If you’re a writer, you’ve probably received a slew of these AI emails where someone wants you for their book group, their podcast, to give a keynote speech, wants to share your book with their important community, and so on. So I wasn’t exactly surprised to open my inbox today and learn that Terry Gross from NPR wanted to interview me about Accidental Devotions. My first thought was: What?! Maybe all the famous people are busy. My second thought was: This is fake.

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Of course, it wasn’t Terry Gross, just some weird little bot that knows how to play to your ego with words like “luminous” and phrases like “What makes the book especially compelling is the way it balances humor and existential seriousness.” I mean, the bot does get me and my book, but dude, stay out of my inbox. . .

I kind of hate living in a world where I can’t tell what’s real anymore. I feel like I’m suspicious of everything, texting my 25-year-old a cute animal photo, “Please say this is real?” It’s AI, mom. Damn! Tricked again!

It’s made me think about the last time I was less connected online but still got some of the benefits of the online world, maybe the last time I had the internet, but the internet didn’t have me. I think it was the ’90s, when I had a computer, but it had its own room: the second bedroom in my first home, “the computer room.” I’m beginning to think computer rooms should make a comeback.

So I started thinking about my relationship to devices, which is a big theme in Accidental Devotions: how the things we keep reaching for can quietly (and unintentionally) become the things we worship.

Then I bumped into this photo from 2022, and it really hit me. Look at everyone holding up their phones, watching a real experience through a screen, except this guy:

I immediately thought—I want to be the guy with the beer. Okay, except without beer because I hate beer, but you get the idea. I want to be the me that used to watch things without having to document them or hold a phone just “in case.”

I may have mentioned that I have a love/hate relationship with my phone, mostly because I know myself around digital things. I was the teenager who could burn through her entire allowance in quarters at Seattle’s Space Port, feeding video games quarters like they were glowing hungry gods (they were!) So my iPhone ends up being a fun little toy. And yes, social media feels like a game: How many “Likes” did this get? What happens if I post this cat photo instead of that one? Why did that post take off while this one died quietly in a field? And then, before I know it, I’m not enjoying the interaction—I’m checking the score. And the kicker is as a Capricorn—I hate wasting time, so when I look up and see I was scrolling on my phone for 30 minutes, I am not pleased with my use of my one wild and precious life—to quote Mary Oliver.

So I’ve started changing the way I do things. First, I took all the social media apps off my phone and put them on my iPad. If I want to look at them, I can, but only in the morning or at night, and only on the iPad. I also set all the time limits to about eight minutes, which makes being on social media incredibly annoying because this keeps popping up:

Also, I hate using an iPad. I know some people love their iPads, but I feel like I’m typing on a giant Speak & Spell from the ’80s:

Second, I bought this off of Etsy, it’s a phone holder (I know—clever, right?) to put near the front door so when I come home, my phone has a place to go that’s not my hand. (Oh and you can mount it on the wall too.)

Basically, I want my phone to be a phone again. Not a camera, a wallet, a TV, a portal, a tiny container of bad-news-Russian-roulette-style, or a dumb little rectangle I stare into whenever I feel any moment of boredom. I want to go back to Me 1.0, before the upgrade with devices and apps.

I guess I want to be easier to reach as a person and harder to reach as a consumer. I want to pull out a book on the ferry instead of my phone. I want to go back to the version of myself who could stand in line and observe the world around her, not have to summon a tiny imitation of life in her hand—sorry, iPhone, you do have some great usefulness, but I’m getting lost in your endless hallway of tiny doors with all those shiny doorknobs.

So far (and it hasn’t been long with this new practice), I’m already seeing myself become less impatient. And to be fine with being well, bored. What a gift, my mind is daydreaming, looking at all the details around me, noticing things (remember when I noticed things!) It reminds me of something I felt in New Orleans—people seemed more willing to wait and let the day take its good ol’ sweet old time (there’s a reason they call it the Big Easy). Oh, and I also cleaned out my closet—something I said I didn’t have time for.

I’ve also learned that willpower is way overrated, especially when you’re tired, overwhelmed, or simply a human person living in 2026. What works better for me is making my bad habits slightly more inconvenient—give me a bit of an obstacle and it seems I may actually choose my whole real life, already in progress.

Anyway, if you’re thinking about your own habits, phone or otherwise, my best suggestion is this: don’t rely on becoming a better version of yourself, just make the thing you’re trying not to touch, eat, drink, scroll, buy, or do a little harder to get to. Put the “thing” in another room, delete the app, block the website, move the Biscoff cookies to a high shelf (okay, this is a dumb example as I know I’d just get a little chair to get the cookies—let’s make this don’t buy the cookies!)

It’s amazing how quickly the body will go looking for something easier. Like reading a book or staring out the window. Or in a truly shocking turn of events—writing a poem! 😉 Reader, it’s happened!

A Few Small Devotions for You:

1. For the POETS: Are you a poet with a chapbook or full-length collection that came out in 2025 or 2026, or is coming out in 2027? I created a spreadsheet to help poets with new books find each other for readings, events, collaborations, regional connections, and general book-launch camaraderie in this circus of book promo. Email me at kelli (at) agodon (dot) com and I’ll send you the link so you can add your book and info, to find other poets with books coming into the world around the same time.

2. Poetry Book Recommendation: The New Economy by Gabrielle Calvorocessi. I know, I won’t stop talking about this book. This is the first poem of the book—you can decide if you’d like more of this voice. I honestly can’t get enough of Gaby’s poems and rereading it again.

3. This quote by Mary Oliver:

4. Aimee Nezhukumatathil WAS featured on NPR for Mother’s Day here! You can listen or read here, and no AI fake stuff emails involved!

5. I saw orcas in Hood Canal, Washington State! Bigg’s Transient orcas (we rarely—if ever?—get the resident orcas in the canal). Watch for the new baby! (Also, I’m sharing this ironically/unironically given that I said I wanted to be the guy with the beer, but as soon as I heard there were orcas, I grabbed my phone! Babysteps I guess…)
   

So thanks for reading and hope you walk out into the world finding the minor miracles happening in your part of the world.

xo kells

📍Where to find me: Facebook, Instagram, Watching: What About Bob “Babysteps to the elevator.”

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Also—Bookshop.org: https://tinyurl.com/AccidentalDevotionsBookshopOrg or Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/AccidentalDevotionsAmazon

Hi Friend,

So here’s something I’ve wondering—do you ever wake up and feel you should be happy, but melancholy feels like a heavy blanket someone keeps putting on your shoulders? That’s how I’ve been feeling lately, besides all the beauty around me—I’m thinking springtime birds, cherry blossoms in bloom, sunshine, so much we decided to skip going into the Two Sylvias Press office this week and instead are working from home. But to look at one’s life and feel SO grateful and thankful for all you have, but then also kind of sad.

I’ve carried this feeling a lot throughout my life (it’s come and gone and returned) and I know with the state of our country, things are feeling a bit harder everywhere. So there’s that. . .unfortunately. (Also, promoting a book at that time feels beyond ridiculous.) I’ve found planting stargazer lilies feels hopeful. I’m learning how much of my hope is tied to plants, maybe because they are a quiet insistence that something is growing despite our human world. Maybe it’s the agreement a seed makes with the future—possibility, it whispers.

Last week I met with two good friends and one said she believes things will get better, but first they have to break open before they can be repaired. And I’m like, Great, love that for us—but is there an express lane to the healing part? I’m so impatient these days and just like with movies, I want to fast forward past the bad/scary parts. But time, right? We have to day-by-day it with our fingers crossed and hope in our back pocket.

I think that’s why I’ve been writing more—writing has always helped me, even writing these little letters to you. I found myself writing a lot of prose poems too, I think because they feel as if I can get all the stuffs in there. I’ve been waking up, putting on “Goodbye Stranger” by Supertramp (wait, maybe this is why I’m sad, that song has lots of minor notes!). Also, please don’t think these poems are good—there are many many many really bad ones, but it feels good to be writing.

How are you getting by these days? I hope you’re finding ways to get through things. I just read forest walks are good for anxiety, but I’m guessing if you’ve ever walked in a forest (without being lost), you know that already. 😉

Anyway, I just wanted to send this note, this postcard, in case you are looking at your life right now and seeing rationally all the things to be grateful for, but you’re still feeling down—you are not alone. Not one bit.

So yes, I’m finding scattered joy all around me—burgers & bingo with neighbors, a brunch in an old Victorian building, walking through downtown Seattle to my favorite bookstore, Open Books. But it’s like my emotions are birds—look at all that happiness fluttering around me, but nothing seems to land.

Still, I keep leaving the windows open for hope—one of these days I have to trust that something will stay long enough to build a nest. Hope is the thing with feathers…as dear Emily Dickinson wrote.

The poem I go to when I’m down by Kim Addonizio:

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Good Things:

1. This teeny-tiny spider that lives on my Zoom light in my writing shed. I love this little guy!

2. Jupiter and Venus will appear in a line with the waning crescent Moon between May 18th and 20th.

   

3. Dutch inventor Boyan Slat believes that the world’s ocean plastic crisis could be dramatically reduced within the next 15 years (and it’s not too expensive to do!)

4. I saw The Devil Wears Prada 2—it was two hours and I was entertained! (I usually have a 90-minute limit on my movies because I have commitment issues, lol.)

5. My ex-student, Liz Kingsley, from Pacific Lutheran University’s low-res MFA program called the Rainier Writing Workshop did her first interview (with me!), and she got a huge publication credit at TriQuarterly! You can read her full interview here if you’re interested.

   

6. And I’ll leave you with a poem from Accidental Devotions today. What if the universe was on your side? Maybe it is? I hope it is, very much. . .

Oh, and this happened in February with the moon, Jupiter, and Venus, so maybe the universe IS smiling back at us:

Thanks for reading, helping strangers, moonwatching, and just being you.

Sending love in stupid times,
kells

P.S. Thank you for all who preordered from Open Books! It was so much fun signing your books! 💙

📍Where to find me: Facebook, Instagram, Listening to Goodbye Stranger

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Happy Weekend! I’m back from the New Orleans Poetry Festival, where I taught a surrealist poetry class with poet and librettist Melissa Studdard. We were the last class, which made me a little worried because I thought everyone might be tired and thinking about midday snacks & drinks—however, I was so wrong! What a joy to be overfilled with people—two rooms, all chairs taken, and people on the floor—all writing surreal poems. It made me realize that even with everything in the world, people still want to create something, to write poems, to be in community. I needed that reminder.

Melissa and I also did a little photoshoot for our poetry series, Poems You Need, and I, of course, wore the wrong shoes and sliced my foot (this should be no surprise to anyone who knows me—I always wear the wrong shoes).

The problem was—we had no tissues to stop the blood; it was just me, bleeding onto my discount Italian flip-flops and the sidewalk like a very low-budget horror film. Our photographer, who turned out to be a quick-thinking hero, pulled out a tiny white baby sock (clean! her son’s!) she’d been using as a lens cover and saved the day. (And yes, I was fine, no stitches, just alcohol, Neosporin, and a very tight bandaid!)

I won’t share photos of that, but I will share a favorite photo below. The one where I’m trying to get an author photo but I’m photobombed (photoboned?) by a dog who looks like he might be judging my shoe choice. Fair enough. . .he was a sweet pup. 💙

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Of course, here’s the thing I keep learning again and again—nothing is ever just one thing. I keep realizing how much we live in the world of and/also. Yes, it was an inspiring festival and also my 92-year-old mom got a bad flu, fell, hit her head, and landed in the hospital. Yes, my book comes out in two weeks, and yes, I am on hold with Medicaid while purchasing her a walker online. Yes, there is joy, but there is also exhaustion. And yes, the world keeps handing us too much, and also we hold hands with joy when we can. (By the way, as of right now, my mum looks to be going home Monday. 🤞)

So how do we keep going?

Last time I suggested poetry and cookies. This time, I’ll suggest: we keep going by making small offerings—writing the poem, sending the text, saying hello to a stranger, calling a friend, calling our congressperson, showing up as best we can, even if we’re limping a little, even if we’re wearing a baby sock over our wounds. And maybe sometimes, we keep going by asking for a little help. (You can do that if you need to, you can also rest and stay home—that is okay too!)

