Some days you return from a long weekend to find you put the soap in the dishwasher, but didn’t actually press “start.” Also, you put your only cheese in the freezer, and now it is a very icky texture.

Some days you spill coffee on your brand-new favorite chair. (Which also happens to be the most expensive piece of furniture you’ve ever purchased.)

Some days you’re still living with the partial deafness* caused by the people at urgent care** and their systemic over-caution.

And some days you’re in a great mood in spite of all that noise.*** When you get a bunch of emails and notifications from friends and friendly strangers, all doing interesting things with poetry, your day gets even better.

In the hopes of improving other Tuesdays (Wednesdays, etc), here’s a short list of good words & wordsy projects to enjoy.

The Bedtime Stories for the End of the World podcast features myths & fairy tales re-interpreted by modern poets. Little bit of Anthropocene angst; lots of thoughtful conversation and good poetry.

Redacted Poetry is an incredibly accessible form of found poetry where you take a classic text and black out everything but a few words and phrases, which then make a new poem. It’s like slantwise florilegia.

• Kim Haines-Eitzen just published three poems in Cathexis Northwest Press. (Bonus: Cathexis offers audio, too.) It was a pleasure to help workshop two of these earlier this year. Kim, if you’re reading this, I hope you’re working on a book.

• Bay Area poet Allie Rigby recently started a newsletter aimed at uplifting and supporting online creative community. If you’re a writer/visual artist/teacher/farmer/whatever-kind-of-creative, you’re invited to The Herd.

More friends, just casually publishing great stuff:

• Ghost Sounds is a beautiful elegy from Rob Jackson, recently published in America Magazine. It was in the print version too (July 22 issue), which gives me a special thrill. Digital publication is wonderful, but words inked on paper are a particular kind of magic. I got to help workshop this poem with Rob, and it’s a joy to see it alive in the conversation.

• Old news, but it bears repeating. Maybe you haven’t heard it: Chris LaTray won the Montana Book Award for One Sentence Journal, a short book of poems and essays that I savored in one long afternoon sitting high above the frayed coastline of northern Oregon. I paused a lot: to sit with the words; to watch the sun slide over the fuchsias and listen to the hummingbirds blowing their furious gym-coach whistles. If you need to slow down and remember how to look and listen outside yourself, Chris’ book is gift.

Happy Tuesday, or whatever day you’re reading this. I hope it’s a good one generally, and a better one now.

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*Temporary! I hope!

**PSA: Kaiser is awful in so many ways. Can you get other insurance in the United States that’s less awful? I don’t know.

***Not being able to entirely hear out of one ear causes MORE noise disturbance in my brain, not less. Who knew?