Jessica Swafford
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jswafford.bsky.social
Jessica Swafford
@jswafford.bsky.social
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soflopojo.bsky.social
soflopojo.submittable.com/submit
December 22, 2024 at 2:23 PM
Reposted by Jessica Swafford
poetnotarockstar.bsky.social
December 9, 2024 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Jessica Swafford
astronomers.bsky.social
“Mystic Mountain,” this is a region of the much more extensive Carina Nebula.
Credit: NASA, ESA,Hubble
Stars form in large clouds of gas and dust called nebulae that scatter the visible wavelengths of light our eyes can see. The longer wavelengths of infrared light can pass through the cloud relatively undisturbed. Hubble’s near-infrared capabilities and high resolving power make it an important tool in the study of how stars form. Dubbed “Mystic Mountain,” this is a region of the much more extensive Carina Nebula. In it, towers of cool hydrogen gas laced with dust are seen to rise along the nebula’s wall. At the top, a three-light-year-tall pillar of gas and dust is being eaten away by the brilliant light and winds from nearby stars. The pillar is also being pushed apart from within, as infant stars buried inside it fire off jets of gas that can be seen streaming left and right from the tips of the peaks. NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)
December 8, 2024 at 2:24 PM
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variantlit.bsky.social
November 25, 2024 at 8:06 PM
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toddedillard.bsky.social
one of two new poems in @ex-puritan.bsky.social today among so many, many friends!

"...she says a poem
where nothing impossible happens in it, just the truth,
and I say OK and put her in this poem and she sprouts
forty two robin wings down her neck and back and legs..."
My Daughter Asks Me to Write an Honest Poem And when I ask what she means she says a poem where nothing impossible happens in it, just the truth, and I say OK and put her in this poem and she sprouts forty two robin wings down her neck and back and legs and she says why would you do that, that’s not true and I say OK I say Sorry and I put an orchard in her arms, a huge orchard, with rows of pear trees, and it’s spring and a million white blossoms fur her skin like snow and she says DAD she says THIS ISN’T REAL and I say I am sorry my love I didn’t mean to it’s just that but it’s too late, she’s gone upstairs, I hear her feet march across the floorboards, soft claps like a dozen cages closing in a bird shop that specializes in songless birds, and once more winter settles softly in my mind, I walk my orchard’s empty rows and remember how full my arms used to be when my daughter was young, how busy my hands, my sad, empty hands reaching for this liar’s pen.
November 25, 2024 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by Jessica Swafford
toddkaneko.bsky.social
I love this one, “A Poem in Which I Grab My Poverty Like that Jaguar in the Video Grabbed a Crocodile Out of the River and Carried It into the Jungle” from WHERE YOU COME FROM IS GONE by Annie Woodford.
“A Poem in Which I Grab My Poverty Like that Jaguar in the Video Grabbed a Crocodile Out of the River and Carried It into the Jungle” by Annie Woodford. My daughter said You think it’s the wind, but it’s the highway. Pot smoke wafts from a passing car, caress of funk and fable, though, at eleven, I don’t think she knows the scent. We walk the grounds of the school she was zoned to attend, the highway and Walmart still visible through woven plastic fence. We toss the half-deflated hearts of playground balls back into the packed dirt yard. I find a child’s sweater on the gravel, vinyl butterflies pressed across its chest, its thin acrylic knit wet with dew. I drape it across the gate, bright totem of all the love I send and forsake. My daughter grabs my phone and poses her face— seeking her own beauty in her smile—in front of our distant mountains, egalitarian in their soft pink excess, planes descending from places we never have the money to visit, wingtips luminous with low sun, while all over town tonight people sleep in their own piss because Medicaid must make profit. A coyote tried to hide behind the trashcan at the jail today but it was shot. Inmates used to shout from out the window slots until those slots were sealed. You’d think it was catcalls or something unspeakable, but it was really the wind, if God is the wind and sometimes takes the form of human voices.
November 19, 2024 at 12:45 AM
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poetnotarockstar.bsky.social
December 9, 2024 at 3:06 PM
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westtradereview.bsky.social
Submissions close December 15th. Send us your best short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction.

Before submitting, please review our guidelines at the link below:

​https://buff.ly/3a4dEgn

#writingcommunity #poetrycommunity
December 9, 2024 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Jessica Swafford
rough-diamond1.bsky.social
We are still accepting submissions for our newest print anthology on the them of the Body. We're already seeing an immense variety of work on this theme!💎😍

Keep 'em coming! We're reading more subs today😜💎

submissions to [email protected]

roughdiamondpoetry.com/submissions/
Submissions
We are open for submissions! We are open for poems on the theme of “The Body.” However you take this theme is up to you – the more variety of weird and wonderful creations we rece…
roughdiamondpoetry.com
December 8, 2024 at 10:34 AM
Reposted by Jessica Swafford
poetnotarockstar.bsky.social
Call for Submissions

Strict 24 Line Limit per poem

www.flowersongpress.com/news-events/...
November 16, 2024 at 3:08 PM
Reposted by Jessica Swafford
chiaradilello.bsky.social
For #smallpoemsunday, here's my poem, "honey" 🐝 published a few years back at Yes Poetry
@tomsnarsky.bsky.social
honey I cannot compare our life to the bees’ or I can, but would be at a loss when I get to the honey but insofar as the long waits the sealing up of sweetness to save for later the dances before each others’ bodies that are maps, landscapes of a distant glowing destination, well –
December 8, 2024 at 7:14 PM
Reposted by Jessica Swafford
soflopojo.bsky.social
Submit! Submit! Wherever You Are!
Submissions to The Maureen Seaton Poetry Prize are open with no geographical limits. Send us a poem!
soflopojo.submittable.com/submit
December 8, 2024 at 11:46 PM
Reposted by Jessica Swafford
lostinstars.bsky.social
I have a very talented and incredibly smart friend @alinaetc.bsky.social (with whom I’ve had the privilege of collaborating on a project) whose poetry book is out this spring 2025 on @sarabandebooks.bsky.social — sarabandebooks.org/all-titles/p/m…#alinastefanescucu
December 9, 2024 at 12:25 AM
Reposted by Jessica Swafford
bullcitypress.com
REMINDER: Annie Woodford's wonderful micro-collection of poems, WHEN GOD WAS A CHILD, goes on sale at the end of the month (10/24) & if you pre-order now you get it at a special pre-order price! #ComingSoon
October 9, 2023 at 7:01 PM
Reposted by Jessica Swafford
ffteague.bsky.social
Here's a very useful updated list of form-friendly poetry magazines, compiled by Robin Helweg-Larsen @robinhelweglarsen.bsky.social formalverse.com/2024/11/22/r... 🤩
Resources, updated: 50 formal-friendly poetry magazines
It can be difficult for a formalist to find a home for their poetry. Some of the best-known and longest-established poetry magazines have either changed (often under a new editor) from being recept…
formalverse.com
December 6, 2024 at 7:38 PM