STILL & WOMEN for 2026!

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure and visit Catherine at Reading to the Core for Roundup.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I've got so many things cooking this year...which means I need my Poetry Friday community more than ever! This weekly gathering and poetry practice are among the core tenets of my creative life...I'm so grateful to each and every one of you. Isn't it a wonder that we're able to share our lives in this way?! I look forward to reading all your posts and appreciate your support so much.

And now, my 2026 One Little Word: STILL. As in being still (not in motion) and also still, as in, something that remains, "I'm still here."

Aside: I still need to see the film: I'M STILL HERE

I love all the complexities embedded in this one little word! Here's more from The Center for Action and Contemplation website:

"Pausing and being still enough to notice love within and around is a deeply powerful and countercultural act…. In the case of most of contemporary society, stillness is a prophetic act, defying that which demands that we move quickly and move upward. It challenges the notion that it is better to be busy and occupied. It refuses the call to be constantly distracted and perpetually plugged in."

And...hello ArtSpeak: WOMEN! As in, women artists, who historically have been overlooked in the art world. Not this year! 

I'll be using this Harper's Bazaar article that names 36 of the best female artists to begin selecting artists and art. And I will be looking to the universe to guide me....If YOU have a favorite female artist, would you please share her name and work with me?

I'm starting with #1 on the Harper's Bazaar list, Artemisia Gentileschi. Perhaps you've read the stunning YA verse novel Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough? If not, you totally should! Artemisia was a woman creating art in a man's world—a victim of violence, yes, but also a survivor. She used her art to proclaim herself—and to get her revenge. Read more about Artemisia here.

Allan Wolf, Charles R. Smith, Jr.,
Irene Latham

The title of the poem was inspired by Allan Wolf. During our NCTE presentation with Charles R. Smith, Jr., Allan said he "wrote himself into existence." That has really stuck with me! It's the same for me, and the same, I imagine, for Artemisia (except painting). Engaging in a creative art has that kind of power. Thanks, Allan! And thanks, all, for reading.

I Paint Myself into Existence

You left me
splintered
     shredded
but I will not
go quietly.

Many times
I have slit
your throat
     spilt your blood
across a canvas.

You cannot
conquer me.
I will always
     rise again,
paintbrush
in my hand.

- Irene Latham