Hello again! Here's a poem about redcedar
Hey there! It's been years since the Possum has sent a Note. In that time, I've taken on new roles at work, gone on parental leave, moved across the country, biked hundreds of miles, and gotten more daycare-acquired colds than I can count. The cockpit had too many instruments to look at, so something had to go, and it was a regularly published newsletter, at least for a while.
But creative writing is something I don't want to live without. The latest version of this realization came after a dear friend who was a poet passed away this fall. Over the years, he encouraged me as a "comrade in literature" to stick with my writing, but by far his best form of encouragement was his own deep belief in the value and power of poetry, and his prolific output even during the final months of his illness. You can find much of his work here. It's largely in honor of his memory and example that I've made a new commitment to writing and publishing poetry. Today I want to share some of the first poems from this writing/submitting spree that I've been lucky enough to have published. And look: publication isn't everything, but it is a reason to share work with insightful readers in the hope that something here might resonate for them.
Here's a poem in Frozen Sea about redcedar AKA juniper (the ubiquitous scrubby evergreen tree) and about questioning your own established narrative about comforting memories. You can even hear me reading the poem there. Just don't make me listen.
Eunoia Review generously ran five poems I sent them, some of them dating back nearly ten years. I'm excited for "The Canal" to see the light of day. Thanks to my poetry professor Jamie D'Agostino for some very helpful edits on that poem back in the day. It probably would have been a better poem still if I had listened better. I'm also happy to see a poem I wrote as a Christmas present for Priya and inspired by our return to Omaha to make its appearance on the web. Not to mention a poem I wrote as a birthday present for Andrew Beckerle a few years back, kind of a set of haiku-like stanzas about a favorite hiking spot in mid-Missouri. And a couple more. And here's one more poem in ONE ART for the real Gerard Manley Hopkins-heads out there. More on the way later. I haven't published a poem in years, but when it rains, it pours.
A quick note
This message is coming to you through Buttondown, rather than Substack, the original host for Possum Notes. The reasons for moving off Substack are summarized well here by Casey Newton of Platformer: Substack fails to do the bare minimum of content moderation to remove hate speech and obvious Nazi propaganda. Fortunately, it was simple to bring my subscriber list over here to Buttondown. No action needed on your end if you want to keep reading Possum Notes. If you don't, no hard feelings and fare thee well.
Anyway,
it's been a while, for some of us! I'd love it if you'd reply with anything good you've been reading or written yourself, if you've got a minute.