J. L. Yocum

I'm doing one of those November novel-writing challenges, and it's the first time I've ever written more than three pages of fiction. I'm almost at 10,000 words, and I'm having the time of my life.

Is it literary fiction? God no. It's dreckish pulp.

...which is exactly why I'm having so much fun.

...also might be beer?

...I think I spilled coffee on that copy of Volume 2 back in 2005.

A photo of two books on a wooden surface. They are titled “Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of Modern & Postmodern Poetry / Volume One: From the Fin-de-Siècle to Negritude” and “Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of Modern & Postmodern Poetry / Volume Two: From Postwar to Millennium”. Both have printed across the bottom: “Edited by Jerome Rothenberg and Pierre Joris.”

The Pierre Joris- and Jerome Rothenberg-edited 𝑃𝑜𝑒𝑚𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑢𝑚 is hands down my favorite collection of poetry. It’s massive, in two volumes — a total of a 1,684 pages.

Reading all the way through it was one of the formative events in my poetry-writing life.

I was already writing poetry before that, but the exposure to Kafka started me down a surreal path I'm still exploring nearly three decades later.

Fun fact! It was actually Anne Rice who wrote that, in a foreward to a collection of Kafka's stories. But altogether very accurate one way or the other. Kafka's short stories were definitely an influence on my decision to study poetry once I got to university.

Rotating cam around Madeline Island Yacht Club on Madeline Island in southern Lake Superior. // Image captured at: 2025-11-04 04:48:19 UTC (about 1 min. prior to this post) // Current Temp in La Pointe: 46.97 F | 8.32 C // Precip: clear sky // Wind: W at 10.357 mph | 16.66 kph // Humidity: 42%

Current* conditions near La Pointe, WI:

More accurately, this is an Anne Rice quote, but she wrote it in reference to Franz Kafka (as in she describes Kafka’s oeuvre using these words).

Personally, Kafka’s short stories were a major motivator in my choice to study poetry at university. I still get chills when I read “The Bucket Rider.”

Rotating view from the CN Tower overlooking Toronto and Lake Ontario. // Image captured at: 2025-11-03 05:30:16 UTC (about 1 min. prior to this post) // Current Temp in Toronto: 46.22 F | 7.90 C // Precip: clear sky // Wind: SW at 11.498 mph | 18.50 kph // Humidity: 84%

Current* conditions near Toronto, ON:

View from the the end of a dock looking back toward the shoreline in the Thousand Islands area of the St Lawrence River as it expands into Lake Ontario. // Image captured at: 2025-11-03 05:00:03 UTC (about 1 min. prior to this post) // Current Temp in Thousand Islands: 39.66 F | 4.26 C // Precip: clear sky // Wind: S at 6.711 mph | 10.8 kph // Humidity: 83%

Current* conditions near Thousand Islands, ON:

I do wish it were web-based, or at least easier to sync across multiple laptops/phones/operating systems... but for my first stab at long form fiction (I just notched 3,500 words in two days)...

...it'll do.

One day into using Scrivener, and I'm now mad at each and every one of my writer friends who never told me to download it sooner.

Okay okay, I'm finally downloading Scrivener to give it a shot.

It's a perfect encapsulation of everything AI, whether virtual or in an embodied robot:

1) it's expensive
2) it barely ever works
3) and even when it does it needs a human to clean up after it

God I hate Substack.

I don't publish anything on it — I merely read on it. But the UI is infuriating.

There are precious few writers and publications I appreciate enough to endure their Substack-only presence, and I harbor a thoroughly grumpy resentment against all four of them.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York © Morris Louis

1-68 by Morris Louis, 1962
https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137740

View of Chicago skyline from the roof of the Field Museum of Natural History. // Image captured at: 2025-10-28 03:00:17 UTC (about 7 min. prior to this post) // Current Temp in Chicago: 54.06 F | 12.26 C // Precip: few clouds // Wind: ESE at 17.269 mph | 27.79 kph // Humidity: 64%

Current* conditions near Chicago, IL:

…in which case, The Kids™ of the future will be asking “What’s GPT?” the same way The Kids™ of today might not know what “blockchain” means.

Unless it turns out to be a bubble with nowhere near the return on investment that’s getting poured into it, then the economy tanks, and the paid AI turns into a siloed dumpster fire like Facebook, while affordable AI goes the way of Friendster because no one will be willing to pay for it anymore.

I’ve got my “Grève Générale” wildcat t-shirt ready and accessible, just in case.

Shout out to @jlyocum.com and @havehashad.com for publishing this entirely true account of the day of my birth

www.havehashad.com/hadposts/jun...

View looking WSW from neighboring Lakewood OH over Lake Erie to the Cleveland skyline. // Image captured at: 2025-10-21 02:24:53 UTC (about 1 min. prior to this post) // Current Temp in Lakewood: 48.05 F | 8.92 C // Precip: clear sky // Wind: S at 9.216 mph | 14.83 kph // Humidity: 79%

Current* conditions near Lakewood, OH:

Lucky to have had two poems in @havehashad.com -- many thanks to @jlyocum.com for choosing them and to @neonpajamas.bsky.social, whose delightful weekly prompts inspired the first!

A screenshot of the poem linked above. I don't have time to write the whole thing out but I'll come back!

Ok I screwed up the first time I tried to post--but! Pretty cool to have a piece in HAD this morning. Thanks @jlyocum.com and @havehashad.com

www.havehashad.com/hadposts/unl...

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, 1976 © 2016 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

On the Beach by Pablo Picasso, 1937
https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137155

... I am dipping my toes in the "POSSE" ("Post on Own Site, Syndicate Everywhere") method that's recommended by the Indieweb movement, and I'm not hating how it works out so far.

Sonnet 5
https://jlyocum.com/2026/07/01/sonnet-5/

"Sonnet 5" is forthcoming in the July 2026 issue of Moonday Mag.
[Click https://bit.ly/474o8sW to read more 💀🕶️]

old pond
young frog
ripple ripple ripple

--Basho

(& me)

This needs to stop! It deprives me of my excuse for not watching TikToks.

(I hate watching TikToks!)

@pinholepoetry.bsky.social