Henri with California poppies and invisible rattlesnakes.
📷@dapowell.social.bsky

Me, Henri, moon.

Moon over Claremont

Moon viewing with the maestro, @henricole.bsky.social

California poppies near Lake Elsinore.

Rattlesnakes weren't around, so I took a moment to sit at the edge of the trail and bathe in the light of the poppies. (Photo by @henricole.bsky.social )

CNN headline that says Trump delivers a deadly blow to EPA’s ability to regulate climate pollution

The president is overruling science to eliminate measures that protect us from pollution and environmental damage, mainly to benefit multinational corporations that have thrown money at his campaign, ballroom, and family.

It's simple corruption, and it will cost American lives and livelihoods.

Everything Trump touches dies. Everything he believes is wrong.

(AP) - Voters are worried about the cost of housing. But Trump wants home prices to keep climbing

Trump’s big lie that he won in 2020 has spread to the rest of the GOP and his allies in the right wing like Steve Bannon. It is all a pretext to disrupt the 2026. They cannot succeed or our democracy will fall.

“Birdbath” “Standing at the window, I watch robins clean themselves / in the cement birdbath.”

Read the poem "Birdbath" by @henricole.bsky.social:

Rachmaninoff - Prelude in D major, Andante cantabile, Op.23 No.4 Sergei Rachmaninov - Prelude in D major (Andante cantabile), Op.23 No.4

I need to be soothed.
soundcloud.com/charliefin/r...

Let Them Eat Cake: While Minneapolis Mourned, Trump Hosted a Melania Gala As protesters froze in the streets after the killing of Alex Pretti, Trump’s elite celebrated a $75 million vanity film—another glimpse of a family governing like royalty.

While Minneapolis mourned a man killed by federal agents, Trump’s elite gathered in black tie to celebrate a Melania vanity film.
This is what a ruling family looks like.
Let them eat cake.

open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...

In an elegy, death wins.
In an ode, it is life that wins.
I would much rather think of life as a series of odes,
with elegies dropping in
on occasion
to keep joy contained

Congratulations to Nicholas Boggs, Amanda Vaill, and Henri Cole for being recognized by the NBCC.

BALDWIN: A LOVE STORY is a finalist for the John Leonard Prize.
PRIDE AND PLEASURE is a finalist for the NBCC Award in Biography.
THE OTHER LOVE is a finalist for the NBCC Award in Poetry.

I'm off social media for the indefinite future, but popping up briefly to post this, because otherwise how will anybody know about it? Me and the brilliant Howard Norman at the Harvard Book Store on January 21, talking about Matthiessen. Free, no ticket required. Please come if you're in Boston.

While you’re smiling coyly with Duke Ellington, you might consider doing the same with another jazzy Duke—Vernon—whose memoir and poems have just been recommended at “First Things” by the great John Wilson. Do what Wilson says @pauldrybooks.bsky.social!

The pleasure of just building a small fire at home and simply sitting in front of it is almost unparalleled

BREAKING: ICE announces it has detained Santa Clause because he entered the country illegally and without documentation.

"Nobody is above the law," said Pam Bondi, "especially communists who just want to give things away."

Being an Earth Ecstatic: Poet Diane Ackerman on the Spirituality of Wonder Without Religion Branchings of belief from the lovely common root of “holy” and “whole” in the interleaving of all things.

For those of us uneasy with religion, Diane Ackerman has a denomination – "Earth ecstatic" – and a poem-prayer about the spirituality of wonder www.themarginalian.org/2020/12/23/d...

A space, a moment in which we can safely trust — that may be the most useful and valuable gift we can give one another.

Remembering Thomas Kinsella, who died on December 22, 2021, aged 93.

I wrote about the books, movies, and music I loved in 2025.
garthgreenwell.substack.com/p/2025-favor...

national book critics circle 2025 LONGLIST POETRY After You Were, I Am, by Camille Ralphs (McSweeney's) Chronicle of Drifting, by Yuki Tanaka (Copper Canyon) Death of the First Idea, by Rickey Laurentiis (Knopf) Into the Hush, by Arthur Sze (Copper Canyon) Night Watch, by Kevin Young (Knopf) The Other Love, by Henri Cole (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Salvage, by Hedgie Choi (University of Wisconsin) small lives, by Gary Jackson (University of New Mexico) Stay Dead, by Natalie Shapero (Copper Canyon) Unravel, by Tolu Oloruntoba (McClelland & Stewart)

national book critics circle 2025 LONGLIST POETRY After You Were, I Am, by Camille Ralphs (McSweeney's) Chronicle of Drifting, by Yuki Tanaka (Copper Canyon) Death of the First Idea, by Rickey Laurentiis (Knopf) Into the Hush, by Arthur Sze (Copper Canyon) Night Watch, by Kevin Young (Knopf) The Other Love, by Henri Cole (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Salvage, by Hedgie Choi (University of Wisconsin) small lives, by Gary Jackson (University of New Mexico) Stay Dead, by Natalie Shapero (Copper Canyon) Unravel, by Tolu Oloruntoba (McClelland & Stewart)

Announcing the National Book Critics Circle 2025 Longlist for Poetry

Going to Mexico City? Here's Some ID (and Other) Advice If you're an ID doctor, you'll be asked by friends for travel advice -- comes with the territory. Here's a recent example.

Giving travel advice is a common task for ID doctors, and here's a recent example. Thanks to @docdelrio.bsky.social for the advice!
(And Mexico City is amazing, highly recommended)
paulsaxmd.substack.com/p/going-to-m... #IDSky

Janet Malcolm A last laugh.

Janet Malcolm
open.substack.com/pub/lauriest...

My best friends were happily living together for 29 years and then, bam, they quietly eloped. So next year will be their 30th anniversary of living together but only their first anniversary of marriage. How will I shop for this? I have only a year to figure it out.

Husbands

Up close image of brown & black striped slender cat, ears perked, eyes wide, front legs stretched out on a sofa chair

My 19 year old boy just got his annual test results & turns out he actually got healthier in the past year! Unbelievable at his age! His kidney disease is basically in remission & his high blood pressure is no longer! Here he is getting the news. Also, he went blind this year. Happy #Caturday

A bouquet fresh from the garden to brighten up your weekend

Poem Sometimes everything seems so oh, I don't know.

"Poem" by Joe Brainard.