Poems and Whiskey

To be witnessed, revealed, if even only to ourselves is why we're all muddling around in this mess. Art is to be seen, for the circuit to complete it requires engagement. Including laughter. Lean into the cringe and be free babies! To everything there is a season, turn, turn, turn etc. You know the song.Three cheers for Chrissy Stegman!In the Darkening Blue ⭐Mentions:Elisheva FoxJared BeloffFrancesca LeaderGISH (I miss you.)Ruben QuesadaBlack Square by Kazimir Malevich🛋️ Come over to Lamp Lit and say hi! 🛋️Good people doing good things --->Food Not BombsJail Support LAAmnesty InternationalRandom Acts Natural Disaster RecoveryINARA Cease Fire Today, MAP, Islamic Relief for Palestine, The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children's FundLegacy of War FoundationUNHCR,*I profit off nothing in this bizarre hubristic venture. It is a vehicle for expression, education, and artistic play (probably a little bit of a humiliation kink too if we're being honest here lol).**Hey hey, btw, all those do gooders I link to? They have no idea who I am and have nothing to do with me (and I like it that way). I just think they're neat.

To have something better, we have to dream it first. Whatever form it takes, you are allowed to create for yourself, for the joy and discovery it brings.All of us have to learn how to invent our lives, make them up, imagine them...If we don't, our lives get made up for us by other people. - Ursula K. Le Guin: The Operating Instructions in The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination (2004)Amy Le Ann's tree of links🛋️ Come over to Lamp Lit and say hi! 🛋️Mentions:Rebecca Gayle HowellCovid Garden WorkshopRoss Gay, Book of DelightsGuy Clarke, Cold Dog SoupKentucky Foundation for WomenAndi TillmanA.P. HarborTerry Tempest Williams, The Hour of LandUniversity Press of KentuckyEastern Kentucky Mutual AidWillie Carver Jr.Good people doing good things --->Food Not BombsRandom Acts Natural Disaster RecoveryINARA Cease Fire Today, MAP, Islamic Relief for Palestine, The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children's FundLegacy of War FoundationUNHCR,*I profit off nothing in this bizarre hubristic venture. It is a vehicle for expression, education, and artistic play (probably a little bit of a humiliation kink too if we're being honest here lol).**Hey hey, btw, all those do gooders I link to? They have no idea who I am and have nothing to do with me (and I like it that way). I just think they're neat.

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.*Episode contains themes of gun violence,*THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213 th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Museum and Library The Website™️and then there's me...sorry bit of a let down after Kurt but hey...The bird is a red-winged blackbird and I snagged the call hereGood people doing good things --->Food Not BombsRandom Acts Natural Disaster RecoveryINARA Cease Fire Today, MAP, Islamic Relief for Palestine, The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children's FundLegacy of War FoundationUNHCR,*I own and profit off nothing in this bizarre hubristic venture. It is a vehicle for expression, education, and artistic play (probably a little bit of a humiliation kink too if we're being honest here lol).**Hey hey, btw, all those do gooders I link to? They have no idea who I am and have nothing to do with me (and I like it that way). I just think they're neat.***Third Wednesdays with Kurt pod cover is based on Carin Goldberg's stunning designs, in particular my own cover of Slaughterhouse-Five by Dell.

It is worth taking hold of your creativity as participant. You're part of the show and the making is the point. "...no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow." -- K.V. Jr.Cheers babies!Todd's Site & Insta & Blue Sky Buy The Ways We Vanish & Ragnarök at the Father Daughter Dance🛋️ Come over to Lamp Lit and say hi! 🛋️Mentions:Okay DonkeyClaudia RankineJericho BrownTony HoaglandMark DotyNick FlynnAsimov'sStrange HorizonsHeady Topper BeerLibre OfficeRohin GuhaNiina PollariDavid WojciechowskiTaco Bell QuarterlyBen KlineCynthia MoonAmanda AucterThree PennySouthern ReviewFairytale ReviewVariant LitPostcard LitGood people doing good things --->Food Not BombsRandom Acts Natural Disaster RecoveryINARA Cease Fire Today, MAP, Islamic Relief for Palestine, The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children's FundLegacy of War FoundationUNHCR,*I profit off nothing in this bizarre hubristic venture. It is a vehicle for expression, education, and artistic play (probably a little bit of a humiliation kink too if we're being honest here lol).**Hey hey, btw, all those do gooders I link to? They have no idea who I am and have nothing to do with me (and I like it that way). I just think they're neat.

