Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

@amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social

820 followers 1.2K following 520 posts

Knitting, jam making, bread baking, gardening, writing antifascist wife and mom from Western New York. Blogging since 2010 (no ads, no AI) at www.poemfarm.amylv.com 💙

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 12d

I will be attending this event in Buffalo, NY. If you are also attending, let's find each other. 💙

#Democracy #Vote #Epstein #EpsteinFiles #NoKings #Antifascist #Protest #BuffaloNY #SaveDemocracy

mobilize.us/s/ACNNt9

NO KINGS in the Queen City (Buffalo, NY) · Mobilize

**In America, we don’t put up with would-be kings.** Our peaceful movement is only getting bigger and stronger. “NO KINGS” is more than just a slogan—it’s the foundation our nation was built upon. Bo...

mobilize.us

Reposted by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

50501: The People’s Movement ❌👑 @50501movement.bsky.social · 23h

Despite strong objections from Governor Pritzker, Mayor Johnson, and the people of Chicago, the Trump regime is preparing to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago today.

If you are in Chicago and need guidance on how to interact with the Guard, here’s a helpful guide:
bit.ly/resistancetoolkit

Responding to Federal Occupying Forces

Click here for another version of this document optimized for readability and accessibility. Table of Contents (click to jump ahead) We the People are PISSED: statement/intro Situation Report: current...

bit.ly

35 440 700

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 1d

Stacking our front porch with winter wood, I carved out a cozy nook made from firewood walls. Tonight I am knitting here, listening to the glorious sound of much needed rain. 🧶

#Home #Socktober #Knitting #KnittingForCalm #AntifaKnitter #Socks #LibrarySocks #KimsDyedYarn #Home #Grateful #Cozy #Hygge

A pink bistro table with knitting scattered atop sits in a cozy nook made from stacked firewood.

3 28

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 2d

❣️📚❣️

Litbowl @litbowl.bsky.social · 2d

What a lovely message from @bookshop.org. Glad to see them growing and growing. We CAN claim back what has been taken from us by these monstrous corporations, and it starts with things like this. Grab some books these next couple days!

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 2d

Socktober continues with these Hermione socks in colorway Shifting Seasons by The Sheepyshire. I am thankful that my lovely Danish host mother Birte taught me to knit back when I was a Rotary exchange student in '87-'88. ❣️

#Socktober #Knitting #Socks #Handknit #Maker #Socks #ShowMeYourKnits #Fall 🧶

Two feet in orange and blue handknit socks rest in a garden with marigolds.

1 42

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 3d

Aw. Good on the Bills.

victoria zeller (buy ONE OF THE BOYS) @dirtbagqueer.rocks · 6d

thank you bills tiktok

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 5d

Claude says, "I will help you with the puzzle."

#Caturday #Cats #CatsOfBluesky #LongHairedCats 😽

A buff-colored cat with orange eyes looks up from his spot on the puzzle box.

1 8

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 5d

😭❣️

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 5d

❣️

Chembu🌺🧶 @chembarathi.bsky.social · 5d

Hope's secret:
it doesn't know
the destination-
it knows only
that all roads
begin with one
foot in front of the other.
- Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
#Poetry #LiteratureSky 💙📚👀

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

HOPE

Hope has holes in its pockets.

It leaves little crumb trails so that we, when anxious, can follow it. Hope's secret: it doesn't know the destination-it knows only that all roads begin with one foot in front of the other.

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 5d

😢

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 6d

My dad used to make up stories about how he's save a town and they'd made him mayor, then he would make a bunch of terrible rules and they'd somehow fire him using 1 of said rules, and not only did I fully believe he'd been a mayor but I'm sure this is part of why I became a writer. This is so sad.

Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 7d

Some parents are letting their kids talk to ChatGPT in the guise of characters. Some are using it to tell bedtime stories or create coloring books.

"My son thinks ChatGPT is the coolest train loving person in the world. The bar is set so high now I am never going to be able to compete with that.”