Speaking of small changes making things better—I recently saw on Instagram and it stuck with me, as right now we’re in the past shaping our future:

The Importance of Preorders: A Memoir

Speaking of small things, I learned something yesterday I did not know, despite publishing my first book in 2003, I somehow did not know how much book preorders matter—like, really matter. Did you know this?

I learned that apparently, the more preorders a book has, the more likely it is to end up in actual bookstores on the actual shelves—whhaaaat? Was I just floating around in a cloud singing “la-la-la I write poems and hope for the best”? (Yes. Probably yes.) So if you’re an author or poet, know that your preorders do matter—no matter where the preorder happens. (Of course, we can’t build our life around worrying about book sales because that’s a great way to just feel bad about ourselves—but it’s good to know as an author because until this year, I’ve never really even suggested preordering, I’ve mostly waited until the book is out!)

So if you were planning to pick up Accidental Devotions, please consider doing a preorder (or order a copy for a friend) as it genuinely makes a difference—not just for me, but for the life of the book out in the world, for my press, and maybe even the small, lovely chance that someone might stumble across it when they didn’t even know they needed it.

ALSO—if you do preorder and want a signed bookplate, just reply to this email or write me at kelli@agodon.com with your snailmail address and I will happily send you one with a sweet thank you note as well…I mean, as my poem says—

Other Good Things:

1. and I had a wonderful visit with , when she came to Seattle last month. We ate at the Pike Place Market, rode the ferry to Bainbridge Island, and had wonderful conversations. And while Maggie’s book, A Suit or a Suitcase, is no longer preorder, it is available and is wonderful!

2. On the plane, I watched this documentary, Come See Me in the Good Light, about Andrea Gibson, Colorado Poet Laureate, performer, & activist on Apple TV. I already cried while watching airplane movies (note: apparently, many cry while watching movies on airplanes, and the “cry-mile club” is an actual thing!), and this doc was a heart-opener and funny too! I recommend it when you want to feel and remember why we’re alive.

   

3. I’m so proud of my childhood friend, Howard Hu, who led the design, development, production, and operations of Orion for NASA’s Artemis II mission to the moon. I was invited as a special guest to attend the launch in Florida—which feels surreal to say—but I needed to stay a little closer to home because of my mum. Two of my good friends from high school were able to go though and witness in-person, a true once-in-a-lifetime moment. I watched from my laptop in my car, heart in my throat, thinking about how something we once only imagined—moon missions, space travel, all that wonder—is still happening. Oh, and I have a poem to Howard wayback in my very first book in 2004, which is out of print, so I’ll share it with you here:

   

4. I recently learned about The Poetry Shop, a new online indie poetry bookstore started in November 2025, run by poet Katie Temple and her spouse Dave (you can read their story here). Since the pandemic, many of us have been buying books online & poetry sections (sadly) seem to be shrinking in real-life indie bookstores, so it feels meaningful to discover an indie online space created just for poetry and poets. ✨

   As you may know, for the first round of preorders, I partnered with the wonderful Open Books: A Poem Emporium in Seattle—and for those of you who ordered through them—thank you!—I’ll be taking the ferry over next week to inscribe your books (which feels like its own small, lovely pilgrimage). But for this final round of preorders (my book comes out May 12th!), I’m partnering with The Poetry Shop as a way to help keep supporting individuals and gently push book sales away from billionaires and big corporations. They shared with me that I’ll receive a small portion of the proceeds at no extra cost to you, to which I’ll be donating back to organizations like Lambda Literary, Cave Canem, Copper Canyon Press, the Emily Dickinson House, etc. Many of these organizations have lost funding this year, and this feels like one small way I can help support the literary community that has given so much to all of us.

   ALSO—if you’re a poet and your book ISN’T listed on The Poetry Shop yet, they can add it—they make the process pretty straightforward. I believe the main requirement is that your book is distributed through Ingram. Just check out their Instagram below and feel free to follow them:

So that’s it for now. I hope this finds you in good shoes and waltzing into the small miracles of spring. Thank you for being here. Thank you for reading, for your joy, for your notes and emails and support, and for keeping me company on this strange and beautiful spinning planet—the images from Artemis II remind me that from up there, the borders we argue over don’t exist—all those invisible lines we keep insisting on while the earth just keeps being whole.

Here’s one of my favorite images from the mission, it makes me cry (and I’m not even in an airplane right now):

Happy Spring! If all else fails, follow the blossoms—they seem to know what they’re doing. 🌸

xo, kells

📍Where to find me: Facebook, Instagram, Groovin’ on a Saturday Afternoon

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Hi Friend,

I’m sending you love from what started as a gray day here in the PacNW but has now moved into blue with a dash of whipped-cream clouds. I hope your day unfolded beautifully or even good enough(!) and that you found a little joy (hopefully more than a little) and bonus points if it surprised you. I think it’s important to keep joy near us these days…

I’m doing two things before anything else to help start my day: coffee and reading. Mostly poems, but sometimes prose and occasionally magazines (Travel & Leisure, The New Yorker, Real Simple). I do this before I check email or wander onto social media (for me, that’s Facebook and Instagram). It’s a small morning routine, but it’s been helping keep my mental health in the green zone and my day starts a little better because of it.

📘 Poetry Books I’m Reading: ’s The Irish Goodbye (note: these are actually micro-memoir vignettes, but read like poetry—and Beth Ann is one of my favorite poets), Maybe the Body by ’s, In This Distance by Brooke Sahni, Monster Galaxy by Cindy Veach, Jessica Walsh’s Blowdown, ’s Tread Upon, Is Is Enough by Lauren Camp, ’s All the Words I Can Remember Are Poems.

📙 Prose Books I’ve Recently Read or Am Reading: ’s Proof of Life (memoir), Digital Minimalism (nonfiction) by Cal Hunter (he also wroe Deep Work, which I also liked), Strangers: A Marriage (memoir) by Belle Burden, ’s Grief is For People (memoir), and ’s The Trouble with Loving Poets and Other Essays on Failure.

📕 Poetry Books I’m Looking Forward To With 2026 Pub Dates: ’s A Suit or a Suitcase, ’s Midlife Abecedarian, ’s America, A Love Story (which I preordered and I should have in 4 days!), ’s If You Love That Lady, Jennifer Franklin’s A Fire in Her Brain,

Another reason I love reading poetry in the morning is that, more often than not, reading others’ poems inspires me to write my own.

I have a “daily” poem exchange with a few friends on email this month (we’re calling it “rogue” since we’re not actually required to write every day—so yes, we’re definitely playing fast and loose with the word daily here). But it’s been a reminder to me that writing has always been the one thing when I’m doing it, there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing. And many times, just by showing up, I end up with a draft of a poem. Other times, nothing—or a poem that feels like it was written by a feral raccoon who just discovered he has big feelings. But I’m okay with that, I’m okay with a not-so-great poem. When it comes to poems, I realize I’m less attached to outcome and more attached to the idea of play and process.

But as you know, it’s a hard mix these days—to be creative, happy, engaged, and informed without short-circuiting. So I’ve been trying to keep things simple when at home, I reach for the natural world and books (my two comfort animals in tough times) along with daily Biscoff vanilla cream sandwich cookies (sometimes a few or more) and Mighty Leaf Ginger Twist tea at night (no, I am not a sponsor of either of these products, I just somehow became accidentally devoted to both of them recently—some of you will remember my expensive French yogurt kick). Yes, it might sound a little dull (poetry, cookies, tea, the sky, robins, early spring flowers, etc.), but I’m recommitting myself to the small luxuries in life. My other luxuries? Napping and Frans sea-salt caramels, especially now that I am back home for a bit after some whirlwind travel.

Speaking of travel, here are a few moments of joy from the last 6 weeks:

1. Finding out our hotel had a CLAW machine on the 3rd floor. and I becoming “the big winners” of the Floor 3 at the Hyatt.

2. Author signing Accidental Devotions at Copper Canyon’s booth at AWP Baltimore. My one-hour turned into two, and I sold out of all the early copies. (Thank you to all who showed up!) Note: My winning octopus prize made it to the signing. (Also, AWP stands for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs and not “All Wild Poets” though depending on the hotel bar, those lines may blur. . .)

3. The Yale Sterling Memorial Library Card Catalogue —no catalog cards, just notes from the past. On a tour through Yale from a friend, I discovered a world of secret notes left by strangers hidden in this huge old wooden card catalogue. Reader, I could have moved in!

   

   

4. Celebrating my Accidental Devotions with my past students from PLU’s low-res MFA program, the Rainier Writing Workshop. (Note: that is my “purse banana” that I lugged around the bookfair all day—tasty!) Also, the book is not out yet, but will be May 12!

   

So that’s a postcard (or a poetcard) from me, reporting live from this rural seaside community where I live powered mostly by poems, treats, and daily napping (yes, I even nap at work, Two Sylvias Press has a fainting couch I use).

Current lifestyle review: 5-stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Highly recommend. A bit crumb-covered, cat focused, & slightly over-caffeinated, but would absolutely subscribe again.

And I’m curious—what are your small luxuries these days? What’s getting you through, or better yet, what’s delighting you when you least expect it? Anything? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

Sending peace, love, and virtual snacks,
xo Kells

P.S. I know these notes from me slip into your inbox while we’re living through some terrible times, but please remember, you are not alone through it all and know that along with joy, I’ve also felt dread, anger, frustration, rage (oh, don’t even get me started on rage!)—but when I’m not overtired or exhausted or overwhelmed, I try to keep a small light on for us—for you, for me, for whatever comes next. Sending love through it all. 💙

📍Where to find me: Facebook, Instagram, Reading Good News, Stupidly Checking My Amazon Numbers As If They Matter, Learning About the Chestnut-Headed Bee-Eater.

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Or order from Bookshop.org: https://tinyurl.com/AccidentalDevotionsBookshopOrg or Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/AccidentalDevotionsAmazon (and then email me at kelli@agodon.com and I’ll send you a signed bookplate) 💙

Valentine’s Day has never been a favorite day of mine except back in elementary school when we were handed plain shoeboxes and told to transform them into magical Valentine mailboxes. For a fairly ordinary/tomboy kid like me, this felt like alchemy. The anticipation! What Valentine would I get? Who would give me the one I’d immediately overanalyze? Wait… what? You like me, kind of like me? O youth, when my self-worth arrived folded inside construction-paper hearts and I happily handed my validation over to whoever signed their name with a heart and an xo. I was the kid who always worried I’d get zero cards. Even when Mrs. Crandall made sure there was a Valentine for every child, I was so sure that I would come to my box and find it empty. (Very Charlie Brown “I got a rock”).

The thing was—I was not a “cute girl,” and Valentine’s Day seemed to be created for cute people. I mean, looking back now, I love who I was, but I was not what you called “the standard beauty” or even “pretty.” (Note: both in quotes because I think if I designed the standard for beauty, it would be women with short hair wearing comfy clothes and men with face stubble in argyle socks.)

As the youngest of five sisters, no one bothered to tell me that some people actually cared about combed hair—who knew?! My Nana used to say about my hair, “Your hair is like heaven, there is no parting there.” It took me years to understand that saying and that I was a messy kid, probably still am. I was a connoisseur of dirt and sports, I hated dresses and many times felt more comfortable playing with boys because I didn’t like “girl” toys or understand curling irons or pink or dolls. I was collecting baseball cards and building a Matchbox racetrack in our rec-room. But Valentine’s Day? It opened up a different part of me as I loved writing notes, signing cards, and making AND getting valentines, which brings us to today and why I make valentine postcards every year.

This year, I have two for you—but I am also bringing back a few from the past so you can choose which Valentine’s best for you.

Also, if you’re curious to learn more about June Jordan’s quote and the poem it came from, do check out this commentary by Jade Kastel for Tri States Public Radio.

But also hello e.e. cummings in 2023:

Langston from 2017:

Anne Sexton from 2020 (right before the pandemic when the world was strange):

Below is the first valentine postcard I made (2011) —I apparently didn’t have much time that year as that’s a photo I took on a writing residency and I just chose some fancy font to write “poetry” on the egg. Well, it was the beginning. . .

But I saw this on social media and it hit me—maybe this is our Valentine. A small reminder that we are all passing through this place, which is exactly why loving each other matters.

