Born in Stars We Live on Earth as Poets...✨

Happy 2023 to You!

Kelli Russell Agodon

Jan 1

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Dear Friend,

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

* * *

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 Writer Gift Author Gift image 1

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.

The Queen's crown Bridal Tiara Tiara For Women Pearl image 6

Live Life in a Tiara or Crown: In a wonderful salon on humor, fun, and play by Tatyana Sussex, who writes at Beauty Hunter, 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!

P.P.P.S. If you’re a poet/creative and need a place to share your newsletter—try substack. Use the button below to create your Substack and connect your publication with The A-List: Notes from my Electric Typewriter

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