John Compton's s3 return! (cw: mentions of and poems read concerning sexual violence. take care y'all.)Let's see! *cracks knuckles* John and I talk community, and community, and community this time. We are part of a community; how are we showing up for it? We often ask what we're getting out of something but what are we putting in?And a miracle on par with other well known phenomena, we actually talk about our work and process! I know! I'm just as surprised!Cheers y'all!"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." - K.V.Jr.🛋️ Come over to Lamp Lit and say hi! 🛋️Mentions:Flowersong pressBlack Mountain PressLit Mag NewsGhost City ReviewEthel ZineGrolier Poetry Book ShopTiffany TroyCLMPSmall Harbor PublishingOne ArtAs it Ought to BeGood people doing good things --->Food Not BombsRandom Acts Natural Disaster RecoveryINARA Cease Fire Today, MAP, Islamic Relief for Palestine, The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children's FundLegacy of War FoundationUNHCR,*I own and profit off nothing in this bizarre hubristic venture. It is a vehicle for expression, education, and artistic play (probably a little bit of a humiliation kink too if we're being honest here lol).**Hey hey, btw, all those do gooders I link to? They have no idea who I am and have nothing to do with me (and I like it that way). I just think they're neat.

To define self, one must first be able to have the breathing room to distinguish the forest from the trees. As the spaces around letters tell us how to read them and the negative space around art gives us context for an image, so can creation gifts us opportunity for expansion and clarity. Elisheva and I turn over every card in the deck and then make up a few of our own in the damn near 3 HOUR conversation and I wouldn't trade a damn second.Anger that we're all feeling right now is a sacred thing babies, for without love, it wouldn't be there.Cheers y'all!Elisheva's Links I'm still here 🧡🛋️ Come over to Lamp Lit and say hi! 🛋️Mentions:Rene Magritte: La Blanc "The Blank Signature"SubmittableBelle Point PressAmerican Radiance: Luisa MuradyanIn the Dream House: Carmen Maria MachadoRena YehudaIn the Darkening BlueVPNJesse WellesRabbi Danya RuttenbergFyodor PavlovOnce Upon a Dyke is the smutty fairytale book I didn't say the title of lolCauldron Born: Kristoffer HughesThe Enchanted TarotThe Wilde Wood TarotGood people doing good things --->Food Not BombsRandom Acts Natural Disaster RecoveryINARA Cease Fire Today, MAP, Islamic Relief for Palestine, The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children's FundLegacy of War FoundationUNHCR,*I own and profit off nothing in this bizarre hubristic venture. It is a vehicle for expression, education, and artistic play (probably a little bit of a humiliation kink too if we're being honest here lol).**Hey hey, btw, all those do gooders I link to? They have no idea who I am and have nothing to do with me (and I like it that way). I just think they're neat.

Welcome back to Poems & Whiskey, babies! Didja miss me? I missed you. It's good to be back. Kissing you all! (Appropriately, of course.) Charles K. Carter and I get rolling fast.Breaking down boundaries is the name of game. Why do we insist on separating our heads from our bodies? The mind is not better than our animal selves and doesn't know more. We are consistently being told who we are, what we should be doing, and whom we should be doing it for. Fuck that. Growth happens when we expand and accept all parts of ourselves, as people and in community. Resist against those who preach division and fear. Content does not exist, there is only art and effort and there is no real failure in art. Lean into the discomfort, that is also home. This world is ours to make, and revise.Season 3 is gonna kick so much ass.Cheers y'all!Mentions:When the Body Says No : Gabor MateWillie Carver's P & W ep, Gay Poems for Red StatesAlanis Morrisette's PodcastI'm still here and that lit mag I mentioned starting is now live! 🛋️ Come over to Lamp Lit and say hi! 🛋️Good people doing good things ---> Food Not BombsRandom Acts Natural Disaster RecoveryINARA Cease Fire Today, MAP, Islamic Relief for Palestine, The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children's FundLegacy of War FoundationUNHCR,*I own and profit off nothing in this bizarre hubristic venture. It is a vehicle for expression, education, and artistic play (probably a little bit of a humiliation kink too if we're being honest here lol).**Hey hey, btw, all those do gooders I link to? They have no idea who I am and have nothing to do with me (and I like it that way). I just think they're neat.

🚪👁️Welcome to the Hiatus Zone 👁️🚪Must Be Enoughep 1.5I read (coughcough *over act* coughcough) three pieces. Headphones are recommended.Where We Must Look for Help : Robert Bly from Eating the Honey of WordsThere Will Come Soft Rains : Ray Bradbury from The Martian ChroniclesIt's a Little Anxious to be a Very Small Animal Entirely Surrounded by Water - piglet : Sam Sax from Pig*in the second to last line, I changed one word for the sake of medium. Sam Sax ordinally wrote "...that you are reading this...". I changed "reading" to "hearing".Thank you for visiting. The Door is now closed until next Hiatus, but you can still find me if you say your right words.Good people doing good things ---> Food Not BombsRandom Acts Natural Disaster RecoveryINARA Cease Fire Today, MAP, Islamic Relief for Palestine, The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children's FundLegacy of War FoundationUNHCR,*I own and profit off nothing in this bizarre hubristic venture. It is a vehicle for expression, education, and artistic play (probably a little bit of a humiliation kink too if we're being honest here lol).**Hey hey, btw, all those do gooders I link to? They have no idea who I am and have nothing to do with me (and I like it that way). I just think they're neat.