I hope you get the valentine and Valentine’s Day of your choosing. Be good to yourself today—whatever that looks like to you.❤️

Sending peace, love, and poetry,
xo Kells

📍Where to find me: Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, In Love with Joy

Current Devotion (coming soon):

Preorder from Open Books: Seattle’s Poetry-Only Bookstore (signed & inscribed copies available), Amazon, Bookshop.org, or from your favorite bookseller.

Today I spent three hours in a forest with women I didn’t know, moving in and out of saunas, doing cold plunges, and writing in our journals. It was forty-some degrees, the Pacific Northwest sky was clear, but because of the high heat of the saunas, I never felt cold.

The whole sanctuary was organized by Carrie Bancroft, whom I met in 2024, right before I began living through 2 of the hardest years of my life. If you’re in Western Washington (especially Kitsap or the Olympic Peninsula), I really recommend following her ( ) because she creates the most grounding, generous spaces in the natural world for people to come back to themselves.

The reason I know Carrie is that one summer I randomly signed up for a Write, Hike & Swim on the Dosewallips River event. I didn’t know her. I didn’t know who would be there. I didn’t know what we’d be doing. I just had that inner feeling to say yes. A good friend was tracking my phone because when she asked “Who are you going on this hike/swim with?” my answer was, “I don’t know, I’ve never met them,” she thought it would be smart to have some idea where in the Olympic National Forest I was. When my cell signal dropped (as it does out there), she briefly assumed I’d joined a group of kidnappers and called Rose to plan my search party. Thankfully, they waited and I lived. But when I do these weird “follow my instinct” I’m reminded that sometimes we have to sign up for the thing we can’t fully picture yet—to “choose the bigger life” as says.

And today, that bigger life looked like this: sweating in saunas that were heated by wood (thank you, SeaTsu Saunas near Sequim, WA), then plunging into 38-degree water, then rinsing off and lying back in an outdoor bathtub filled with herbs, staring up into the trees, feeling as if I’d been returned to myself. I sat for a good fifteen minutes watching the spiderwebs shimmer in the sun. It felt simple and good. It felt as if my nervous system was finally unclenching its tiny (um, huge!) fists for an afternoon.

Of course, you know the news yesterday (it’s early and I haven’t looked at what next new horrible thing happened today). And I won’t repeat the news here because I don’t want to add to anyone’s misery, and because even if you’re not watching the news, it still finds you, blindsides you, and maybe you feel it in your body, well—I do.

I keep thinking about this phrase for a poem, the next worse thing, because that’s what it can feel like living in America today: waiting for the next worse thing to come, bracing before it even arrives. I don’t think this is good for us.

Which is why I deleted all my social apps from my phone last night. I never know what video will pop up, what headline will slap me in the face, what will send my brain into high-alert. The strange part is that I’m supposed to be promoting my upcoming book right now, and social media is “where you do that,” but for a bit—I’m choosing something else. I’m choosing to protect my mind. I’m choosing the forest, the page. I’m choosing this little corner of the internet and decaf coffee.

So for now, I’ll be here on Substack. But if you ever need to reach me directly, you can always email me at kelli@agodon.com.

Also here’s a thing—I want this for you too. I want you to feel peace, not overwhelm.

We don’t have to be clueless or uninformed. We can still stay active (I’m on an email-chain by a local activist who shares “next steps” and local rallies to partake in). I recommend finding an organizer in your area who stays informed for those of us who feel overwhelmed and helpless, maybe hopeless. (If you’re looking, I kind of like this organization, Indivisible, because they have a “Find a Group” feature where you can click a box that says “newcomer friendly.”)

I also found READING news from the BBC is my best way to learn what’s happening in the world—1) they are not-for-profit & not associated with any government 2) it’s written in a boring way, not intentionally, but when you’re writing to share the news as opposed to freak people out on a daily basis, it’s much more informational than clickbait. It’s my throwback to how we got our news back in the 70s when I was kid, when the Sunday paper landed on the front porch and I sat in the living room with my parents, my father passing me the comics to read… So I’ve learned that, for me, it’s best to read my news.

Also, I don’t want to assume what you’re feeling. But if you have even a Grinch-size bit of compassion and empathy, you may be looking around with that Marvin Gaye song in your head and thinking, “What’s going on?” (By the way, this song was released on January 21, 1971—which, wrap your minds around that because this 55 year old song is so relevant today as well).

So I’ll leave you with this—even in these times of despair—I hope you keep writing poems, making art, baking bread, knitting sweaters, supporting live theatre & live music, writing letters, traveling, talking to strangers, and holding open doors. I hope you keep showing up for your people and find your ways to resist that don’t turn your mental health and nervous system into knots.

For so much of my life, I was told, You’re too sensitive or Don’t be so sensitive. As a child, I always felt a little broken when I heard this as I knew no other way to be than just myself. It took me years to realize: I’m not too sensitive. Maybe the world is not sensitive enough. The reframing. Maybe you need to hear that. You’re not too sensitive and there’s a reason we care hard. It can hurt, but I’m glad we do care.

Every day I wake up and hope this is the day for the “plot twist”—whatever it is that changes us into a positive direction as a country, where love wins over hate. I want to wake up to that thing that makes us say, “Wow, that’s good news! I didn’t see that coming!”

So that’s what I have for you this morning. May you go out into the world (or not) and find some joy, the miracle of the natural world, or even the coziness of coffee and a book at home. Small comforts. We need them.

Sending love, light, and a big dose of hope,

📍Where to find me: Substack. Author Page. Driving over the Hood Canal Bridge.

P.S. Also, since I won’t be sharing this on the socials—if you do want to preorder, Accidental Devotions I’d be thrilled (and so would my publisher!) You can do so here: from Open Books: Seattle’s Poetry-Only Bookstore / Amazon / Bookshop.org

And if you buy from Open Books: Seattle’s Poetry Only Bookstore, I can inscribe it to you. If you purchase it from anywhere else, drop me an email and I’ll send you a signed bookplate.

It’s unfortunately funny that my first Copper Canyon book came out during a global pandemic and now my second is coming out during the fall of democracy, so clearly I have a gift for impeccable timing. If Copper Canyon publishes a third book of mine, please check on your neighbors and stock up on beans. Love to you all. . . 💛

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How are you this December 10th evening? Are you surprised to see me so soon?—me too! I’m usually more of your every-so-often friend who arrives with poems and snacks, but I just got the word I could officially share this with you (and I wanted to share here FIRST before you saw it on social media, etc.—Accidental Devotions has its FINAL cover—and I’m trying (um, failing) to act casual about it.

But the day is perfect to share as today would have been Emily Dickinson’s 195th birthday and Emily D. is braided all through this next book (her and Darling Sue and even pressed jasmine)! So maybe this is not just a cover reveal, but also a little birthday offering to Emily’s altar of em dashes and devotion. (Side note: I recently read that AI is using dashes now, and I wanted to shout—Grrrrl, I got here first! I know there are a lot of dash-happy poets out there—maybe we need to start an Em Dash Society or at least wear t-shirts: The Em Dash: Because Periods Are Too Final).

🍾✨ But I digress as I am here to show you the COVER REVEAL! Here it is—

What made me adore this is how the designer used a textured look to the book, a very dreamy paper-on-paper. And the artist of the gorgeous image is Fatima Ronquillo, a self-taught (excuse me?!) artist who lives in Santa Fe.

Because this manuscript is so close to my heart, I struggled for a long time to find the right image. When I finally stumbled onto this piece (which is titled “Hand with Hummingbirds and Orchids”)—after a small rabbithole detour through Renaissance paintings, Leonor Fini, and feather art—I found her and was immediately hit with two synchronicities: the artist has a portfolio titled “Devotion” (I kid you not), and on the page where this image lived, she had posted a poem by Emily Dickinson.

I’d been so stuck trying to find artwork that when this image came up on my screen, it was as if Emily were whispering to me, Yes, this is it—choose this one. (Sometimes I really do need someone’s ghost to tell me what to do. . .maybe I need this a lot of times.) Also, if you’ve spent any time in my poems, you may recognize two images from my personal iconography: hummingbirds (my mum’s symbol) and orchids (my father’s—he kept an orchid greenhouse in his younger years). But for me, it’s the lover’s eye—something from the past I’m incredibly drawn to—something that carries both longing and devotion.

So after a larger conversation with my editors about my book, we decided that this image added a complexity to the manuscript instead of offering a literal interpretation. (Um, I can be a very literal Capricorn (too literal!) so trusting how artwork can open up a book felt important to me, it felt like growth—like I was the vine stretching up the center of the book!)

Also, and this part I can hardly keep secret—Accidental Devotions will have something inside it I’ve never seen done in a poetry book. Copper Canyon is adding a special surprise in the final pages, and while I SO want to tell you, I’m not going to as I want you to have the delight of that discovery when you hold the book in your hands. As I said, it’s something I’ve never seen in a book of poems before and something I’m so excited for you to find for yourself.

But for now: please enjoy the cover, the wings, the devotion, the vines, the lover’s eye, and a huge thank you from me—thank you for letting me share this joy with you first.

And if you ever need help with cover art—please feel free to drop me a line (or an image) as I’m happy to offer some thoughts (though when you read my #1 recommendation for cover art below, you may not want me to!) Though I do design all the book covers for Two Sylvias Press, so I may have a teaspoon of knowledge (as well as a large thermos of opinions!) lol.

So with that, here are my 4 bits of advice when choosing cover art—

1. Don’t ask your friends for advice. It’s very much like a baby’s name, once you ask advice and find out several people don’t like the name Gertrude even though it’s your favorite, it may knock down your confidence in knowing what’s right for your book. Just follow your heart and trust that.

2. Start a Pinterest board with favorite artwork. Anything that gets your attention, add to your board (you can always edit down later). But this way, what you love is all in one place, and you can go through each image and ask, “Are you right for my book?” (Kind of like that children’s book, Are You My Mother?)

3. Trust your gut (see #1). You know what’s best for your book (I know you do). Don’t overthink it with your head, but listen to what your body says yes to.

4. Consider choosing an image that opens up the manuscript rather than something literal. Choosing an image like this can invite the reader to enter the book with curiosity and perhaps, more wonder instead of expectations.

SO that’s where we are on this wet, gray Pacific Northwest today. Saying Happy Birthday, Emily! And hello new book cover!

And of course, if you want your own copy of Accidental Devotions, you can now preorder on Bookshop.org, Amazon, or directly from Seattle’s Open Book Poetry-Only Bookstore.

And don’t forget—if you do happen to preorder (which means so much to this poet and also comes with one million refillable good karma points!), make sure to fill out this Google Form, or simply send me your snailmail address by replying to this email, as I just ordered new bookplates, and I’m happy to sign one for you and drop it mail!

So again, thank you for being here with me through it all. And for celebrating with me. It means so much to have you in my community, even from afar. ❤️

I promise to stay out of your inbox until 2026—so happy everything until then! This has been a tough year for many of us in many ways, but we will continue to find ways to help each other (and those who need us), move forward in kindness, and hopefully continue to find a little joy and poetry through it all.

Sending peace, love, and light today and always,
xo Kells

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📍Where to find me: Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, Hopelessly Devoted

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Here’s my cucumber soup recipe AND I won the Pulitzer Prize—all things being equal.

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I’ve always loved letters and postcards (you may have noticed I’ve renamed this Substack Postcards from a Poet, because for me, this feels less like a “newsletter” and more like a small check-in from me to you: Hey, how are you holding up? Here are a few things bringing me joy.)

And here’s something that delighted me this week: I did not know that people (and kids!) write postcards to Emily Dickinson via the Emily Dickinson Museum. While many were mailed, this one, I’m guessing this one was penned in the moment and handed over to museum staff. And well, it warmed my heart:

“Thank you for writing a soft sea washed around the house”—Come on! What a way to say thank you! It reminded me of William Stafford’s quote: Everyone is born a poet. . .I just kept on doing what everyone starts out doing. The real question is: Why did other people stop?

Anyway, the holidays bring so many feels, as the kids say—wait, do they say this? ha!—I’ve been trying to be better at sending out joy more often especially during these times when everything can feel a little harder, it’s good to have a little light.

