Merciless troll lord

Lil contrapuntal out with Cordite poetry journal last month, featuring Lactarius mushrooms (this one is edible!) & the horrors of fanmade Pokémon fusions (Milfing is Miltank + Koffing, on which I had to make an explanatory slideshow when I read this for our MFA program's sponsor, see attached)

Last thing I'll make in the States for a while! Oil painting on wood, finished as a Leo's birthday gift before I head home to Aotearoa 🦁

Michigan winters are for the lovers... and the Pokedex remains an excellent source of negs for your fellow 90s kids...... thanks Hera & @thespinoff.bsky.social for having me ❄️ 🐎 🔥

thespinoff.co.nz/pop-culture/...

Reminder we're reading poetry for the next issue of Sweet Mammalian! Subs are free, and we pay (from our own pockets, as an unfunded indie journal but big believers in our writers' work). We'd especially love to see more work from Aotearoa poets 💖

Beasts of humidity

Jack-in-the-pulpit in sunlit woods

Jack-in-the-pulpit in sunlit woods

Jack-in-the-pulpit in sunlit woods

Jack-in-the-pulpit in sunlit woods

ConConclave this conclave that why is nobody talking about the announcement of the jack-in-the-pulpit in the woods

We're open for submissions at Sweet Mammalian! Full guidelines here: www.sweetmammalian.com/submissions

Abuzz to be Sixth Finch's spring issue! With an ode to having a couple beers in the Ann Arbor sun, and a summery mem'ry from the 4th of July in California last year 🎇 SF is one of my favourite journals to read and I couldn't be happier to share work here ❤️‍🔥

sixthfinch.com/mainspring25...

Nawlins bound from frigid Michigan! See you soon for the New Orleans Poetry Festival - I'll be roundtabling with some fave poets about the works of Tina Darragh and new printing of her Mutant Solidarities from Blue Bag Press ⚠️☢️⚠️

I LOVE it

A beautiful grasshopper molt. It’s very detailed but translucent. Almost all the legs are entirely intact.

Look at this grasshopper molt!! It is beautiful!

learning about the fossorial lifestyle of the spotted salamander, very happy for them, not jealous at all

Thanks for the link - they publish gorgeous work!

My microchap—the photo I don’t write about—is here! Available from Tilted House

www.tiltedhouse.org/shop/the-pho...

Worm theology is the idea in Christian culture that in light of God's holiness and power an appropriate emotion is a humble view of self.[citation needed] The name may be attributed to a line in the Isaac Watts hymn Alas! and Did My Saviour Bleed (Pub 1707)[1] which says "Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?" Furthermore, worm theology can be attributed to a recognition of the ugliness of sin, resulting in contrition.

God would still love you if you were a worm

Bro come by we’re gonna eat a ton of acorns and then take a nap in a hollow tree

A life sized cardboard cut-out of a huntaway dog from a Tux ad in my parents' living room,.that looks exactly like our """"retired""""" farm dog Stanley

Good Boy . jpeg

Dad catching some serious strays in my one (1) maudlin divorce poem

Shows a pages of a detailed illuminated manuscript, with flowers, gold gilt and painted figures in a scene with animals

On International Women’s day, we’re celebrating Dr Nellie Eales. Thanks to her, we have treasures like this 1420’s ‘Book of Hours’, and our Cole collection.

[MS 2087]

a sonnet crown from We Contain Landscapes (out 3/18 with @tinhouse.bsky.social) is in latest issue of The New Yorker 🖤

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

New fire from Anthony DiCarlo on @havehashad.com ❤️‍🔥🔔🐚

www.havehashad.com/hadposts/2-p...

Thanks so much for reading 💕

An illuminated manuscript page featuring a large, detailed drawing of a golden sun with radiating beams at the centre against a circular terracotta background, surrounded by text in Latin script.

The sun is trying to come out in Oxford today, so to celebrate please enjoy this illustration from MS Bodl 614 (which you can explore on Digital Bodleian here: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/a43b...).

It's a 12th Century treatise on astronomy with some beautiful illuminations. #MedievalMondays

Poet prom face brought to you by the $4 Shrek Puss in Boots eyeshadow palette from TJ Maxx

Gutters of Ann Arbor

A THIRD DISTANCE by Max Lavergne. A friend in need is a friend indeed - and the enemy of my enemy is my friend, whether I need them or not - and I keep them close, with the rest of my friends, but not as close as I keep my enemies, who I keep closer still - unless by some anomaly of the enemy/friend calculus I am forced to maintain a third distance from them - perhaps less close, or even closer yet, or so similar to the closeness I maintain to my friends and my enemies that I can't tell who is which one, if any, or neither. And revenge is a dish best served cold - and the best revenge is success, which is why I am laying the foundations of a thousand year empire - to silence my enemies, and also why I'm not telling anyone about it - not yet - not until its longevity is so assured that all heat has dispersed from it completely, and I am able to serve the fact of my triumph on a tray of rock ice to the surprised recipients of my vengeance - and also to myself, for when seeking revenge one must dig two graves, with one grave for yourself, which is still true when your revenge is success, and also because I would have to be my own worst enemy to deliberately thwart the satisfaction of my eternal dominion - and I don't know how far away to keep that. Please subscribe to my Substack: infinitegossip.substack.com

A THIRD DISTANCE. check it out on Substack open.substack.com/pub/infinite...

Insisting on calling Christ's stigmata the "Glory Holes"

Screenshot from Severance of Mr Milkshake's performance review, the first complaint being "uses too many big words"

Received feedback on my poems again 😔

.

Love Poem

There is no question
of choice, but it takes
a long time.

Love’s vacancies, the eye
& cavity, track
back to embraces

where the spine bends
& quietens
like smoke in the earth.

Your tongue, touching on song,
darkens all songs. Your touch
is almost a signature.

.

Valentine’s Eve HAD Call Love is a dog from hell (or something), and just as St Valentine prepares his feast, it's time for YOU (yes, you) to prepare for a HAD submission call. To celebrate the day of hopeless romantics, gas station roses, waxy chocolate, tasteful vibrators, and ill-advised DM sliding, I, certified lover boy, Jordan Hamel, am handing out skulls. Gimme passion, yearning, sex, heartbreak, friendships, situationships, one-night stands, happy marriages, unhappy marriages, divorces, and everything in between. Will you make HAD the happiest lit journal in all the world? Will I choo-choo-choose you? There’s one way to find out. Send me your best stuff and make your Valentines/Palentines/Galentines/Panama Canalentines one to remember. Max word count: 600. One piece per submission unless it's poems or micros then two is fine. Send three and I’ll break your heart. Subs (and doms) capped at 150.

First HAD call for 2025 incoming!

Certified lover boy @jordanhamel.bsky.social is taking over the reins tomorrow (2/13, 1pm est) for a special Valentine's Day Eve submission call. He's looking for messages in a bottle, DM slides, sad songs for dirty lovers, and more.

Details in image/alt text.