Diana A

Kate! Somehow it just got thru 🧠 that your cat’s name is Paloma… my beloved last cat (RIP) was named Mita, short for Palomitas de Maiz (b/c I always liked that the literal translation would be “little doves/wings of corn”) 😻
Also, what an adorable photo.
I hope you’re dealing w/TIS withdrawal ok!

Shiny new poetry books shown (on wood) are: We Are Not Where We Are: an erasing of Thoreau’s Walden - Matt Donovan & Jenny George The Syllables Describing Addiction: poems - Kate Daniels Equilibrium- Tiana Clark * : poems - Jenny George Slightly out of frame to the left is a very pretty librarybound copy of Orbital: A Novel - Samantha Harvey … thanks to Oakland Public Library

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Arrived home today after volunteering at The Bookmark (used bookshop of Friends of @oaklibrary.bsky.social ) to the best kind of mail from @bullcitypress.com 📚📦

Thanks to @emilydickinson.bsky.social for hosting Matt Donovan & Jenny George during ✨TIS last week🤍

Such a cursed app. But these are great — so glad you (re)shared!

It’s me (amongst the 🌟crew) 🤗
Thanks for a magical part 3 & a day packed to the brim with amazing poets/craft-tools/ideas… & we’re not even halfway through the week!

Fuck This, Fuck That, Fuck Those In Particular Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and ...

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Same!

Ah! Hi Laurie -- super to connect with you now 💙

Screenshot of a Zoom showing 20 readers from Part 1 of the Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon Reading, a cornerstone of the Tell It Slant Poetry Festival 2025. Most of us are dressed in white in honor of Dickinson

Finished Part 1 of the ED Marathon w/ @emilydickinson.bsky.social today: 2.5 hours of joy (reunited w/ @katebbeall.bsky.social @kasylongauthor.bsky.social @anitaholmes.bsky.social + more) & the kickoff for the Tell It Slant Poetry Festival 2025.
Have you registered (for free)?
bit.ly/TIS-EDM-2025

Emily Dickinson presides over a grid of book covers, “Read It Slant” YEAR ONE: Modern Poetry, Diane Seuss Good Monster, Diannely Antigua Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, Ross Gay Urban History Month, Scott Woods Ghost::Seeds, Sebastian Merrill Scattered Snows, to the North, Carl Phillips One with Others, CD Wright The Tradition, Jericho Brown So to Speak, Terrance Hayes

Here are the books my beloved RIS reading group (@dianalog.bsky.social @kasylongauthor.bsky.social @pounk.bsky.social @anitaholmes.bsky.social & E.F.) has read in the past year, with Dickinson always in our ears.

The @emilydickinson.bsky.social Museum’s Tell It Slant Festival begins today! A week of hybrid events + a marathon reading of all Dickinson’s poems. bit.ly/TIS-EDM-2025

Come for the poetry, stay for the community: I’ve been running a reading group for a year made up of TIS friends & it’s the best!

Yes! Our Read It Slant group is one of the best things in my life, no joke 💖
Thank you for spearheading it, Kate🤍
Thank you for bringing us together, @emilydickinson.bsky.social
Thank you for being our guiding star/saint, Emily Dickinson 💫

My Sealey Challenge stack of books sits in sun on a wooden dresser with an ornate circular silver mirror behind. All the spines show, they’re in order read from bottom up. 3 yellow spacers have added blue “*[Title]” labels on them & a vertical addition on the right side reads “The *s denote audiobooks, library books I had to return before August 31, & a book I passed on to my brother🩵”

#SealeyChallenge complete 🎉

Thanks for another amazing August, @sealeychallenge.bsky.social & @nicolesealey.bsky.social

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It’s not too late to 🙏🏻donate direct — open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com/products/sea... — to #FeedGaza w/ @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social

[library book sits on wood] Cover art by Eben Nwaokpani shows a black person crouched on mossy rocks at the edge of a large body of water. Over them lean some pink tree leaves/flowers. In the distance, seemingly rising directly out of the water, is a half-ruined city skyline. A few puffy white clouds are in the turquoise & pink sky & in the foreground. Koi swim in the water close to the viewer. 6 pink butterflies flit around the head of the person & upward. [in small black at the top edge:] “Iloh is a writer to watch.” —Jason Reynolds [in huge white, weaving behind & in front of some picture elements:] SALT THE WATER [medium-size, in white, at the bottom, justified right:] CANDICE ILOH [small, italicized:] National Book Award Finalist and Michael L Printz Honoree

#SealeyChallenge 31/31!

