Keeping Your Pants On When There's So Much To Be Done Or, why buying seeds is a great example of the action in non-action

Check out my newest Substack piece, in which I push a few metaphors and think a bit more about planting seeds, politics, and the "action" in the daoist concept of non-action.
ryanmccarty.substack.com/p/keeping-yo...

What the latest GEO negotiations teach us about institutional power Sitting and watching, it was clear to me that the process was a lot less efficient than just sitting down and talking face-to-face, which is why shuttle diplomacy is usually reserved for negotiations ...

Check out my latest piece about how the University of Michigan pretends to be a labor-friendly institution, then strongarms its own grad student workers.
www.michigandaily.com/opinion/op-e...

Ode to Leg Hair by Ryan McCarty – Cider Press Review

I am tickled by this new poem coming out, like the tickle of someone you love getting leg-hair shivers and prickling you in the middle of the night as winter comes on.
ciderpressreview.com/cpr-volume-2...

Poetry, Protest, and Presidential Welcome Emails How the University of Michigan Interim President Misrepresented Robert Frost and Why that Matters

Misrepresenting Robert Frost in things like Welcome Back emails isn't uncommon, but Michigan President Grasso did it to send a clear message that the university will continue to persecute protestors. Boooo. #goblue
ryanmccarty.substack.com/p/poetry-pro...

That he asks for a V for Vendetta movie sequel and not a comic book sequel is all we need to know about the degradation of his cultural work . . .

"Disappearances" a poem by Ryan McCarty — Collateral Journal a literary journal publishing literary and visual art concerned with the impact of violent conflict and military service beyond the combat zone. poetry, fiction, nonfiction and visual arts

My new poem in Collateral starts with the murder of Refaat Alareer and tracks the inevitable effect of so much death on all of us. But they blew up this silly picture of me for the thumbnail . . .
www.collateraljournal.com/poetry/rmcca...

Today, Ryan McCarty shares his ‘sort-of cento,’ What Will Poets Do Now?, along with his thoughts on revision, the creative opportunities he finds on his bus-ride commutes, and how he thinks of success as a writer. Thanks Ryan!

pinholepoetry.ca/an-interview...

Separation by Ryan McCarty Separation Sometimes I feel like fatherhood is a matter of standing still, holding the crack of light open, listening for the rumpled sigh of a child back in bed, the terror leaking in through loos…

This one has a darker tone that doesn't always show up often in my writing . . . but I'm damn happy to see it in the company of such great poets and poems.

Separation by Ryan McCarty oneartpoetry.com/2025/04/29/s...

As markets take a beating, there’s lots of writing about this being caused byTrump's incompetence, but he seems surrounded by people who would love to design a fire sale like this to snatch things up on the cheap. Love to see thoughts @thedigradio.bsky.social @timbarker.bsky.social . . . etc

Dark Stories and Trash Rotting in the Yard or, My Daughter is the Coolest 11 yr Old I Know.

It's a hard world out there. Maybe it's worth thinking about the stories we tell about that . . .
ryanmccarty.substack.com/p/dark-stori...

If universities actually cared about education more than their billion-dollar profit machine athletic programs, they wouldn't open sales of next season's tickets during school hours. Just saying . . .

We Can Make the World Better by noticing that it's still beautiful.

About a poem I met on the bus.
ryanmccarty.substack.com/p/we-can-mak...

I Wish You the Opposite of Suicide What's the word for the decision to throw yourself recklessly off the cliff, to disappear into life?

Why don't we have a word that is the opposite of suicide? A word for the decision to throw yourself recklessly into life? To disappear into living?

ryanmccarty.substack.com/p/i-wish-you...

When you spend time week after week with incarcerated folks, with folks in shelters, folks in tough places, and one is moving on, you can say "I'm looking forward to not seeing you next time!" and it's this thing we don't have a word for, the opposite of suicide, where someone disappears into life.

YouTube video by Porno for Pyros - Topic Pets

When a Beck album ended, the algorithm took me to Porno for Pyros, and it occurred to me that the shift in waiting for the inevitable takeover of aliens to waiting for the inevitable AI takeover is that AI is just so much more boring. Computers would never keep us as pets.
youtu.be/mFkRvF8MeYM?...

U-M Dearborn increased class sizes; Ann Arbor should take notice In all these instances, we can see the University Administration strategically increasing workloads for instructors and reducing support for graduate and undergraduate students, worsening working and learning conditions.

Really happy to see this piece I wrote with one of my UM Dearborn colleagues published. Less happy to have to point out more austerity moves by the University of Michigan. Increasing writing section caps from 15 to 30 students is bad for students and teachers!
www.michigandaily.com/opinion/op-e...

Sometimes It's the Invisible Fights Too? I love a good march, but I love solidarity more.

ryanmccarty.substack.com/p/sometimes-...

Fuck the Inauguration and a new poem about bugs and dinosaurs and you & me.

ryanmccarty.substack.com/p/fuck-the-i...

Hmmm. So, I'm new around here, and maybe it's me, but the site seems like it's just a place for me to be contacted by hooker bots? I might need to just start walking around and talking to people . . .

“One Brother Said to the Other, ‘Let’s Go into the Fields'” by Philip Levine Beyond the old barn a small stream ran all those winter days, and beyond the stream almost nothing grew except weeds, poke grass, burdock, scatterings

If you
stood still and let the pale sunlight descend
around you and said nothing, you’d catch
the echo of human voices, but better not
to hear what was said.

—Philip Levine

Right on! I was hoping that was the case. I love Poets Respond. Thanks!

It's a lot of work to meet with every student individually at the beginning of the semester, but I think it pays off in all kinds of intangible connective ways over the course of the semester.

BUT, it also makes the actual work easier all semester. Good teaching isn't only asceticism and altruism!

Forest Fires and The Poetry of Asking for Forgiveness A bit of confluence - funny how that happens when we get mornings off . . .

Thinking about forest fires and poetry and how a lot of things coalesce together in messy ways to make us see something we might not have otherwise. Wrote this thing.
ryanmccarty.substack.com/p/forest-fir...

This was totally helpful - thanks! One thing about the curation discussion made me think about something: do you know if there are editors of other poetry venues out there who consider poems discussed in Critique of the Week as previously curated?