I consider August 1st my journaling anniversary.

August 1, 1994 was the first entry in what would become the first journal that I completed.

I had written in diaries before, little notebooks with a lock and key, but I would inevitably abandon them after a few entries.

It took a year and a half to finish that first 3×5 notebook, and it wasn’t until spring 1996 that I began writing almost every day. But a 30+year practice was born on August 1, 1994.

I don’t write nearly as often as I once did — it probably takes me 6 months to complete a journal, whereas in high school I’d fill them up in a matter of weeks. But it’s a practice I have continued into adulthood. The thought of not keeping a regular journal feels as alien to me as not brushing my teeth.

August is the month that feels the most summer to me. I started joking a few years ago that July is my trash month. In July, I barely read, my house gets messy, I eat a lot of junk food while dissociating on the couch under the window A/C unit. August, however, is when I whip into shape, actually make plans with friends, maybe do The Sealey Challenge.

And so, after wanting to start a newsletter for a long time, it made sense that August 1st would be the day to start it.

I am admittedly a little rusty in writing for an audience, so this is an act of mutual trust. Thank you for being here.

What you can expect

Weekly newsletters delivered to you on Friday afternoons at 12pm Pacific time. Some will be long essays. Others will be miscellaneous ephemera. I might include links to things I read or watched or listened to that week. I will always include some action item or mutual aid opportunity.

A newsletter feels like a more focused, less frenetic vehicle than social media for sharing the inspirational, the urgent, the beautiful. My idea is to have an archive of thoughts that’s more searchable and permanent than fleeting Instagram stories or Twitter & Bluesky feeds.

What we’ll cover

The newsletter doesn’t have a set theme. I named it Laur’s Poetica because I am incorrigibly drawn to puns but also because poetry is my language. If Ars Poetica is the art of poetry, this newsletter will spend time with the poetry of daily life. You can look forward to some poetry recommendations, some meditations on poetic lines that moved me, and some promotion of my own published work.

Paid subscriptions

The newsletter is free, but you have an option to upgrade to a paid subscription, of any monthly price of your choosing. All proceeds will benefit The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led mutual aid effort in Gaza providing lifesaving assistance to Palestinians amidst the ongoing genocide perpetrated by Israel and the United States. Every action we take to refuse genocide can mean the difference between life and death. Donating to The Sameer Project helps provide Palestinians with food, water, tents, medical aid, baby formula, diapers, and cash assistance. Each month, I will share how much we collectively donated. I got this idea from Maura Finkelstein, whose newsletter I also highly recommend.

It is difficult to concentrate these days. In addition to witnessing encroaching fascism, multiple genocides, and the acceleration of climate catastrophe, I am still swimming in the sea of grief over my father’s death a year ago. “Swimming” might be too active of a verb — treading water? Hanging on to a kickboard? The personal and collective grief are braided tightly, which I’m sure I’ll be writing about here soon. In the face of so many death-making systems, any move towards life feels vital and necessary. I have found that even the smallest gestures of care restore my reservoir of hope. I hope that, this week, you find something to do that affirms your own life and the lives of others. I would love to hear about it.