Poems, poems! (inkscrawl & origami)

The June issue of inkscrawl is out! (Well, it came out last week already, but I was busy travelling so didn’t have the chance to post about it.) Huzzah! It looks wonderful and I can’t wait to read the rest of the poems. So happy to be a contributor – I’ve loved inkscrawl for years.

Here’s my own contribution: “Betweening

This poem was first born years ago, back in the summer of 2009. That first version was much longer, and it took me eight edits – the eighth happening after a four-year break from the poem – to pare it down to what it is now. It’s quite rare for me to have so many versions of a poem. But I’m really happy with the version now published! Eight lines is much better than the original 20-line version. The last three lines are the only ones that have remained virtually unchanged throughout the process.

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And then some forthcoming poetry news: the Origami Poems Project will be publishing a micro-collection of my poetry! I love their concept and am so glad to have a small collection coming out. It’s called Watching the City, and contains six Helsinki-inspired poems. Consider it a prelude of sorts to my still-in-the-works “proper” chapbook. The origami collection will be free to print from the website. Open-access pocket poetry!