, analysts are calculating. Swift’s six sold-out concerts, which run from March 2 to 9, are expected to bring in an estimated $260 million to $375 million in tourism receipts, Erica Tay, Maybank director of macro research, told The Washington Post. The city-state is the latest beneficiary of “Swiftonomics,” the phenomenon named for the economic boost experienced by destinations of the record-breaking tour, which has surpassed $1 billion in global sales. Singapore’s GDP is likely to expand by 2.9 percent in the first quarter of the year—its highest in six quarters—Bloomberg News reported Friday, with economists raising predictions for annual growth from 2.3 percent to 2.5 percent.

Philippines strikes security deals as tensions rise with China at sea (Washington Post) The Philippines has been striking new defense agreements with other countries at a rapid clip, seeking to build what officials here call a “network of alliances” that could deter Chinese aggression in disputed waters. The Philippines has signed or entered discussions over new security agreements with at least 18 countries since a Chinese coast guard vessel flashed a military-grade laser at a Philippine coast guard ship in the South China Sea last year, according to the Philippine Defense Department. While the deepening Philippine alliance with the United States—which includes granting the U.S. military expanded access to Philippine military bases—has drawn much attention, Manila’s security campaign goes beyond Washington. Since 2022, the Philippines has inked new defense agreements with the European Union, India and Britain. Japan, Canada and France are looking at signing visiting-forces agreements with the Philippines, which would allow those countries to send troops to Philippine bases, according to their embassies.

At Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque, Ramadan brings uncertainty and fear (Washington Post) Just days before the start of Ramadan—the busiest and often most volatile month in Jerusalem’s Old City—the offices of al-Aqsa Mosque were bustling with preparations and uncertainty. Even in quieter years, al-Aqsa is a Ramadan tinderbox. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians come to worship at this mosque that has sat for more than a millennium on a site that both Muslims and Jews claim as sacred ground. It’s administered by Jordan, but access is controlled by Israeli security. Jews revere the site they call the Temple Mount as the location of the first and second temples and worship at the Western Wall, a remnant of the ancient complex. Muslims know it as the Noble Sanctuary, where the prophet Muhammad is said to have ascended to heaven. It’s the holiest site in Judaism and third holiest in Islam. The competing claims are one of the most challenging elements of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Clashes here have been a repeated flash point for war. With Ramadan only days away, tensions around al-Aqsa are soaring. Hard-liners in the Israeli government have pushed to limit the number, age and gender of Palestinians allowed on the plateau, prompting warnings from both sides that restrictions could lead to violence.

Europe and U.S. Plan to Supply Gaza by Sea, but Aid Groups Say It’s Not Enough (NYT/Reuters) A day after President Biden announced plans for maritime aid delivery to the Gaza Strip, European leaders said Friday they would deliver aid by ship as early as the weekend. But aid groups and Gaza officials criticized shipments by air or sea as too cumbersome, urging that vastly more food and medicine be supplied by trucks. The complications of delivering aid to the hungry residents of Gaza were underlined on Friday when the authorities in Gaza said at least five Palestinians were killed and several others were wounded after they were struck by packages of humanitarian aid that were dropped from an aircraft. The United Nations has warned that five months of war and an Israeli blockade have left hundreds of thousands of Gazans on the brink of starvation, prompting a variety of proposals to speed the delivery of food and other vital needs. Israel insists on inspecting all supplies going into Gaza, and aid trucks have been allowed in through just two border crossings—one from Egypt and one from Israel—in southern Gaza. One UN official said discussing complicated aid routes to reach territory blockaded by an ally “is absurd in a dark and cynical way.”

[gardenarcana]

Last year the last glitterask was related to new years resolutions, how did yours go? Did you accomplish something new this year that wasn't in the plan? Is there anything in particular you wish to accomplish for the next year? 😊 Did you travel somewhere fun?

I did pretty ok, I think!

My resolutions for 2023 were: travel more, read more, lose 10 pounds, and to not take things granted.

I definitely did not lose 10 pounds, but I kinda knew that I wasn’t gonna stick to that one lol

As for travel, I went to Colorado, Scotland, New Orleans, and New England. And I ate some really great food everywhere I went! High tea at the Balmoral hotel, alligator cheesecake in Nola, and the best ramen I’ve ever had in Boston.

I read 51 books this year! Which is a lot for me. Historical romances have really got me back into reading and I’m loving it.

I think I did a really good job appreciating and cherishing all the good things in my life this year. I have a wonderful partner, a job I don’t hate, great friends, and a good family.