Sending love this time of year,
xo Kells

P.S. Here’s one little secret I just learned: my forthcoming book Accidental Devotions is officially available for preorder! We haven’t rolled out the “big reveal” yet, but because you’re part of my inner circle, I wanted you to get to peek first (yes, the cover pops up when you click!—apparently the internet didn’t feel like waiting for our official announcement! lol). Anyway, you can now preorder at Bookshop.org here, Amazon here, and Seattle’s beloved Open Books: Poetry-Only Bookstore here! (and I’d be thrilled if youd did). I’ll be sending out a formal cover reveal and all the details soon, but for now, I just wanted thank you for being here at the beginning. It means more than you know.

P.P.S. Oh, and if you do preorder, hit reply to this email or drop me an email directly at kelli@agodon.com and I’ll pop a signed bookplate in the mail for you!—a little love note for the inside of your copy. ❤️

P.P.P.S. If anyone tries to make Sexton’s cucumber soup, I’d love to hear what you thought!

Thank you again for reading and for your kindness and support—I’m glad to be on this path with you. xo

This post is public, so feel free to share it. 💕 (Also note: this newsletter will never be paid…for me, it’s just a way to keep in touch with you…)

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📍Where to find me: Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, Threads

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The holidays are approaching, and I’ve been feeling a bit Grinchy about it all—as if the season has somehow shifted from one of joy to one giant chore when I wasn’t looking. How did that happen?! I’ve always loved the holidays, but this year, they feel like too much (wait, does everything feel like too much??). Like that Christmas song says, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year”—except right now I’m feeling the first part—It’s the most…, no extra words needed.

So I’ve been trying to reframe the season from oh no, the holidays are coming! to something softer, maybe a space where we choose the moments we actually need: a good conversation, a day of PJs and reading in a comfy chair, a spontaneous get-together, hot cocoa, or just a quiet hour watching the fog sink into the trees. For me it’s—slowing down, staying offline, shopping less and/or with more intention.

I know this last year has been a lot for many of us (personally, I’ve felt in some sort of crisis-mode since May 2024!) But I read the other day that the opposite of anxiety is creativity (I always thought it was calmness, as I am highly creative with my anxiety and worst-case scenarios!) But what the author shared was that we can take all those uncomfortable emotions and make something from them—write a poem, journal, paint something, or even string fairy lights in the laundry room just because. Make beauty where there wasn’t any. And I like that idea—leave the world a little better each day. Create when you can.

One of my beliefs as a poet and a human trying her best to navigate this strange, gorgeous, difficult planet is remembering that our time is limited and instead of giving my energy into what I don’t like, I try to amplify and share what I love.

So in that spirit, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite things (and maybe it will make your shopping—if you do shop!—a little easier).

Also—when you can, try to shop indie and/or local this season—your local bookstore, your neighborhood shops, artists and indie sellers on Etsy. I know it’s tempting to click “buy now” because “next day delivery,” but every time we shop locally, our money circulates through our own communities and helps individuals and families over corporations (yay!).

🎁 Favorite Things (The Early Holiday Shopper’s Edition) 🎁

1. POETRY BOOKS! Here’s a list of current favorites:

   BirdBrains: A Lyrical Guide to Washington State Birds edited by Susan Rich and Stephanie DeLaney —This one isn’t officially out yet, but I’ve had the joy of reading some early poems—each about a different Northwest bird—and they’re stunning. The book itself is beautiful (hardback!) and huge! And yes, I have a poem inside about my favorite bird, the kingfisher. (Oh and there’s a BirdBrains release reading at Seattle’s Elliott Bay Books Sunday, December 14, 2025 at 6:00 pm., which I’ll be at.

   

   
   The New Economy by Gabrielle Calvocoressi — I just finished this book and I adored it! Gabrielle does something in these poems that reminds me why we read in the first place—to feeeeel (yes, with five e’s). If you’re someone who has one toe dipped in sadness, but who also walks through the world noticing the small miracles of being alive—this may be exactly the book you need right now. Its opening line is: The days I don’t want to kill myself are extraordinary. From there, the book keeps opening up into how temporary everything is, and yet somehow it keeps choosing wonder and finding joy. It’s my current favorite read—the book I keep returning to, the one that keeps returning to me.

   I Do Know Some Things by Richard Siken —Every page is a seemingly autobiographical prose poem, filled with the sly Siken wit and humor we love from his previous books. I’m reading one poem a day so this book will last as long as possible. (I’m also finding I’m writing more prose poems after reading his poems!)

   Glitter Road by January Gill O’Neil — I’ve been sharing this book since it came out last year, and with good reason. It won the 2024 Poetry by the Sea Best Book Award and the Julia Ward Howe Prize, and it’s a finalist for several others, including winning honors in the Massachusetts Book Awards. This is the end of the blurb I wrote for it, and I still mean every word: I cannot recommend this collection enough. Glitter Road is O’Neil’s most powerful book yet.

2. La Fermière Yogurt — A stupidly expensive but yummy French yogurt that comes in a reusable ceramic pot. This yogurt is more of a dessert (with its 17 grams of sugar), but it’s all natural and comes in the cutest little containers that you can buy lids for. I think I may have entered some sort of yogurt cult with this new love ($3.99 a pop!)—oh, I just learned they go on sale: 2 for $5! Now I’m trying to figure out what art project to do with all my cute containers! Candles?

   

3. Lover’s Eye Jewelry: While we haven’t had an official cover reveal for Accidental Devotions yet, I will share that the cover has an image of a lover’s eye on it. What is a Lover’s Eye, you ask? A “lover’s eye” is a miniature painting of a single eye, created as a token of secret affection during a late 18th and early 19th-century trend. These paintings were often set in jewelry, such as rings, brooches, and lockets, serving as a discreet way for lovers to show devotion while keeping the subject’s identity secret. I found this Etsy shop (IzzyBees Treasures) that handmakes these and have ordered two, which I adore ($18 - $49).

   

4. Plant Propagators: I gave this to a friend last year and she loved it. What’s especially nice is that it sticks right to your window—so it’s both a beautiful little decoration and a useful way to grow new plants. (Oh, and this shop also has hummingbird feeders.) Prices vary from $20 - $50.

   

5. Poet Mugs (& More) at HerbTeller: I gave the Elizabeth Bishop mug ($17) to a friend as a Hanukkah gift, but they also have Sylvia Plath, Rainer Maria Rilke, even Louise Glück, along with Emily Dickinson Dew Herbfume (Oil/Perfume).

   

6. Aqua Notes ($15): Do you get all your best ideas in the shower? I do! So after forgetting lines or ideas for poems, I found these Aqua Notes—a waterproof pad and pencil I keep suction-cupped to a wall in my shower. I realize I have now been using them for over 10 years—which is crazy to me. (Also, I have these linked to the Evil Empire (aka Amazon) as the Aqua Notes website seems to be down today.)

7. Mini Word Cards by Muji — I’m pretty sure I picked these up at Uwajimaya in Seattle and they’ve become one of my favorite little writing tools, but they make such sweet gifts for friends (especially poets). I jot a few words on each card and when I’m writing and need an image or an idea, I pull one at random. (I also make wordlists on index cards because of course I do.) I’ve started making sets of these for poet friends, but if the person isn’t a poet, you can fill the cards with favorite memories or things you love about them. It becomes this tiny deck of joy they can return to.

The Days of Accidental Devotions (which sounds like a new soap opera!)

Other than that, I’ve been spending my days/my daze deep in the cathedral of proofing my next book of poems, Accidental Devotions, which comes out May 12, 2026 from Copper Canyon Press.

I’m both wildly excited and proud of this book, but also carrying some anxiety that comes with sending something so personal into the world. It’s very much that feeling of Omg, this is the best thing I’ve ever written! and Omg, I didn’t realize vulnerability has a publication date! It’s a lot, but a good lot. I do hope you’ll like it.

Oh, if you ever want to come to a poetry event or class—whether it’s in real life or on Zoom—here’s my current calendar. I’ve been starting to update it with events for 2026!

Also if you know of any opportunities—podcasts, interview series, guest-speaking gigs at universities, online readings, conversations about poetry, desire, Emily Dickinson, technology, grief, the Pacific Northwest, or just being a human in the world—feel free to send them my way. You can reply to this email or always reach me at: kelli@agodon.com

So that’s the downlow on the book and the favs. I hope you’re hanging in there—maybe even thriving! Or slowing down enough to spot the bits of beauty trying their best to outshine the ugly stuff as we continue spin together on this strange little planet.

Oh! And before I go, I want to share this image I snapped in downtown Seattle—just in case you need to hear this today:

Sending peace, love, and poetry,
xo Kells

📍Where to find me: Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, Daydreaming

How is it November 5th already? Because I love Spooky Season (Oct. 1–31), I really tried to slow down October—watching Halloween shows, lighting candles, doing something autumn-festive almost every day—but somehow we’ve still arrived at the darker days of November with the sun setting at 4:46 p.m. tonight in the Pacific Northwest. Yes, night is coming earlier now and it’s pouring outside as I type this, but the good news? This darkness and weather make for perfect writing time.

I had the joy of reading from my next collection, Accidental Devotions, at the gorgeous (slightly haunted) Stimson-Green Mansion hosted by Copper Canyon Press.

After a stretch of gorgeous autumn days, we got a stormy, windy Seattle night—one of those “who’s even leaving their house?” evenings, in fact, I was convinced it would be me in this giant mansion reading to ghosts. But somehow (magic?), it was a full house! I have never been to this mansion before, but it was the perfect historic (read: spooky) place to be a week before Halloween. And I did read a poem about a seance with Rilke’s ghost and well, nothing fell from the walls, so maybe not that haunted.

It also reminded me how good it feels to be around people who genuinely love poetry. Since the pandemic, I’ve found it harder to motivate myself to go out to events in Seattle. I joke with friends, “Remember when we used to do things?” But that night, it felt good to show up, to be part of something meaningful.

I’ve been thinking about how important it is to support the things we want to last—especially the arts. Copper Canyon remains one of the rare long-time presses entirely devoted to poetry, and I’m so grateful to be part of their family. The event was also a fundraiser, so if you’d like to help them keep bringing more poetry into the world—you can make a donation here.

An Editing Tip for Manuscripts

Speaking of Accidental Devotions (Copper Canyon Press)—I am on my second set of proofs (the book will be published May 12, 2026)! One of the coolest things Copper Canyon does are these “proof sheets,” which are fantastic if you’re trying to edit your own manuscript.

Basically, if you use a word that can be spelled two ways (“blond” vs. “blonde”), you jot it under that letter with the page number to make sure you’re consistent. They also include any nonstandard words—which, as you can guess, I use plenty of.

And the bonus of this task: you end up with this bizarre little museum of your book’s vocabulary. Mine includes “afterlife” (five times!) along with some of my invented words like duskbirds, lustheavy, and rosesmoke. So here’s your tip—if you’re working on a manuscript, I really recommend trying this as you can easily create your own proof sheet—it’s a surprisingly effective way to catch small mistakes before you submit.

✍️ Two Sylvias Offerings Right Now:

Despite everything—and a rent hike (!!)—Annette Spaulding-Convy and I are still here, keeping Two Sylvias Press afloat in these wild times. Annette and I have also been busy writing new poetry prompts and exercises to help folks stay creative (and sane!) through it all.

Here are two ways to stop the “doomscrolling” and start a little “poemquesting.”

1. Two Sylvias VIRTUAL Poetry Prompt Advent Calendar ($25): And as always, Two Sylvias is bringing back our Online Advent Calendar for December, filled with daily poetry prompts to help you close out the year with 31 new poems. You just click each day on your calendar to reveal a new prompt—no chocolate (or whiskey!), but definitely a shot of inspiration. You can buy it for yourself or your favorite poet (or both!)

   Here’s a prompt from last year—feel free to give it a try!

2. Zoom Poetry Classes and Weekly Prompts with Two Sylvias Weekly Muse

   About 3 years ago, created a Substack that sends out weekly poetry prompts. After a year of that, we wanted to say thank you to all our subscribers, so we added Zoom Poetry Classes too!

