The first monday of a new month... when the optimists don't know any better // THE SOLOIST // acrylic on wood

Never been able to write a good love poem instead, there's the slow resistance of love in a poem #smallpoemsunday cc: @tomsnarsky.bsky.social

Opened the book mail today & went straight to the piece I was telling my wife about. I wanted her to read it. No, I wanted to read it to her, the way I heard @pdforan.bsky.social read it not long ago. So I did. And I cried the same way I did when Pat read it to us. This is a beautiful collection.

Absolutely stoked to see my "mechanical centaur" as the quarterly cover art for @centaurlit.bsky.social Thank you @lynnmundell.bsky.social for choosing it!

Feeling challenged on what poetry collections to read this month -- after consuming favorite authors of course? I still have some copies of two chaps available. DM if interested. #sealeychallenge

Monday

Alessandra Olanow #smallpoemsunday cc: @tomsnarsky.bsky.social

Malarkey mail has arrived. @malarkeybooks.bsky.social @mikeandrelczyk.bsky.social

Michael Donaghy (from his collection, Conjure, 2000) #smallpoemsunday cc: @tomsnarsky.bsky.social

"He knew the learning curve was steep, but the part Edgar hated the most was when Festus visited with the apple still on his head, taunting him." / THE ENTERTAINER / digital collage

// HONEST WORK // . 8 × 10 acrylic on board . We're not that far removed from daily scenes like these... where hard work often goes unnoticed, doesn't stop for selfies, and is literally grinding before the rhythms of the day become noticeable to the rest of us.

Meet Carl -- today's cloud pretending to be a headless skeleton or possibly a trilobite -- at least what's left of him

A favorite from Beth Ann Fennelly for #smallpoemsunday cc: @tomsnarsky.bsky.social

It's that time. Preserve all your fingers and don't burn your neighbor's house down.

However you choose to approach this weekend, be careful, be kind, and be one of the stars that helps to straighten things out. // A SLIPPERY SLOPE // acrylic + stain on reclaimed wood

Everything becomes past tense eventually // RURAL NOCTURNE // acrylic on paper

Wrapped up Murdoch's book, a coded fictionalization of his ME/CFS stuggle and the catalyst for his band Belle & Sebastian. And like all good B&S records, there's enough here to savor, even if it carries a bit of bloat that could've been trimmed into something that was start-to-finish excellent.

That time I paint-sketched a trio of D.C.'s famous attractions... clean & free of algae, always reflecting, wildly uncontroversial

Donald Hall's White Apples for #smallpoemsunday cc: @tomsnarsky.bsky.social

Bob Hicok as therapist. And for $16, he threw in 100 more pages of wisdom. Quite the deal. From thr book HOLD (2019). #smallpoemsunday @tomsnarsky.bsky.social

This collection by Luisa Muradyan has me asking... Why aren't we talking more about Luisa Muradyan??? 💯🔥

Finding a Ted Kooser kind of happiness should be the goal. #smallpoemsunday @tomsnarsky.bsky.social

Can't recall if 1995 was a good year or not, but it brought this no-depression era album to light and I subsequently wore it out before Wilco's "Being There" dropped in late 1996. Going backwards in the music catalog ain't all that bad.

Super stoked the buyer of this painting chose the florescent hot pink sides. It'll give off a glowing halo effect around the piece on a well-lit wall and bring out bits of pink in the sky.

I was never all that good at painting faces so I just paint over them // CERULEAN MASK // acrylic on paper

Burn it down, they say. If so, might need some long matches. // BLUE-TIP MATCHES // acrylic + masking tape on paper

If Mary Oliver were here to give us her take on AI, I think she'd simply point to this poem. #smallpoemsunday @tomsnarsky.bsky.social

It's Friday. You made it. You deserve your flowers. (I'm harvesting a bumper crop of this variety rn) // DANDELIONS & MASON JAR // acrylic on USPS shipping box

Ready. Set. Summer. . // BEACH FIRES // . I applied an aged sense of nostalgia, that buried & beat-up postcard in an old drawer feel, that scratchy film you haven't seen in decades. The kind where as soon as you see it, you're there, transported back to that place as if it was yesterday.

The waning hours of #smallpoemsunday seems ideal for a Matthea Harvey poem. From Modern Life (2007 @graywolfpress.bsky.social ) @tomsnarsky.bsky.social