Even though sad boy T.S. Eliot (who was born and raised in St. Louis btw) famously wrote “April is the cruellest month,” April is an exhilarating time to be a reader, writer and admirer of poetry: it’s National Poetry Month, y’all! Whether you’re a life-long fan of poetry’s inscrutable magic, or someone who doesn’t quite get what all the fuss is about, I promise that there’s a place for you somewhere in the wide poetry wilds. To riff on the common idiom, there are plenty of fish poems in the sea poetry. 🐠🌊 And, to extend my metaphor just a bit, like many marine animals who survive in the vast blues of open ocean, I find that reading and writing poetry is an experience best explored, practiced and performed with your community around you.
Poems, after all, function a little bit differently from stories and essays. Nonfiction and fiction titles might ask you to figure something out, to learn new information or to consider a unique or unifying perspective. Nonfiction and fiction often, though not always, have discrete answers to questions like “what’s happening or has happened or will happen” or “who is/was/will be this person, this animal, this environment, this object, this culture, this thing?” Poetry isn’t so concerned with answers, or perhaps a better way to put it is that poetry is concerned with both the asking and the answering, with the experience of questioning, of wondering, of (un)knowing. Ultimately, poetry ask-answers its creators and receivers, writers and readers, to participate in a fluid and multidirectional — even multidimensional — process of meaning or meaning-making.
It’s officially spring as of yesterday! And if you’re like me springtime can be a mix of joy and misery. Joy! 😃 The sun is out longer, the weather is warming up and flowers blooming. Misery. 😭 The flowers are blooming. I’m an indoor cat through and through, so I’ll just sit in a sunbeam and soak up the spring vibes from the comfort of my couch. That doesn’t mean I can’t bring some nature indoors – I’m looking at you, houseplants! Having houseplants is a great way to get a daily dose of nature without all the itchy, watery eyes. Caring for houseplants is also a great form of self-care. Here are just a few benefits (according to WebMD):
Stress relief – being around plants can have a calming effect
Sharper focus – in classrooms with potted plants students performed better on tests than those without any plants
Better mental health – nurturing your plants can also nurture your emotional health
Posted on Wednesday, March 13, 2024 by Nigel Church
You are of an age to be collecting things, I know this because you are of an age to be reading this blog. And if this happens to be the first thing you’ve ever read, congratulations! There will be many more words to collect in your future.
My collecting of things started, and you awarded no points for guessing this, with books. Or rather with book. My first book, let’s say Green Eggs and Ham, was not a collection. One, because I did not acquire it deliberately and you cannot collect things without some level of intent. And two, because I drooled on it* and put it in my mouth and if you are going to collect a thing you shouldn’t drool on it, even if it’s like baby bibs or something, and you shouldn’t put it in your mouth unless you are collecting Olympic gold medals and then only the once. Continue reading “Collectors and Their Collections”
In another installment of Grae finds household objects and turns them into art — a.k.a mundane magic🪄 — today we’ll learn how to make your very own sticker sheets using toner-printed images, packing tape and waxed or parchment paper! This craft has it all: it’s easy and engaging; astonishing and adorable; low-cost and endlessly customizable. Moreover, thankfully stickers never seem to go out of style, which is probably all thanks to Lisa Frank. Thanks, Lisa!🦄 Continue reading “DIY Sticker Sheets 🐸✨”
I know we aren’t very far into winter (not even a month since the longest night of the year), but TBH I’m already over it. Don’t get me wrong I’ll be complaining about the heat too – there are two weeks in the fall I will find happiness, the rest of the year is debatable. Anyways! If you need a quick craft pick me up this one is super simple and BONUS you can use the excess nail polish you have lying around from NOT giving yourself a pedicure. Below I’ll show you how to transform a few household objects into a marbled piece of artwork! Read the supply list and directions carefully before attempting this project. It is very easy, but it also needs to be very quick otherwise the nail polish will congeal – it’s not bad, but it may not be the look you are going for either. Continue reading “DIY Dip Dye Ceramics”
Start the new year off with some crafts! One of my favorite resources you can access with your library card is CreativeBug*. Really, I can’t recommend CreativeBug enough – they have everything! You can learn to sew, cook and more. If you want to start a new habit I highly recommend seeking out anything by Lisa Congdon. You can find her books at the library too! She has a great month-long series about making your mark. And on January 31 she’ll be doing a FREE online class about mark making! You can sign up here.
Tomorrow is a precious day for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere: tomorrow we mark the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year that, if you’re tuning in from mid-Missouri, will give us roughly 9 hours and 26 minutes of sunlight. Maybe it’s my Leo Sun 🦁 and Capricorn Rising 🐐 tendencies that have made the Winter Solstice into one of my favorite days of the year, one that I anticipate and celebrate with both the majestic calm of a vulture sunning its wings and the mischievous relish of a (non-murderous, just mischievous) Gremlin fed after midnight.
Among the more unexpected social media trends of summer 2023, to me, was the “Pinegrove shuffle,” a viral dance described by the New York Times as floppy, hypnotic, sad, and cathartic. We have 19-year-old Garrett Lee to thank for the dance trend, set to the aching, quietly frantic “Need 2,” first released nearly a decade ago as the seventh track on Pinegrove’s 2014 album “Everything So Far.”
The “shuffle” rose to fame just as Pinegrove was dipping out of it. On May 12, @pinegroveband made an Instagram post explaining their upcoming transition: “to anyone who may have missed the memo, pinegrove, while not over, is moving into a different phase which will not involve touring as a band, at least for a few years.” A month later, Lee posted his video. Soon, new and old Pinegrove listeners alike were flopping and shuffling across the world. Continue reading “Pinegrove’s Best Album”
Calling and/or caterwauling all ghouls, goblins, gargoyles, gremlins, and giggling green ghosts: Spooky Season has arrived with all of its ghastly delights and gnarly frights. Hip-Hip-Horroray! Which means it’s time for another installment of Spooky, Not Scary™️, a watch-list of titles for all of us soft goths, tender terrors and nervous nellies. A quick recap for those of you just joining in: while Halloween and all its eerie marvels are my top vibe, I avoid the deeply distressing and downright disturbing imagery and atmosphere of most “scary” movies, tv, and even musical soundtracks, mostly because I have always had an immersively detailed dream and/or nightmare life, which often means I don’t really need the help or inspiration or taunting hauntings that that kind of media provides. Thanks, horror genre, but I can terrorize myself all on my own! 💀
So, to still celebrate this terrifically chilling time of year, I give you the following titles that are avowedly Spooky, Not Scary. Each title is rated on a scale of 0-5 smashed pumpkins. The more smashed pumpkins (which I’ve metaphorically dropped out of terror), the closer the tv show/movie/video is to being truly frightening.
This time of year is perfect for some creepy crafts, but if I’m being honest I love all things spooky any time of year! See below for some of our favorite spine-tingling projects. Happy haunting! Continue reading “DIY Creepy Crafts”