Here’s our lineup through February 2026: This week— November 7 we have Jane Wong teaching a class on Deep Image; on December 8, Melissa Studdard and I will be teaching a class on collaborations; on January 22, Marie Howe will share her wisdom on what happens when a poet contradicts herself (and yes, the Marie Howe will be joining us!); and on February 11, Traci Brimhall will lead a class on sweet & spicy love poems. We’ll also have spring classes with Lauren Davis and Elena Karina Byrne, plus a few surprises we can’t reveal just yet. And if you sign up right now, you can join us THIS Friday for Jane Wong (Zoom registration link will come in your Welcome Letter!) —And yes, we do record EVERY Zoom class in case you can’t join us in real time.

Along with the classes, Annette Spaulding-Convy and I will also you weekly poetry prompts and writing exercises—plus submission calls, inspiration, interviews with poets, and more. You’ll receive it in your inbox every Sunday morning—we see it as a small creative reset to help you stay organized and to prioritize your writing in a world that keeps trying to distract you. (You can even give the Weekly Muse as a gift!) Price: $18.99 a month or $198 for a year of Zoom classes and weekly poetry prompts. If you want to join us, you can sign up here.

Whew! If you made it this far, thank you for reading and for being part of my corner of the world. It feels as if it’s been a decade of “one thing after another” or “one thing after twenty other things!”—and yet here we are, still finding ways to connect throughout the chaos.

I’ll be sharing my Favorite Things list later in November. I keep hoping to post more here, but you know how life goes—some days you write a poem, some days you scream into the void while your cat watches, unimpressed. I’m kidding…(or am I?)

Sending love through the interwebs,
xo Kells

📍Where to find me: Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, Daydreaming

It’s been a while, so I thought I’d slide into your inbox and say hi—Hi! I hope you're managing to catch any small flashes of beauty amidst the daily chaos. In my small town, the goldfinches are at the feeder—our state bird here in Washington, though I doubt the birds are aware of their title. To me, they look like flying candy as their colors are so bright!

In the early 2000s, I worked at a tech job on Bainbridge Island, Washington—our office was on the third floor surrounded by trees. One day, I overheard two coworkers having a discussion—one said, “I think a pet store burned down. Or maybe someone’s canaries escaped?” Wait, whaaaat?!

I looked out the window and saw what they were seeing—dozens of yellow birds flickering through the evergreens. I turned back to them and said, “Gentlemen, those are goldfinches.” 😅

Sometimes when beauty shows up, and we panic and think the worst—or we mislabel it. But it’s still there. Beauty just being beauty.

Since the start of 2025, I’ve been trying to write a poem each day (another kind of beauty). There’s something funny that happens when you try this practice—you write a lot of bad poems (okay, that’s not really funny, but it is.) This daily writing practice is kind of like batting practice, except instead of baseballs, you’re swinging at metaphors and images, and occasionally, one cracks the sky open—in a good way.

Daily poems remind me that beauty can still be created, even when it feels absent everywhere else—wordbeauty—when you pair two words together and they surprise you.

Things Bringing Me Joy This Month:

1. This portrait of Meryl Streep on the wall of a little shop in Port Townsend, Washington. When I asked why there was a portrait of Meryl Streep on the wall, he said, “Well, it’s an odd story, but my mom had it commissioned.” When I asked why, he said, “Um, we don’t really know.” —I am doing everything in my power not to purchase this portrait and hang it directly above my bed. It brings me so much happiness.

2. Seattle’s new waterfront park. The city has really stepped it up by creating this gorgeous space where you can sit, breathe, and stare out at Puget Sound for hours alone or with a friend. Cost: $0

3. I turned in the FINAL version of my manuscript, Accidental Devotions, which will be published by Copper Canyon Press in May 2026! I have worked so hard on this collection! And one thing I’ve learned through it all is how revision is its own kind of devotion. My advice when revising a manuscript: 1) Let go of what isn’t strong enough. 2) Bring in a few newer poems to create energy. 3) Continue to allow the manuscript to evolve—even when you’re certain it’s finished.

   ---

Other Things:

’ Weekly Muse is hosting ELLEN BASS on ZOOM, September 11 from 4 pm - 6 pm PST to teach one of my favorite classes— The Long-Armed Poem / Controlled Chaos.

CLASS DESCRIPTION: The Long-Armed Poem / Controlled Chaos: A certain kind of poem has a long arm and sweeps disparate, unexpected things into its net. It scoops in a great deal of material that is more or less obviously related. It doesn’t hug the shore. It doesn’t walk a narrow line. It retains a kind of wildness. It can seem untamed. And yet all the elements have enough magnetic or gravitational attraction, enough resonance, that the poem feels organically whole. We’ll look at examples of the long-armed poem and I will give some practical suggestions about how you might experiment with this form in your own poems. Time: 2 hours. (Note: This class will be recorded and sent to you in case you can’t join us in real time!)

If you want to sign up, it’s through Two Sylvias Weekly Muse Substack, which is $18.99 monthly—OR—get the full year of Zoom classes (and weekly poetry prompts & more) for $198 (Melissa Studdard and I are leading a class on collaboration, Traci Brimhall will teach a love poem class, plus many more poets to be announced soon!)

Anyway, if you’re interested in attending, sign up here and join us!: https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

Wishing you all love, light, and poetry.

Hold each other close,

xo Kells

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Dear Friend,

Greetings from Doolin, Ireland. I have been traveling this May, mostly at a writing retreat from Writing the Land, working with several Irish poets. The timing of this trip was strange, given I left after right our poetry community lost one of the sweetest (and most talented) poets I know, Marty (Martha) Silano, on May 5 after an 18-month battle with ALS.

Marty was a dear friend of mine. I met her in 2001 at Seattle’s Poets for Peace reading. Since her death, I’ve found myself unable to write poems—even though I can hear her in my mind telling me, You need to write that poem! It was a phrase we often said to each other, whenever one of us shared something like, “The castle on the top of the cliffs looked like a discarded chess piece,” “Our neighbors want to trim our hedge during nesting season!” or “I’m at the airport and O’Hare autocorrected to o hate!”

The first day at this retreat, poet Grace Wells brought us to a sacred Irish land to write—Poulnabrone Dolmen, sometimes translated as the “Hole of Sorrows” (Poll na mBrón). I sat on limestone, listening to a cuckoo calling from the distance (yes, they have cuckoos here), in an ancient landscape full of stories and birdsong. I thought of Marty—of how brief our lives are, the temporariness of this all, how much she loved the natural world. For the first time since her death, I began to write. The draft was rough, clumsy, I would even say—not good—but it was a draft and I had words on the page. I ended the poem with: The cuckoo continues / counting moments. I am empty / of everything I once held.

That night, Marty came to me in a dream. She was laughing and dancing and said, “I only need a thimble of wine now.” She added, “Write me into your poems.” It felt as if the place had opened me, the dream too. I woke up and wrote a draft of a poem that I continue to work on. Since then, I’ve been writing again. . .

So that’s where I am—writing, thinking of home and Marty and the beauty around me. Marty’s absence from this world has been so deeply felt by many. It’s hard to make sense of a world that so often takes the best souls too soon—but here we are. She was endlessly generous—with her love, her praise, her joy, her fierce care for the environment, and the way she continually lifted other poets, myself included. She will be missed.

Also, if you don’t know Marty or if you do and want to hear her voice again, you can listen to this wonderful interview by where they talk about meditation, Marty’s creative process, her teachers, as well as her thoughts on poetry, ALS, napping and more, for Jess’s podcast: .

And if you'd like to honor Marty’s memory, please consider a gift to the Poetry Foundation the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, or the ALS Association.

Things I Love This Month:

Nettie the Doolin Donkey 🫏

I walk by this little guy on the way into town. He comes to his name or turns his head if he’s drowsy. But sometimes he’s just standing there, eyes closed. Which made me google “Do donkeys sleep standing up?” Yes, as a matter of fact, they do… P.S. Did you read that in an Irish accent because as I wrote it, I heard it in my head that way.

* * * * * * *

🌟Two Sylvias Weekly Muse & Poetry Zoom Series (3 upcoming classes!)

It’s down to the wire, but not too late to sign up to write poems with Dorianne Laux this Friday, May 30 at 10 am PST—and then spend an evening with Jane Hirshfield in July. (Want to know a secret? We just found out Ellen Bass will be joining us for a special Zoom class in September!—she just said yes!)

How to attend all three Zoom classes, plus weekly prompts and every Zoom class through 2026? Sign up for the year here!

The cost—just $198 for everything—Zoom classes, The Weekly Muse in your inbox every Sunday morning, plus a private & nurturing online community (You can also make monthly payments if that’s easier for you.)

Sign up for Dorianne’s class through Two Sylvias Weekly Muse Substack here: https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe (Links to both classes are in your Welcome Letter that you receive immediately!)

Sign up by May 29 to get Dorianne’s class and everything that follows… All classes are recorded so you can watch later (and no “watch-by-this-date” stuff…they are yours to watch again and again.) 💕 Future Zoom classes also included: Traci Brimhall, Jane Wong, Melissa Studdard and me—plus, more to be added!

* * * * * * *

🌟 This Poem by Martha Silano

Here’s a poem by Marty from her very first book, What the Truth Tastes Like. You can really hear her sense of humor in this one, as well as her playfulness with life and with language.

Also—

Marty’s book, Terminal Surreal, which she worked on in many ways until her passing, comes out on what would have been her 64th birthday (September 2) this year from the University of Chicago Press. You can preorder a copy here.

Wishing you all love, light, and poetry.

Hold each other close,

xo Kells

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How are you holding up these days?

If you’ve been anywhere near me, you know my heart has been a little unsteady—too much worry, too much noise, not enough grounding. So, I’ve been trying to quiet the static.

What have I been doing to make things better for myself? I’ve deleted the social media apps off my phone. I carry a notebook to jot down small wonders. And I’m making more room for real moments—saying hi, smiling at strangers, holding open doors. The little things that remind me we’re still here, together.

And poetry, well, it’s been carrying me.

There’s so much in the world right now, so I’ll keep this simple since it’s been awhile since I’ve written—I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad we get to share this space, even in this small way.

So, if no one has said this to you today—Happy Valentine’s Day. I’m glad you’re on this planet/

With love, Kells

Also, I plan to send real Valentine's Day cards by snailmail next year. If you want one, just reply with your name and address, and I’ll add you to my mailing list.

P.S. If you ever want to connect, find me at kelli@agodon.com xo

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HAPPENING SOON THIS TUESDAY, June 11 at 4 pm PST!:

#1 . Generating New Work Class POETIC ALCHEMY with Kelli Russell Agodon & Susan Rich (a few spaces left if you want to sign up!):

Want to write new poems? Join Susan Rich and me for an enchanting 3-hour Generative ZOOM Poetry Workshop! We'll conjure new poems with prompts inspired by spells and magic. Space is limited, but a few spots remain. Learn more here and/or register now to secure your place: https://poetsonthecoast.weebly.com/ —we’d love to spend the evening with you! And you’ll leave with 4-6 drafts of poems!

#2. An Evening on Zoom with Jane Hirshfield through Two Sylvias Weekly Muse:

If you LOVE Jane Hirshfield (and who doesn’t?!), join us at Two Sylvias Press Weekly Muse for an exclusive talk and Q&A with her in July. Sign up now as a paid subscriber, and you'll immediately receive Jane Wong’s incredible poetry class, designed to help you write poems in a wild and innovative way!

As a paid subscriber, you'll also get the Weekly Muse each Sunday, packed with prompts, submission opportunities, and more. Plus, you'll have access to all future Zoom classes, including those with the Janes. Don't miss out on this wonderful opportunity!

To attend the Jane Hirshfield evening become a paid subscriber (either monthly or yearly) here! https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

#3. One Week Desert Rat Writing Residency in Palm Desert, California:

I’m the judge for the Desert Rat Residency hosted by Jeff Walt and his partner, Phil. What an incredible space! I had the joy of staying there in March and it was exactly what I needed. So if you want to learn more how you too can find time and space to write in the desert, learn more at: https://desertratresidency.com/new-page (There’s also a fiction prize too!) I think you’ll love it there, I did!

I hope to have a more of a personal update soon, but just wanted to let you what’s happening right now.

Thank you for reading. Here’s a poem by me that was just published in the Maine Review titled, “Everything is Equal When You’re Distorted by the Afterlife." The line: You are young and nothing is sacred" is a line from Megan Fernandes’ remarkable poem “Brooklyn Sonnet.”

