I have three new poems out in the world at Contemporary American Voices. Thank you very much to Sherry O’Keefe for nominating me for inclusion! Mine are the second set of the poems, but please read them all, if able.

A note on King-Sized Bed: This was written two years ago, during a very hard time for me when I was going through the end of a long relationship, + bedbugs! Thank goodness that the relationship is still over and the bedbugs are gone–life moving forward!

I also wanted to share two photos from a recent reading I did as part of Three Dozen Poets for Change. The reading was organized by my writing teacher, Leonard Gontarek, and featured a lot of other readers from my workshop and other area Philadelphia poets. This took place as part of the 100,000 Poets for Change event on September 27th.

The night before I went to one of the best poetry readings I have ever been to, with a lineup of people published by Bloof and Coconut Books. There were some amazing readers there, and nine out of ten of them were women. The positive energy toward women in the air was so refreshing, and it inspired me to ask some of my female poet friends and acquaintances to do a reading together featuring about six of us. I am really hoping it comes together!

At that reading I also heard the works of Natalie Eilbert, whose writing I loved so much it inspired a new poem of mine, titled, “In Response to Learning the Lego Line of Female Scientists was Limited Edition.” The poem is in response to this article, which my cousin Ariana Kelly posted on facebook. Sometimes the rabbit hole is useful.

I am finding inspiration in so many places these days! I can’t quite turn the poet voice (not the monotone linebreaky one, the one that looks at the world through a curved lens) off in my brain lately.

I also set a date for the workshop I am leading at my local domestic violence center: October 21st. I am incredibly excited to do this, especially during Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

That’s all (that my lunch hour will permit) for now!