Salt the Water by Candice Iloh🌇🌃

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[library book sits on dark velvet couch] Cover illustration by Erin Kirk is a red & purple SW landscape/horizon (spires & other rock formations) under a huge, pink, light blue, then deep blue starry sky, all enclosed in a purple & pink-studded frame w/ pink flowers, a blooming cactus, & turquoise jewelry surrounding it. All text is centered. [in large, very light pink, in the light blue cloudy sky portion:] THE SKY WAS ONCE A DARK BLANKET [below the horizon line, in medium, light blue:] KINSALE DRAKE [below, in small pink:] THE NATIONAL POETRY SERIES [same pink, below, tiny:] SELECTED BY JACQUELINE ALLEN TRIMBLE

#SealeyChallenge 30/31

The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket by @kinsaledrake.bsky.social 🪢🌌

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[book sits on wood] Cover art is 3 b&w family photos clipped up on 2 (drawn) lines with (drawn) clothespins. Photo on the upper right is Marilyn and younger sister Jennifer on the Pacific coast. Photo on the bottom left is Marilyn's mama and daddy, Johnnie and Melvin Nelson, Melvin's aunts Edith and Effic, Marilyn, and Jennifer; on the bottom right is Marilyn, Mama, and Jennifer in the Painted Desert. In very faint grey cursive in the white background, all the titles of the poems in the book are printed. [slightly to the left but also overlapping the top right photo, in large dark grey cursive:] how i discovered poetry [rest of text is justified right & at the bottom. In dark grey medium-size print:] marilyn nelson [in small golden-brown:] illustrations by Hadley Hooper Coretta Scott King Award seal attached at bottom left. It’s a black circle & triangle with silver design & lettering, reading, clockwise from 9, “Peace,” “Non-Violent Social Change,” “Brotherhood,” “HONOR”; above HONOR are 5 tiny religious symbols, above them an open book w/ a person’s face visible behind it (from the eyes up); above that a flying dove w/branch.

#SealeyChallenge 29/31

How I Discovered Poetry by Marilyn Nelson 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒💜

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[book sits on blue velvet couch] All text is in curving black on a pastel green river-rock-shaped space, slightly to the right & downward on the cover. The rock is surrounded by concentric bands of alternating pink & turquoise rippling outward to the edges (& becoming more rectangular as they travel outward). [small print following the upper rounded edge of the rock:] Winner of the X.J. Kennedy Poetry Prize [huge, centered & growing big then small then big then small to echo/fit the rock edges:] GHOST :: SEEDS [medium size, in the lower left round corner of the rock:] Sebastian Merrill A circular silver seal in the upper right corner (with a black triangle, an open book inside, & a large pink dot over the left edge of the book & triangle corner) reads: Stonewall Honor Book American Library Association

#SealeyChallenge 28/31

GHOST :: SEEDS by Sebastian Merrill🛶🌱

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[book sits on wood] Cover art by Hasegawa shows a pale-skinned womanly figure with a white bunny head (or very realistic mask). She’s wearing a puffed-sleeve, tea-length yellow dress & yellow heels. She holds a small yellow cube TV or computer (or medical machine/monitor?) screen with antenna & yellow wires on her left shoulder, like you’d hold a boombox. Her body is turned back toward the viewer, but she seems to be about to walk away. She’s in a dessert landscape with cacti & other grasses/plants, a pile of brown rocks to the right, a glimpse of a sea and beach to the left, a blue & white clouded sky above. [large black text, centered in the sky:] NAOMIE ANOMIE [medium yellow, slightly italicized:] A Biography of Infinite Desire [Running vertically down the right edge, over the dessert in smaller white, italicized:] POEMS BY JENNIFER HASEGAWA