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you so much. ❤️

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you so much. ❤️

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 5d

Ugh. I am terribly sorry. Here we did not need to check a specific box...I.. ❣️

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 6d

Thank you! X

1 1

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 6d

We are all collecting urns now. Hug to you... ❣️

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 6d

Here in NY at the online signup (CVS), you simply check the box that you have a condition. No one asks what it is. You surely do. Good luck.❣️

1 1

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 6d

Over at The Poem Farm, my (ad-and-AI-free since 2010) blog for young writers, today I share a tritina about the sleeping bumblebee I found stuffed into a dahlia. I welcome you & your students to join me for small writing jaunts in this friendly space. #Kidlit #Writing #ChildrensAuthor #Creativity

Text of the poem "Bee and Me" by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater. To hear the poem read to you, visit the link in the post.

The bottom of a fat bumblebee sticks out of a bright pink dahlia.

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 6d

❣️

Chembu🌺🧶 @chembarathi.bsky.social · 6d

Having loved enough and lost enough,
I am no longer searching, just opening.

No longer trying to make sense of pain,
but trying to be a soft and sturdy home
in which real things can land.
- Mark Nepo
#Poetry #LiteratureSky 💙📚👀

Yes, We Can Talk

Mark Nepo

Having loved enough and lost enough, I am no longer searching, just opening.

No longer trying to make sense of pain, but trying to be a soft and sturdy home in which real things can land.

These are the irritations that rub into a pearl

So we can talk awhile but then we must listen, the way rocks listen to the sea

And we can churn at all that goes wrong but then we must lay all distractions down, and water every living seed.

←

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 7d

Mark walked up our hill this morning to find the first sparkles of frost. 'Feels like time for these cozy memade Noro socks and a mug of chai.

#Noro #SockKnitting #Knitter #Fall #Knitting #Cozy #Hygge 🧶

Two feet in socks of blue and purple rest on an old ice cream shop chair.

Reposted by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

Angry @angrystaffer.bsky.social · 8d

In all the chaos, I would urge folks to remember that a lot of folks now don’t know when their next check will come.

The vast majority are good people who love this nation deeply, and many of them are still working despite not knowing when they’ll be paid

Have compassion.

390 2.5K 12K

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 7d

❣️

Chembu🌺🧶 @chembarathi.bsky.social · 7d

With nothing in the bank, you will still want to take the express. Tiptoe past the dogs of the apocalypse asleep in the shade of your future. Pay at the window. You'll be surprised: you can pass off hope like a bad check. You still have time, that's the thing. To make it good.
#Poetry 💙📚👀

How to Be Hopeful

Look, you might as well know, this device is going to take endless repair: rubber cement, rubber bands, tapioca, the square of the hypotenuse, nineteenth-century novels, sunrise-any of these could be useful. Also feathers. The ignition is tricky. Sometimes you have to stand on an incline where things look possible. Or a line you drew yourself. Or the grocery line, making faces at a toddler, secretly, over his mother's shoulder. You may have to pop the clutch and run past the evidence. Past everyone who is praying for you. Passing all previous records is ok, or passing strange. Just not passing it up. Or park it and fly by the seat of your pants. With nothing in the bank, you will still want to take the express. Tiptoe past the dogs of the apocalypse asleep in the shade of your future. Pay at the window. You'll be surprised: you can pass off hope like a bad check. You still have time, that's the thing. To make it good.

Barbara Kingsolver

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 7d

❣️

Litbowl @litbowl.bsky.social · 7d

Another for the new month. From Robert Bly's Morning Poems: bookshop.org/a/862/9780060928735

#poem #books #writing

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater @amylvpoemfarm.bsky.social · 8d

It is October, and these dried wintergreen leaves that I foraged in the Adirondacks are now soaking in olive oil for six weeks. Then they will mix with beeswax and essential oil to become a salve.

#Fall #Foraging #Wintergreen #WitchyThings #Maker #EpsteinFiles #Forest

Wintergreen leaves soak in a Mason jar full of olive oil.

Reposted by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

Tammy Duckworth @duckworth.senate.gov · 8d

If you live in these states, your ACA premiums are about to jump:

SD - Up 235% LA - Up 150% WV - Up 387% WY - Up 382% TN - Up 320% MS - Up 314% AK - Up 346%

Republicans are fighting to make sure this happens to their own constituents.

99 1.5K 3.1K

Reposted by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

Guardrails of Democracy @demguardrails.bsky.social · 8d

Republicans will try to blame the Government Shutdown on Democrats, MAKE SURE EVERYONE on every platform & in your text circle sees this.

30 660 850

Reposted by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 8d

Republicans own all three branches of the U.S. government.

This shutdown is on them.

13 87 460