Everything is Equal When You Are Distorted by the Afterlife

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Sending love. More soon and thanks for reading.

xo kel

Here’s what I have—and it’s simple advice: be present.

Hold open the door for a stranger. Give an extra generous tip. Smile at someone you don’t know. Say hello. If you have the means—pay for someone’s coffee order or their lunch. Leave a poem in a library book. Walk over to the house of a neighbor you know may need a little help and see what you can do. Pick up litter.

In the big picture, these are tiny (tiny!) acts of kindness, but they matter.

I understand there are things happening in the world that bring us stress and scare us. But I was reading ’s newsletter where she went to hear Barbara Kingsolver, who said when asked, “Are you hopeful,” —I’m hopeful because you have to be. We cannot give up. We must work at it. Hopeful is something you do. It’s your job.

I love the idea of hope as a job. I love the idea that we can see something better for all of us.

I shared on Facebook that a random stop at a small winery connected me to a man who had written “I want to learn more about poetry” in his journal the day before. When he learned I was a poet, he said, “How did I find you?” and “Do you have a card?” (I did not.)

It’s a super-small moment in a larger world, but it felt more significant. Please look for those moments. Please understand if we lived in a world where we each respected and took care of one another, this would be an amazing place.

So be that person.

Here’s a photo of Washington State trying to be as cool as New England:

Thank you all for being part of my community. I rarely randomly send these out haphazardly, but tonight I felt as if I just wanted to send out a little love to let you know, in the worst instance—we’re living through history, But in the best instance, we’re connecting with each other and making it through the dark. Be the spark.

Love, light, poetry, and getting through each day,

~ Kells

s

Dear Friend,

Maybe it’s because nature is writing poetry for me—like the photo you see above: the sunrise has composed a perfect poem. I don’t write a lot in the summer. I paddleboard. I read. I find my way down to the beach and work remotely. And my hammock is sort of a second home to me. (My superpower is napping.)

But when autumn rolls around, that schoolgirl in me gets back into writing mode. Speaking of which—

This Manuscript is Driving Me Mad!: A Memoir

You may have seen me actively complaining, I mean, mentioning, that I’ve been struggling with my next manuscript; I couldn’t find a container to hold it in. For non-poets, that may be a strange thing to say, but what I mean is—I had the poems, but I was bumbling around with the larger structure of the book.

One of the things I’ve learned that works for me is talking to poet-friends about what I’m working on, what I’m trying to do, and what I’m struggling with. Sometimes, a fresh set of eyes on your work can allow you to see it in a new way—

So I did a mini-retreat with Jeannine Hall Gailey (if you want to see the whole play-by-play and my takeaways from a mini-retreat, J.I. Kleinberg did a 3-part feature on us here), but what I learned from this retreat was how much you can get done in a short time (and when I say I, I mean, me).

Normally, I’ve thought I needed at least a week for a good writing retreat, but not only did we get a ton done, but we also always had room for lunch dates, potbelly pigs, lavender farms, and happy hour. For anyone who has gone on a writing residency with me, I can be a little hardcore—not wanting to talk during the day, wanting complete solitude, not wanting to leave the cabin, getting completely offline, and devoting every moment of the residency to my poems. It’s a bit Emily Dickinson reclusive overload, but on this retreat, I learned how much my mind benefits from breaks and how much my spirit is raised by friendship, laughter, and, not surprisingly—potbelly pigs.

Here’s Jeannine and I on our balconies á la Juliet & Romeo. And Jeannine presenting her manuscript-in-progress on her bed as one does—

After that, I gave my manuscript to my friend, the brilliant Elena Karina Byrne, who spent some time with it. If my poetry manuscript was an overstuffed messy closet with clothing thrown all around the room and I was the poet screaming, “I have NOTHING to wear!,” Elena was the calm soul with good taste who simply hung things up and said—I think this will look good on you!

Same poems. Different eyes.

(And btw, if you have a manuscript you need help with, Elena does manuscript consultations! And you can email her here for more info—ekduende@gmail.com)

So this is where I am as a poet, small steps to the finish line, but still moving forward. I’ll keep you updated!

Things I Love This Month:

1. John Giorno’s Dial-a-Poem at MoMA in New York, 4th Floor.

   Thank you to my friend, Dean Rader, for bringing this to my attention. It’s an exhibit currently at MoMa, and well, I called and got a very graphic poem, but with a very satisfying ending: We gave a party of the gods, and the gods all came.

   Also, if you like art and poetry, check out Dean’s newest book Before the Borderless: Dialogues with the Art of Cy Twombly (Copper Canyon Press)—and you know any book with the word dialogues in the title has to be good!

   

2. Kelli’s Dial-a-Poem: (206) 659-POET

   So the above art exhibit reminded me that wayback, in the early days of GoogleVoice, I got a Google phone number with a Seattle area code and it was so early, I got to choose my number and chose 206-659-7639 which is 206-659-POET.
   

   When I got this number, I had thought about leaving poems on it, but never have. But Giorno’s exhibit inspired me, so if you call (206) 659-POET, you’ll hear me reading a new poem. You’ll also hear my mother-in-law in the background tapping her apple-knife on the table, but mostly me and a poem.

3. Two Sylvias Weekly Muse on Substack: And now with Zoom classes, workshops, and salons included in your subscription. A package deal!

   

   Two Sylvias Weekly Muse: If you don’t know about this, it’s where I spend most of my time—I write weekly poetry prompts for the Weekly Muse (a paid subscription for poets) and I also create a list of great places to submit each week. But that’s not why I love it—I love it because we added free Zoom classes with your paid subscription, and I get to host as our featured poet on Tuesday, October 17 at 5 pm PST!

   And after that, Susan Rich of BLUE ATLASand I will return together on Zoom to teach an old favorite class on putting together a poetry manuscript— which inspired the book Demystifying the Manuscript: Essays & Interviews on Creating a Book of Poems! The workshop will have some good info if you’re putting together a book of poems or struggling with your manuscript (as I have been!) But yes, our Zoom class is also included with the Weekly Muse paid subscription and the class will be on Sunday, November 26th.

   Anyway, if you want to attend Maggie’s Zoom event or my class with Susan in November, you can become a paid subscriber here to attend both: https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe (The Weekly Muse & a year of Zoom classes is $198 or $18.99 a month).
   
   Plus, along with the Zoom classes, each Sunday you’ll get poetry prompts, writing exercises, submission opportunities, #ProTips on publishing, exclusive interviews, and your questions answered by our editors send to your inbox. Future classes and salons include Diane Seuss, January Gill O’Neil, Jane Wong, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, with more to come. (Yay!!)

4. Best Halloween Costume for a Writer

   As a poet, this is the scariest Halloween costume I know:

Also, few people asked me if I’m ever making this newsletter paid—nope. (If you want to support me and my press, you can subscribe to Two Sylvias Weekly Muse.) But this, this is my way to connect with you and be in touch. It’s my electronic postcard to you.

Which I why I will end this with a poem from my next collection that was originally published in the Asheville Poetry Review and then had a little resurgence on Verse Daily. If you’ve ever lived with other humans, you know that sometimes they are messsssssy! And well, human. So here’s a poem in praise of our messy lives:

Wishing you a beautiful autumn (my favorite season!) and Happy Spooky Season! .𖥔 ݁ ˖🕸️🕷.𖥔 ݁ ˖👻

(㇏(•̀ᵥᵥ•́)ノ)
❤️, kells

Dear Friend,

Since we last connected, Seattle’s AWP happened, as well as a surprise trip to Paris, a fantastic teaching gig with Jane Wong at Write Doe Bay on Orcas Island , several poetry readings, Jeannine Hall Gailey’s book launch for Flare, Corona, and probably a few more things I’m forgetting.

Above is the patch I wore on green coveralls at AWP while working the Two Sylvias booth. The best compliment I received on this look was from a student who attends the MFA program where I teach (Pacific Lutheran University’s Rainier Writing Workshop (aka RWW) who said, Kelli is wearing a flight suit like Maverick in Top Gun and totally pulling it off! I laughed so hard—um, watch out, Tom Cruise, I am coming for you. Here’s the full look (I had not even considered I looked like Top Gun cast member!):

I’m on the left in coveralls, poet Saúl Hernández is in the middle holding his beautiful new chapbook, At Night My Body Waits, which won the Two Sylvias Chapbook Prize, and Annette Spaulding-Convy, the other cofounder of Two Sylvias is on the right.

Also, this week a dream of mine was fulfilled. I was paddleboarding on Hood Canal ( a fjord in Western Washington and one of the four main basins of Puget Sound) when I heard what sounded like porpoise. So I turned my board towards them and began to paddle out towards the sound when I saw what looked like a small black sailboat sail coming out of the water. As my heart began to pound, I realized I was looking directly at the dorsal fin of an orca whale!

I hectically grabbed for my iPhone, which was around my neck in a waterproof pouch, hit record, and aimed it towards the whales (I could see two at this point—one directly in front of me and one to the south). I hadn’t realized how “slow” orcas seem, so for about the next 10 minutes I just watched them pass in front of me.

While the canal rarely has the resident pod of orcas visit, this transient pod (Pod TS65A) called “Bigg’s Orcas” visits several times a year. I have lived here for seven years and have never seen them. So not only seeing them but seeing them while on my paddleboard was a huge gift.

And when I saw them, I had been thinking about the new poetry manuscript I am working on—sometimes when I’m on my paddleboard, I run titles through my head or think about the structure of the book. I think seeing the orcas right at the moment I was thinking about my manuscript made it extra special, as if the natural world was giving me a positive sign to keep working on it.

If you want to see the video I took of the orcas, you can see that here. Note: The quality is not super great, as filming with an iPhone in a plastic bag while balancing on a paddleboard does not yield the best results (weird!), but I’m glad I captured something. A lot of the other video was of the empty water, my sweatshirt, the sky, my finger—I’m sure Steven Spielberg's early work looked similar to this.

Upcoming Classes, Workshops, and Poetry Salons:

Write Poems with Me:

Generate New Poems: A Weekly Muse Zoom Class with Kelli Russell Agodon (aka me!), June 24, 2023 from 10 am - 12 pm PST: Weekly Muse (a paid subscription through Substack) now has a new feature for paid subscribers—along with receiving the Weekly Muse each Sunday in your inbox (which is full of poetry prompts, exercises, places to submit your work, interviews, Q&A, plus inspiration, support, & community for poetry life), paid subscribers now can take part in all Zoom classes, workshops, and salons at NO extra cost.

We are calling these “pop-up” classes and salons as we will share the dates they are occurring about 3-4 weeks before they happen; however, we do have NY Times Bestselling poet & memoirist Maggie Smith scheduled for a salon in September/early October and Pulitzer Prize winner Diane Seuss right after that!

We also JUST added Jeannine Hall Gailey to our schedule. She and I will be offering a Zoom session on The Art of Book Promotion and PR for Poets in the next few months!

We created these extra Zoom classes to say THANK YOU to all of you who supported us with our Weekly Muse through year one! So if you’d like to take my generating new work class or be part of any of the others listed, you can do so by subscribing to the Weekly Muse here: https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

Once you’re a paid subscriber to the Weekly Muse, you’ll receive tomorrow’s issue (Sunday, June 11th) and next week’s issue (Sunday, June 18) with a Zoom link, and you’re in! And if you can’t make the class, I’m recording a separate Generating New Prompt class to upload so you can watch it and write with me when it’s convenient for you!

And yes, if you subscribe for the year, you’ll have access to ALL the upcoming Zoom classes and salons we offer all year long, plus the Weekly Muse in your inbox EVERY Sunday. Or subscribe monthly, as that’s better for you. You just have to be a paid subscriber when these classes and salons happen to have access to them.

I understand the Weekly Muse is incredibly unique to the poetry world in what it is and what it offers, so if you have any further questions on how it works, just email me!

Things I Love This Month:

’s post on Sylvia Plath’s notebooks is fantastic! It’s on her Substack account Noted here.

Two of my favorite people in conversation: Mike Birbiglia talking with Ira Glass on Working It Out Episode 100: Ira Glass and Mike Birbiglia's Best Advice For Creatives.