#SealeyChallenge 27/31

Naomie Anomie: A Biography of Infinite Desire by @alohajha.bsky.social 🐇💁🏻‍♀️

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dianalogbooks on Instagram: "#SealeyChallenge 26/31Seeing and Looking by 🎯Damon PotterThe other side of this duplex book — ingenious design by Omnidawn& though…" #SealeyChallenge 26/31Seeing and Looking by 🎯Damon PotterThe other side of this duplex book — ingenious design by Omnidawn& thoughtful & often funny (in a sad way) or sad (in a funny way) exploration of mortality & white male privilege. 🙏🏻sponsor me (under name: dianalogbooks) or donate direct to #FeedGaza — links in bio or via @openpoetrybooks #TheSealeyChallenge2025#TheSealeyChallenge #31BooksIn31Days #31BooksInAugust #poetry {Image 1 description}[book sits on blue velvet couch]Cover art is a photo by Carolyn Ho of art by Truong Tran — closeup of a sculptural piece from his “Targets” series: curved concentric bands of pastel blue, pink, cream, white, grey, red, wood, black. Text is all centered.[near the top, inside a wood curve, in black:]Omnidawn logoFurther down toward the center of the cover, inside the red curve, the title is on 3 lines.[in very large grey]SEEING [smaller, yellow:]a n d [very large yellow:]LOOKING[in the white section, near the bottom, inside dark grey:] damon potter The isbn & barcode is tucked into the white section at lower right edge{Image 2 description}[poem on p 55, part “iii,” in Seeing and Looking shown][top margin:] DAMON POTTER//i should be more like a blackberry thing prickingaggressive the boorish and meanand holding my fruit out to summer bowls: this country is racist and i receive clout bodily safetybecause i am white white folks dont say it we write our books about what we pick up or about fruit

#SealeyChallenge 26/31

Seeing and Looking by 🎯Damon Potter

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[book sits on blue velvet couch] Cover art is a photo by Carolyn Ho of art by Truong Tran — closeup of a sculptural piece from his “Targets” series: curved concentric bands of wood, blue, red & white. Text is overlayed vertically. [In silver, in a straight black margin running next to the spine:] truong tran Further toward the center of the cover, the whole title is on 1 line, inside the blue curve. [in very large cream]LOOKING [smaller, brick red:]a n d [very large grey:]SEEING [toward the right edge, near the end of the blue curve, in white:] Omnidawn logo The isbn & barcode is tucked into the red section at lower right edge

#SealeyChallenge 25/31

Looking and Seeing by Truong Tran 🎯

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Bingo card with diagonal line from upper left to lower right highlighted/completed. From left to right, the squares marked w/yellow Xs are: poem in translation / poem that rhymes / [free space: Sealey Challenge logo] / sonnet (that breaks the rules)! / poem that haunts you

#TheSealeyChallenge2025 BINGO
Thanks, @sealeychallenge.bsky.social 💌

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👆🏻please click to see the poems by
⭐️Christian Lehnert (translator: Richard Sieburth)
⭐️Elizabeth Barrett Browning
⭐️Terrance Hayes
&
⭐️@mosababutoha.bsky.social

PS - more about the cover art: victorianweb.org/painting/san...

Originally recommended to me by @katebbeall.bsky.social — so good! Thank you!

[library book sits on blue velvet couch] Cover art is a zoom in on the painting Helen of Troy by Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys (Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool): Helen’s nose, eyes (gaze directed right & upward), furrowed brow, & red hair, severely parted. All text in white & centered. [on her hair, just over the center part:] POEMS [just above her eyebrows, half behind her curly bangs:] HELEN of TROY, 1993 Across the bridge of her nose:] Maria Zoccola

