Jeannine Hall Gailey

My hot take: There is no such thing as "Toxic Empathy." There are people who have empathy for others, and there are toxic narcissists, bullies, and assholes. That's it. Those are your choices. #toxicempathydoesnotexist

What you do, Dave, is a lot of what keeps poets together. At least they might see each other, which is so helpful. As a community we are so much stronger than we are alone.

Thanks for including me this week! I wanted to share that one question I got from a visit to a university poetry class was why I still have a blogroll and how it relates to the importance of poetry community. I got to talk about how these things still exist and aren't owned by evil corporations!

On the blog this week: webbish6.com/beginning-no...
Beginning November: Time Changes, Halloween, and Talking to Poetry Students (plus, voting!) #halloween #voting #timechange #november

On the blog this week: A Week of Poetry Friends And Readings, Horror Poetry, Halloween/Samhain, and Some Real Life Scares: webbish6.com/a-week-of-po... #poets #readings #halloween #horrorpoetry

Thank you for including me - I was surprised to see so many of us writing about horror and horror poetry this week! I always think I'm the only weirdo that likes whatever weird genre. And I want to buy that guy's "Space Princess" chapbook!

Microsoft's Azure and Google (less used) web services are still options. It's hardly a one-company show out there. I think AWS is perceived as easier to use, but no one is using the redudancies they should to keep their sites up. That's hard! And costs money. Sigh.

On the blog this week: Halloween, Horror Poetry, and the Big Dark Plus Upcoming Appearances and Poet Friend Visits: webbish6.com/upcoming-app...

Everyone who relies on just one platform or cloud - in this case, AWS - is going to be screwed if any small part of it goes down. I recommend diversifying and backing up, but gigantic companies aren't asking me.

On the blog this week: October Trip to Skagit, Application Anxieties and the Mid-Career Writer and Reading Early Cyberpunk: webbish6.com/october-trip... #cyberpunk #midcareerwriter #skagitvalley

Oh, and sorry, class of 91. I would argue this is why I became a feminist. My little brother had a freshman English professor who assigned all female curriculum, and reading his curriculum was an enlightenment.

Books I was assigned in junior high and high school by women: Awakenings by Kate Chopin. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. No Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, or Brontes. When I asked to do a book report on Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, I was told that was "bodice ripping trash" and not allowed. Cool.

This is why I'm considered a serious literary critic, btw.

Didn't Diane Seuss say "pee" in "Song of my Heart?" I say go for it!

Thank you for including me in this write-up, Dave. I always enjoy reading, and for this reason: listening to other poet's voices gives me hope.

On the blog this week: Happy Fall, Pumpkin Season, Early Sunsets, Supermoons, Health Stuff and Missed Opportunities: Finding Balance: webbish6.com/happy-fall-p... #pumpkins #supermoons #balance #happyfall

Thanks for including me, Dave. Good questions being asked this week.

On the blog this week; Happy Fall! Solarpunk Poetry Talk, Judging Poetry Contests. Pumpkin Patches, How Much to Adventure and Hummingbirds! webbish6.com/happy-fall-s... #solarpunk #poetry #pumpkinpatch #hummingbird #happyfall

Thanks to the @poetryfoundation.bsky.social for giving this piece about my friend Marty Silano, a wonderful poet who passed away a few months ago, a home. We miss you, Marty. www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/172...

I would argue Charlotte Bronte walked so Daphne du Maurier could run.

I just did an algorithm experiment on Facebook. I just put up a mildly political post about free speech, and then posted a poem right after. Which will get more engagement? Sigh.

On the blog: A Tough Week with Bright Spots: Celebrating Poets, Fall Feels and Surprise Cherry Blossoms: webbish6.com/a-tough-week... #fallfeels #celebratingpoets #surpriseblossoms #pacificnorthwestpoets

Thank you for the shoutout!

From @webbish6.bsky.social s book Flare, Corona: bookshop.org/a/862/9781950774920

#poem #books #writing

Well, that's sort of ableist, isnt't it? Just "don't go?"

I will bring up (as someone who was a wheelchair user for some time) that public transport is hard for disabled folks. Driving- and handicapped parking - make navigating the world easier for us.

Thanks for including me, Dave. It seems like a time full of strange augury. Happy September and Lunar eclipse!

Why didn’t some of the Epstein survivors speak out earlier? “I thought someone was going to kill me,” one explained.

As another asked, “Why did the government work so hard to protect Jeffrey Epstein and not victims like me?”

On the blog this week: Happy September and Last Days of Lavender and Hot Air Balloons, Judging Poetry Contests and Preparing for Fall: webbish6.com/happy-septem... #lavender #hotairballoons #poetrycontests #fall

On Being Told You're Dying, but Not Quite Believing It Jeannine Hall Gailey Because around you, the mortal world is always dying, that banana you left behind at breakfast and that calf you just saw mooing for its mother in the pasture. Oh, vaccines and antibiotics and moisturizers can only hold death at bay for so long, its breath on us a push towards the door. Grab your coat, death says, get ready for adventure! Let's play a game in which no one ever dies, all serene and ageless-a universe of unicorns, dynamic as glass, impossible to impassion. After all, angels have no investment in the living, in the dirty nature of breeding and birth, in our grubby hands clutching at the soil from beginning to end, as if to stay a little longer. You remember volunteering in the Children's Hospital ward, little faces as sunny and smiling towards death as they were towards popsicles, or a new set of crayons, while their parents looked on, afraid and weepy. And anyway, is there any way really to prepare for that goodbye, to send your body...elsewhere, to break down quietly? We can choose to time our sorrow. I believe in today, this apple that isn't quite ripe yet, this poem that isn't finished, a bed rumpled with my husband's still sleeping form, my lungs still breathing, my fingers still on this page.

#PoetryMoment
“On Being Told You’re Dying, but Not Quite Believing It”
by Jeannine Hall Gailey
from Flare, Corona
BOA Editions, 2023