Well, I do not love that the TV series Ted Lasso is over, but I did love this series! Then I got hooked on watching all these “What You Missed When Watching the Ted Lasso Finale” videos, where they show all the callbacks, Easter Eggs, and references in the finale episode. The writers of that show did a wonderful job of returning to previous episodes to make the finale even richer (and note: this is why I love poetry books that do the same thing, and this is something I try to do when creating a manuscript too.)

Making overnight oats for breakfast. What you need:

1. Oats: This is really the only ingredient that’s non-negotiable. Make sure to use plain old-fashioned oats and not quick oats because the consistency is best with rolled oats. You can also use gluten-free oats. Do not use steel-cut oats.

2. Milk or Almond Milk:  I use vanilla non-sweetened almond milk, but you can use full-fat, 2% or low-fat milk or other plant-based milk like coconut milk, cashew milk, oat milk, or even just use water.

3. Chia seeds: These are optional, but they’re very nutritious and they help give the oats a pudding-like texture. (Just try them, you won’t even notice them, and they’re good for you.)

4. Walnuts, craisins, raisins, dates: Depending on what I have in the house, but these all make the texture and taste better.

5. Fresh fruit: Blueberries for sure, and I’d started adding them in at night so when I wake up in the morning, it’s just all done. And occasionally, I’ll add strawberries.

6. Sweetener (optional): Use honey, maple syrup, brown sugar, or agave to sweeten the mixture. I usually don’t do this, but I know others love it a little sweeter.

7. Other things: Sometimes I add cinnamon, but you can basically add anything else you want to make your oats to your taste. Some other ideas are—dried fruit, nut butters, nuts, seeds, and spices (like cinnamon, nutmeg or cardamom).

I put all of this in a small Mason jar before I go to bed, and it’s such a treat to wake up to. Note: I’m also a huge fan of toasted banana bread for breakfast!

Friends with New Books:

Oliver de la Paz’s new book, The Diaspora Sonnets (W.W. Norton) releases July 18! But you can preorder a copy right now! I’ve heard Oliver read some of these poems, and this is probably his best work yet!

Sati Mookherjee’s beautiful collection of poems, Ways of Being (MoonPath Press) is now available! Also, Sati and I will be featured in Arizona State University’s Distinguished Visiting Writer Series next April 2024!

Lana Hechtman Ayer’s not only has one new book out, When All Else Fails, but two more books of poems coming out shortly as well! What a wonderful year for this beautiful poet!

Meet Me in Atlantic City (Tin House Books) Jane Wong’s new incredible memoir is out and also available as an audiobook! It’s a really good read—full of Jane’s signature humor and poetic style.

Claire Dederer’s Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma is receiving a lot of well-deserved attention! I’m listening to the Audible version and it’s fantastic and even better as it’s read by Claire herself! (Here’s the book description: A timely, passionate, provocative, blisteringly smart interrogation of how we make and experience art in the age of cancel culture, and of the link between genius and monstrosity.)

's heartfelt memoir You Can Make This Place Beautiful is out and a wonderful read. While this memoir is about divorce, I found it such a reminder of gender roles in our culture and the dismissiveness of those who work in the arts. Anyway, it’s an excellent read.

Friends Who Are Teaching in the World & Other Things:

Rachel Rose, who writes in all genres and who is co-director of Vancouver Manuscript Intensive, is leading Write Outside VMI Summer Intensive With Rachel Rose at Vancouver BC’s Jericho Park in August!

Ilya Kaminsky is in Ukraine right now to raise money for 1) War Refugee Center and food bank in Odesa, Ukraine, 2) Evening Odesa newspaper that continues to fight corruption and cover culture even during bombardments and electricity outages and 3) Odesa UNESCO City of Literature Program that benefits Odesa poets. You can make a donation via PayPal here: Eveningodesa@gmail.com (Details here)

Note: This is not garbage but a mountain of donation bags delivered from Odesa to victims in flooded Kherson at Gostina Khata, a food bank & refugee center in Odesa that’s helping victims of disaster in Kherson and Kakhovka. (Ilya’s on the left.)

SUBMIT:

Rocky Horror Picture Show Poetry Anthology Open Submissions: Time to write & submit your Rocky Horror poems! Deadline August 1, 2023 Guidelines: https://www.forktinepress.com/calls-for-submissions Note: Normally, Fork Tine Press is open exclusively to BIPOC, Queer, & Disabled poets, but their anthology call is open to ALL poets! So EVERYONE is invited to submit their Rocky Horror poems!

And I’ll end with two things:

1. A follow-up on the Dot Cards, from the Valentine’s Day issue—yes, they mostly work with iPhones, but did I use my Dot card once? No. I think I’m sticking to paper business cards.

2. When I was visiting Paris, I had the “brilliant” idea to recreate the iconic Sylvia Plath photo in front of Notre Dame (which is still under construction). I did not nail the shot. ha! But did I love returning to literary places like Shakespeare & Co., Café de Flore, Père-Lachaise Cemetery, and a few places from the movie Midnight in Paris.

   

   Also, while going to this amazing event hosted by concert pianist Beate Perrey, we stumbled upon Emily’s house from the TV show Emily in Paris. And as you can see, the French have a funny sense of humor (note: the graffiti below!)

   

   So that’s it! Thanks for reading. And remember, if you want to write new poems with me this June 24 (Saturday) from 10 am - 12 pm PST or have access to the video I’m recording, just become a paid subscriber to Two Sylvias Weekly Muse to have access to both options here: https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/subscribe

   Wishing you all good things!

with love from the Pacific Northwest,
Kells

Dear Valentine,

Good morning, good afternoon Eastcoasters, & Happy Valentine’s Day! ❤️

For the last several years, I’ve been creating valentines from my favorite poets and artists, and I realized in 2020, there was no valentine, just blank space—I get that.

But today, I write to you from a mini-writing retreat in a Pacific Northwest town so small that you don’t have to lock your door when you leave and walk to the one small market that sells kid’s ice cream cones in the flavors of “Maui Wowie” and “Death by Chocolate.” It’s oddly fun to hear a child or an adult say, “I’d like death by chocolate, please.” They also make the best Reuben sandwiches around if you are into Reuben sandwiches.

Everyone around me is in fleece and/or walking a dog. On my walk into town, I passed by this garden that had Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with the Pearl Earring” hidden in the back of what seemed to be a winter veggie garden…I realize you never know what you will find in this quirky, artsy beach community. And I love that.

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I wandered down to the beach and an old dock that once was a ferry transport to the Seattle side of the water. Look at that sky—it’s just too easy to fall in love with nature here. (For perspective, if I moved the lens to the left, you’d see part of the Seattle skyline, the water you see is Puget Sound minus the orca whales, which are up north today.)

So today, I write to you to wish you a Happy Heart’s Day. A happy hallmark day. A happy I-Am-My-Own-Valentine Day… (I can buy myself flowers, write my name in the sand…) Whatever you want to call it, this is just me reaching out to you to send some love your way.

I’ve been practicing getting offline more (it’s so much easier to do at a writing retreat because time is so limited), but I wonder if I can bring it into my everyday life. It’s funny how everything seems easier to me when I’m traveling, at a hotel or a writing residency—sometimes, our own lives can have a heaviness, which isn’t always helpful to our art and/or our mental health. As poets and artists, it’s a joy to live lightly, to move easily through the world, and yet, we’re human, and we have stuff (online and off, emotional and physical).

So here is my Valentine’s wish for you—try to let go of what is holding you down.

Be the heart balloon that escaped the terrible office party and flew off into the cosmos. Or the valentine that ended up in the library book to be found by the person who didn’t know they needed it.

Each day, I’m reminded how temporary we are. Even as I make mistakes, bumble around, waste time…I realize we’re just a wingbeat here. But each moment we find connection makes it worth it.

So love hard, and don’t wait for Valentine’s Day to buy a card for someone you care for, do it whenever you have the feeling…

And speaking of valentines, Here are a few Valentines I’ve created from seasons past (you may remember some of them or even received one or two in the mail). The Valentino typewriter and the quote from Agha Shahid Ali may be my favorite because it incorporates three of my loves—poetry, typewriters, and writing letters.

(I’m hoping these following images come through, if they don’t, you can find everything here)

So wherever you are, thank you for being part of this beautiful poetry community and my beautiful community and doing your best to find the light in a world that seems to keep turning the dimmer switch on and off.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

from someone who continues to learn how to write love letters,

Kelli

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Things I Love This Month & Offerings:

Dot Card, a Techie New Business Card
For those going to AWP, I just discovered these Dot Cards two days ago that you can use instead of paper business cards (they are $20 each, $18 if you use WELCOME10 as a promo code).

Supposedly, you just tap your card against someone’s smartphone, and the person will get all your contact info (or whatever you want to provide) immediately on their phone. My order is in the mail, so I’ll let you know how it works the next time I send this out.

And if they do work, they can replace Linktree (https://linktr.ee/), which is something many poets use in their bios, but Linktr.ee went from something like $3 a month to $9ish, but you get a free Dot profile page with your Dot Card purchase (I linked mine if you’re curious). The profiles aren’t as pretty as linktr.ee, but free, so better…I’m looking into it and will let you know how it goes. The jury’s still out on this one…

If you do prefer paper business cards, I recommend Moo Cards.

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Friends Who are Now Writing on Substack:

Susan Rich: Blue Atlas / Note: Susan’s newest book is just out: Gallery of Postcards and Maps: New & Selected Poems, and her next book, Blue Atlas (as her substack account is named!) will be out this year from Red Hen Press, so watch for it!)

Maggie Smith: Dear Life / Note: Maggie’s new memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful (a line from her “Good Bones” for everyone paying attention) will be out April 11th, but you can pre-order hardcover, Kindle, or audiobook right now)

Tatyana Sussex: Beauty Hunter: Tatyana also hosts various creativity online salons on Humor & Play and one coming up on Desire (yes, I have already signed up for that one!) To learn more about these salons, click here.

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Friends Who Are Teaching in the World:

My friend, Michael Tomlinson, a singer/songwriter you may recognize from some past Billboard Top 10 hits, is leading a one-day class on creativity called Creating the Dreams Inside You: A One-Day Creativity Workshop for All Levels. You can learn more or sign up here. (Note: And it’s for everyone, not just songwriters.)

Jennifer Jean is teaching The Line as a Unit of Attention: a Master Class (via Zoom), April 30 @12:30 pm - 2:30 pm EST at the Hudson Valley Writer’s Center.

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Also, I shared this Sarah Russell poem on Twitter, and it got 18,000 likes and a ridiculous number of shares…I’m always intrigued by what people connect with, and it was this poem.

After I shared it, two people got in touch with Sarah (who I just met through sharing her poem) and translated it into other languages—I mean, we never know what will stick, so just keep writing and sharing!

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For Valentine’s Day, 2 Free Weeks of the Weekly Muse:

So this (the Weekly Muse) is what Annette Spaulding-Convy (my partner at Two Sylvias Press) and I spend our time on every week. It’s quite a bit of work, but I appreciate having a job where I get to write poetry prompts, find new ways to inspire others’ poems, and help others keep writing.

What is the Weekly Muse? It’s a new tool for poets that arrives every Sunday in your inbox with poetry prompts & writing exercises, ideas about where to submit your work that week, insider tips to help you with your publishing goals, access to editors and other poets to answer your questions and offer advice, a space to help keep you connected to poetry, learn about new poets and poetry books, a nurturing online poetry community, articles on creativity, the occasional pep talk, giveaways, and so much more!

A poet told us the Weekly Muse was both her poetry coach and personal assistant as it has helped simplify, prioritize, and organize her writing life. She wrote, I recommend to my friends to sign up for a year as each Sunday you’ll have exactly what you need for your writing week. Sometimes I miss a few weeks because of life, but I know a new Weekly Muse is coming the next Sunday, and I can always return to past Muses easily. I had no idea how much time the Weekly Muse would save me, especially in trying to determine where to submit my poems and manuscript. I just have one request, please don’t even stop creating it! ~ Elizabeth S.

So if you want to try it, Two Sylvias is offering a 14-day free trial here.

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I think that’s it from me, dear friends.

May you find the love around you. Even in the darkest, most tiring times, may you turn into whatever love enters your space.