#SealeyChallenge 24/31

Helen of Troy, 1993 by Maria Zoccola⚡️🥚

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dianalogbooks on Instagram: "#SealeyChallenge 23/31 Strawberries by Barbara Noda🍓👯‍♀️The same day I picked up Stephanie Niu’s (my 1/31 this month) book from O…" #SealeyChallenge 23/31 Strawberries by Barbara Noda🍓👯‍♀️The same day I picked up Stephanie Niu’s (my 1/31 this month) book from OPL (the newest book on the poetry shelf), I picked up this slim but striking volume, (maybe 1 of the oldest on that shelf) published in 1979. Poetry is always on time, & these 2 ladies are pretty kick*ss: you can look em up!🙏🏻sponsor me (under name: dianalogbooks) or donate direct to #FeedGaza — links in bio or via @openpoetrybooks #TheSealeyChallenge2025#TheSealeyChallenge #31BooksIn31Days #31BooksInAugust #poetry {Image 1 description}[library book sits on wood]Cover art, on a white background, is black line drawing portrait of a person from the chest up. They are wearing a richly-patterned, flowered & tiny polka dotted, open-collar top. They have fine straight hair to their shoulders w/bangs that end just above their eyebrows. A (2 bloom & 2 leaf) flower is tucked into their hair on their left side. Their hands are held loosely together just to the right of their chin & lower left cheek. Their gaze is directed slightly to the viewer’s left. All text in red.[At the top, medium-size, left justified:]Barbara Noda[Large, centered, above the art:]STRAWBERRIES [below the art, centered, at bottom edge:][small:] Drawings By [medium:] Wendy Yoshimura{Image 2 description}[poem near the end of Strawberries shown. You can see the shadow of a B&W line drawing by Wendy Yoshimura showing through from the reverse side of the p: a person with shoulder-length dark hair sitting on a short stool resting their cheek on their hand/fist]HER PRESENCE LIKE A SOFT WIND SHE CHIMES THE TEMPLE BELLS//This is my temple of stones ancient and undisturbed and you are the yellow flower I picked by the roadside./Your sun-filled wavering body a mirage of water in a desert falls like an autumn of leaves a season—in this unchanging place. /You follow me on moonbeam slippers where I have never been followed before, like a dying child you gently ease toward heaven.

#SealeyChallenge 23/31

Strawberries by Barbara Noda🍓👯‍♀️

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PPS - I’m signed up to be one of the Marathon readers, M-F Sept 15-19💌
Register (for any level of participation) here: www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/tell-it-slan...

RIS (skeleton crew of me, @katebbeall.bsky.social & @kasylongauthor.bsky.social ) picked this for our August book b/c Hayes headlines the @emilydickinson.bsky.social Tell It Slant Fest this Sept 🤍 (PS - anyone can register, for free, & attend virtually!)
Ie, we are poetry pregaming 🤓📚

[book sits on blue velvet couch] Cover art is Robed, by Terrance Hayes, unfinished 2020 painting based on photograph by Adrian Boot, Marvin Gaye last UK photo session at his West London Apartment 1980. Gaye sits in a white robe on a gray couch; he’s leaning over his bare legs, holding his bare toes on the dark brown floor. His face is tilted upward so that he gazes toward the viewer. [Large blue text across the top:] TERRANCE HAYES [tiny black text, justified left, next to Gaye’s head & just above the couch:] Author of LIGHTHEAD, Winner of the National Book Award [just under the couch, to the right of Gaye’s left hand & foot & next to little orange, black & white Penguin icon, in tiny yellow:] Penguin Poets [in large yellow, starting just under Gaye’s right foot, & justified right:] SO TO SPEAK

#SealeyChallenge 22/31

So to Speak by Terrance Hayes 🎨✍🏾

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Each time I reread F451 (& that’s a lot, as an English tutor for 20+ yrs), I appreciate it & am more freaked out (*that’s* us today, peeps—sorry, yes, more than 1984, more than Brave New World).
Some of his short stories are also perfect. Eg, “A Sound of Thunder” & (lesser known) “Jack in the Box”

[ebook cover on the left 2/3rds; view of a mossy tree trunk, green branches & leaves reaching into the sunny blue sky on the right 1/3rd] Cover art, on a light cream background, is a finger-painted brown forearm and hand w/green fingerprints like leaves all over the fingers & thumb. All text in black. [above the hand, justified left:] FOREST of NOISE [below the hand & slightly to the right, small:] poems [below, next to the forearm, justified right, large:] MOSAB ABU TOHA

#SealeyChallenge 21/31

Forest of Noise by @mosababutoha.bsky.social🤚🌳

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Since this is not instagram I can actually share the Wikipedia p for the amazing lady who (TIL) created this book - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwen_Fr...