One thing I accomplished that wasn’t in the plan was that I got back into writing! I signed up for a poetry workshop back in the spring, led by Carrie Fountain. She’s an amazing poet and I was lucky to be her student when I was in college so it was lovely to be in a workshop with her again. I wrote some poems that I’m really proud of.

I want to continue the above for 2024. I also want to have a baby. So we’ll see what happens lol.

What are your goals for 2024?

[eunoiareview]

Hardly National News

I whisper myself to sleep at the La Quinta Motel in Colorado Springs, my eyes exhausted after a day of driving, darkness enveloping the city limits, only minutes after I witness a tangerine sunset. It’s now that I forget hairpin turns on those unmapped side excursions, fragments of poems scribbled on the back of paper menus, before I think about you. Dr. Jim Brosnan is the author of Nameless…

[bonesgazette]

Bones Gazette: Back from my Unannounced Hiatus

Hello and welcome back to the Bones Gazette! It’s been a while—seven months to be exact (which pains me to admit, but hey—shit happens). What can I say? Life got a little crazy for me and this blog took a long retreat to the Back Burner of my mind. I apologize for the time away, but I am so glad to be back!

MJ Bones has had an incredible year, one I had intended to document as it was happening. I kicked off the year with a lovely east coast weekender with my friends BlueRaspberry. Together, we took on Providence, Rhode Island, at the Red Ink Library. Of course, any place that has a communist library/event space is cool in my book. The secret coffee bar in an off-the-beaten-path vintage bike repair shop was just the icing on the cake. Not to mention the homebrew wrestling scene that thrives in the backyard of the people we stayed with. It’s safe to say that Providence bewitched me, body and soul.

From Providence, we made a mad dash to Portland, Maine, where we killed it at Find clothing store. The owner was kind enough to gift me a vintage dress just for playing, and the space was packed with a capital “P”. With Portland favorites Myles Bullen and The Bumbling Woohas as the local support, I didn’t expect anything less. As a teenager, I had always dreamed of moving to Maine. I had never been to the east coast, and admittedly knew very little about Maine in particular—but it made for the perfect thing to project my domestic fantasies onto. I wrote countless poems about the salty sea air, the weathered fisherman at the docks, the grey mornings spent sipping black coffee on my porch, a knit shawl wrapped loosely around my shoulders. For a kid who knew nothing of the place I longed to reside in, I wasn’t that far off. Portland was just as charming as I had hoped it would be, and I have been itching to go back ever since.

The third day was spent at the Wrong Brain headquarters in Dover, New Hampshire. Atmospheric, vibrant, bursting with color—the place was electric, eclectic, and alive. Though the turn out made for a rather intimate show, I had a blast just inhabiting the space for a few hours. In addition to throwing DIY shows, Wrong Brain hosted resident artists, clothing swaps, and was big into community outreach. It was so inspiring to witness a slice of that radiant human spirit. Unfortunately, the headquarters is closing down until further notice—read about it on their instagram to see how you can support them during the transition.

Finally, we closed the tour in Rockland, Massachusetts at the Chess Company, former home to Justin Arena’s Together Press. Mass powerhouses A Day Without Love and Chris OG and the Dopameanies absolutely knocked our collective socks off. After the show, Justin gave me a tour of their schoolie conversion, which was coming along rather nicely. Together Press is now moving into a new headquarters, expanding into a community arts and education collective. As I stated with Wrong Brain—read about it on the ‘gram to learn more and show your support. 

After the tour, things slowed down for me in some ways and picked up in others. I got hired as a barista and started volunteering more at a local bookstore. Playing local shows here and there, my focus shifted away from music a bit in the name of laying down roots in my new city. I spent much of the spring writing, planning, and taking it day by day.

Summer, however, was a little more happenin’ in the Bones World. I hosted a 27 Club themed show in honor of my 27th birthday, was defeated by the confusing (to me) realm of Amtrak—resulting in tragically missing my dear friend’s birthday fest in Maryland—and drove across the country to play Compost Heap in Denver, Colorado. The season wrapped up with an absolutely killer show at Cafe Nine with the likes of Eevie Echoes and the Locations, Tallbois, and Kmoy. I got to catch up with pals I hadn’t seen since the spring and make some new ones. The highlight of the evening was getting decked in the pit by The Northaven while skanking around with reckless abandon. I also dropped a few secret singles amidst the end of the summer: a demo of “Surely”, a cover of “Shady Lane” by Pavement, and my first new track in a few years, “Clementine”. It’s a wistful song about the daydreams and idyllic future plans that never get realized when you break up with someone. Check it out on spotify or bandcamp!

And that’s all for the recap of my year thus far! To keep it brief, I’m signing off—but keep your eyes peeled for what’s happening this fall. 

Love and anarchy,

—xMJx