(She could always just listen to audio from a Trump rally.)

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“On Valaam Island,” Arkhip Kuindzhi, 1873

Oil on canvas.

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“I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.”

I will bring you flowers from the mountains, bluebells,
dark hazels, and rustic baskets of kisses.
I want to do with you
what spring does with the cherry trees.

from Pablo Neruda’s “Every Day You Play”



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Photo credit: JRennocks, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

Photo of tram in Silesia, Poland, by Oleksandr Dede, 2022

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“Home wasn’t a set house, or a single town on a map.”

“Home wasn’t a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together. Not a place, but a moment, and then another, building on each other like bricks to create a solid shelter that you take with you for your entire life, wherever you may go.”

— Sarah Dessen

(This quote was found on the Ravenous Butterflies Facebook page.)



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“This is my rifle, this is my cup. This one’s for fightin’, this wakes me up.”

I clean my coffeemaker with same care and precision with which a Marine cleans his rifle.

The difference, of course, is that coffee PREVENTS me from killing people.



Spillwords Press publishes “At the Coffee Shop”

I am absolutely honored today to see Spillwords Press publish my love poem, “At the Coffee Shop” — and to further see it included in the literary magazine’s special “Featured Posts” section.

You can find the poem right here.

Thanks once again to Editor Dagmara K. for allowing me to showcase my work in this outstanding online periodical!



Cover to “Justice League of America” #231, Chuck Patton, 1984

DC Comics.

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Hello, Mr. Heron.

I finally got a shot of the heron that hangs out around the beaver dam (?) down at the Roanoke River.



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“In a way, you are poetry material.”

From the Soulful Epiphanies Facebook page:



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Nurse Your Favorite Heresies in Whispers