It hasn’t been easy (believe me, these last six months have challenged me in and intriguing ways!), but may you turn your internal radio station onto the good, to what’s working and who is helping out. And see the good in each other; it can make a difference.

Love, light, and poetry,

Kelli

P.S. On a very personal note—Thank you to those who asked how my 95-year-old mother-in-law was settling in after her big move into our house from the Philippines—she is now fully vaccinated and doing terrific! Travel has become a little more challenging for Rose and I; otherwise, we’re all doing well. She spent Super Bowl eating a big plate of nachos, then falling asleep on the couch in a nacho coma as one does. She makes me laugh daily with her sayings; one of my favorite she says as she passes my black cat is, “Hi Kitty Kitty, sometimes you bite.” —she’s not wrong. So thank you for all your notes, texts, and caring.

Good morning and welcome to 2023! It’s been since National Poetry Month 2022 since I’ve written. How are you these early days of the New Year?

The first part of my 2022 was a lot of wonderful travel with friends in the states and three weeks in spring traveling with my family from Vienna to London by train. Here I am finding a William Blake quote on a wall in Vienna…

Then a couple of weeks later, I arrived in Paris to a “We are Poems” tiara, complete with puffy cloud accents (okay, it’s not really a tiara, but I wish it was!)

The rest of my year from September to now was a blur. Autumn had a lot of things go down; it was a sneaky season taking us by surprise and changing many of our plans.

Some of you know our Auntie Flora passed in September, and we took on a full-time project of bringing my 95-year-old mother-in-law home from the Philippines to live with us. She had been living in Quezon City, and once her sister was gone, we all knew the best move was to bring her back home as this is where she wants to spend her final years—and we are thankful for that.

While the whole trip could be described as a very bad episode of Amazing Race from her and Rose being detained in Manilla on the flight home for missing paperwork, expired & renewed passports, snowstorms, 4-hours stuck on the tarmac, lost luggage, a 7-hour trip by car over the Canada/American border on icy roads, and several other nailbiting moments—everyone made it home safely!

So this is where I am as I write you—in a warm house with oranges and dark chocolates on the coffee table, gray clouds outside my window that look as if someone has unstuffed a throw pillow and left it in the sky—but here with my family, safe and healthy, around me in the Pacific Northwest.

I realize that I am not your steady newsletter writer and am more the person who will text you late at night to tell you I saw a fox crossing the roadway on my drive home and how we stopped to acknowledge the other—we are all trying to exist despite the obstacles and the hazards. And these newsletters arrive with a belief that it’s time to connect, to wish you joy in the New Year and say, Hi friend, it’s been a while…

The last few years, I’ve been sending out a “Best Of” list or “My Favorite Things List” usually in December—but this year my December was flipped on its head, so here’s a shorter list of things I loved to start 2023, a few things I believe may help you in the new year & a few things I’m up to as well—

Two Sylvias’ Weekly Muse, a new tool for poets to help inspire new poems all year long and find places to submit them too (a yearly or monthly subscription).

This is the newest tool for poets from Two Sylvias, and it’s a little tough to explain because it means a lot to each person who subscribes. The Weekly Muse arrives each Sunday in your inbox, and to some, this is a way to write 1 -2 new poems a week (or over 100 new poems in a year). To another, it means they know where to submit their poems each week and find new opportunities. To someone else, it’s the online community (and the support of Two Sylvias) that makes them feel connected, or the inspiration, or the pep talks, or the idea that there are two poets/editors who are willing to answer your questions and help you out. Many just like it because it organizes and simplifies their writing week.

Whatever it is, we’ve learned it’s making a lot of people feel happy each Sunday morning when it arrives… I’ve included a special offer, so if you’d like to try the Weekly Muse, you can get 2 weeks free by clicking here… So for the price of a 3-4 hour poetry class, you can get the Weekly Muse each week in 2023 to help you write over 100 poems and publish poems all year long, plus ongoing support and community throughout it all!

Feel free to give it a try, and if you don’t like it, you can cancel and not be billed. (It was named a Substack bestseller, and Oprah Magazine said, Tap into your creativity with activities and exercises from Two Sylvias! (Thanks, Oprah!) Try it free here: https://tinyurl.com/2WeeksofMUSEFree

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Write New Poems With Us in the New Year:

Saturday, January 28 on Zoom from 10 - 2 pm PST (with Kelli & Susan Rich)

Because of my schedule, I’m only teaching one generative writing class with Susan Rich on Saturday, January 28th, from 10-2 pm PST. It’s called Generating New Work for the New Year: A Resolution to Write! So if you want to join us on Zoom and write several new drafts of poems together, you can do so here (as I said, it’s currently the only writing class I’m offering in 2023, but it’s one of my favorites because we will all just write poems for 4 hours and these classes are always fun and I always leave full of joy and with a few new drafts of poems to take into the year.) P.S. Since it’s a Zoom class, click here to fill out the registration form so we have your email!

Other things I loved this year—

Books: Please Don’t Sit on my Bed in Your Outside Clothes (essays) by Phoebe Robinson, Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark (note: I listened to this audiobook—it was 45 hours, perfect for long drives), and for poetry—Kathy Fagan’s Bad Hobby, Vapor by Sara Eliza Johnson, banana [ ] by Paul Hlava Ceballos (debut collections) and of course, these beautiful books by good friends always make for good gifts and good reading, Dear Selection Committee by Melissa Studdard, Gallery of Postcards and Maps: New & Selected Poems by Susan Rich, Chaos Theory for Beginners by Ronda Piszk Broatch, Rain / Dweller by Risa Denenberg, When I Drowned by Lauren Davis, and Lesley Wheeler’s Poetry’s Possible Worlds (essays).

Movies: Shirley Valentine (1989): I am probably the last person to watch this movie, but what a delight. It was filmed in Mykonos in the late 80s; it was just an enjoyable watch about seeking and refinding joy in life…

I also loved Cha Cha Real Smooth (a fav), the Good House with Sigourney Weaver, and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which stars Nicolas Cage as a fictionalized version of himself, and The Fabelmans, which was a good but a very long film of Steven Spielberg’s life (2 1/2 hours). Thankfully, I saw most of these films in an old Victorian theatre in Port Townsend, Washington on a vintage couch with a lot of seasoned popcorn which made me like everything more.

TV Shows I Loved This Year: Bad Sisters (Irish sisters that hate one of their sister’s husbands, dark, hilarious humor), White Lotus, Ted Lasso, Emily in Paris (yes, I know the critics hated it), Dead to Me, Grace and Frankie, Abbott Elementary (which is a very sweet show about elementary teachers), and old Modern Family episodes are great for plane rides.

Light Me While Writing Candle: Everyone likes a good writing ritual, so light this candle each time you begin writing and watch it burn down. It’s a different type of clock, and if you see your candle isn’t melting down, then maybe you need to write more.

Live Life in a Tiara or Crown: In a wonderful salon on humor, fun, and play by Tatyana Sussex, who writes at , we decided that everything is better if you are doing it in a tiara or crown. Elevate doing the dishes, shoving snow, or shopping for groceries with this one accessory. (Fun fact: My current driver’s license photo has me wearing a tiara because I just wanted to see if they would let me—they did! The man did ask me if it was my birthday, and I said, “No, just a regular day.” Next time, I'm going in with a larger tiara because--why not?)

Old School Valentines: For many years, I sent out old school postcard valentines with stamps each February to your snailmail address.

I’m plan to return to that tradition by sending out Valentines in 2023, so if you want one mailed to your home, sign up here then in February, watch your mailbox.

Here’s one I sent a few years ago:

And if you’re around Seattle on January 26, 2023, Thursday, 6 - 7:30 pm PST, I have an in-person Poetry Reading with Caitlin Scarano, Katerina Canyon, and EJ Koh at Hugo House! Free to the public.

So that’s where I am.

And now that I’m settling back into my life, I’m thinking about poetry again, and since it’s New Year’s, I thought I’d bring out the refigured Moët Champagne ad I created since this is how the world views poets much of the time, traveling via champagne bottle, our most favorite mode of transportation.

I understand how these last few years have been challenging to so many in so many ways, but remember—we are in this together and our time here is temporary. So do the thing you need to do, stay kind, find new ways to be generous, keep your people close, and make your art.

All the other stuff we’re being sold doesn’t matter. Love hard and well. And write and read the poems you need to. I’ll be hanging out mostly close to home the next year, but I am thankful to have you on this journey with me.

May your 2023 be the best year yet! Until we are in touch again—

love, light, and poetry,

Kelli

P.S. If you haven’t gotten a copy of my newest book, Dialogues with Rising Tides (Copper Canyon Press), you still can do that here through Bookshop or here through Amazon. And this year it was a Washington State Book Prize Finalist in Poetry & Shortlisted for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize! 🏆

P.P.S. If you’re a poet with a new book in 2022 or 2023 and would like to be part of the Weekly Muse interview section, email me at kelli@agodon.com as I’m looking for a few more poets to interview in 2023!

And Happy National Poetry Month!

I can’t believe how many months have passed since I last wrote. I’m not sure how time works for you these days, but I recently wrote a check (um, yes, I still write checks) that said, “April 2021.” Apparently, I’ve dropped a year somewhere along the way.

But what have I learned these last two years? That nothing has ever been certain, we’ve just had routines in place to make us think it has been. Also, we’re here on this planet for an eye-wink, so find ways to connect with those you love, make time for your art and your joy, and walk gently into the world knowing your daily interactions can make a positive difference in someone’s life.

There is so much we don’t control, but we do control how kind we are to others both those who we love and strangers we don’t know. So whenever you feel down, pass on some joy, a compliment, some love, to someone else…I swear, it makes a difference.

And in the spirit of that kindness, here’s a poem by Danusha Laméris (from her book, Bonfire Opera) on that same theme for you to enjoy:

Opportunities, Events, & Other Things I Love:

• Dean Rader started this project “Poems that Changed Me” which has grown into this beautiful collaboration with other poets including Sharon Olds, Arthur Sze, Jane Hirshfield, and others making videos about poems that have changed them. Each week, a new poet. You can see these poets as well as Dean’s favorite poems here.

• Terrain.org is accepting poems (deadline: April 30), but I love that they also will also consider poem/image combinations, video poems, image poems, hybrid forms, and online chapbooks that may contain more than 6 poems.

• This note from E.B. White made me smile. After reading this note, I feel as if I have been declining things all wrong for years! I’m definitely moving to the mysterious: “I must decline, for secret reasons.”

  

  
  

• New Project: At Two Sylvias Press, we were asked by poets to create something for them to inspire new poems, help keep them accountable to their writing practice, publish more work, create community, and the Weekly Muse was born! Beginning May 1st—Two Sylvias’ Weekly Muse is a new subscription to help you write new poems and bring your work to the next level.
  
  The first three issues are rich with tips for your writing, submitting, and some inspiring poetry prompts (and more). You can learn more here. (And by subscribing you support a women-run indie press and not a corporation—so thank you!)

  

• Poetry Writing Class: And if you’re around this Saturday, April 23 from 11 am - 3 pm PST, I’m teaching a Zoom class with Susan Rich called Risking It!—where we will write new poems (5-7 drafts!) These classes (which are basically mini-retreats) are my favorite to lead because so many dazzling poems are born. Registration closes in the next two days, but there are still a few spaces left if you’re interested: Click here to learn more.
  

And can you believe this?
And it’s almost been a year since Dialogues with Rising Tides came out from Copper Canyon Press. Thank you all who have bought it or given it as gifts and for all the wonderful notes about it.

One fun thing I didn’t realize would happen is that people would send me photos of their pets with my book or my book “out in the wild.”

Here’s one of Sylvia (poet Jeannine Hall Gailey’s cat) that is “adorbs” as the kids say…

Thank you so much for being part of my community. I tend to say “more from me soon” and I realize we never know if that’s a month from now or ten! But know, I’m thankful to have you in my poetry universe.

Love and light,

Kells

P.S. Here’s a few photos from Seattle’s Elliott Bay Books first in-person reading since Jane Hirshfield read there in March of 2020! Susan Rich (whose new book Gallery of Postcards & Maps is releasing on July 7) and I read there on the warmest day of the year and it was magical:

xoxo…kelli