I’m glad tho because we all have so much to offer ourselves, and each other. Being able to look into the center of a struggle or problem and pull ourselves to the other side is absolutely INCREDIBLE!
This week reminded me to rest, reach out, listen, and reimagine what could be.
Yeah, this week tried it & LOST! ✊🏾
Time to fall into the joys of the weekend! Sending you all #Rest #Peace #Support and #Healing🙏🏾
Upcoming Events:
BLF Press presents Krystal A. Smith in conversation with DeMisty D.Bellinger. April 10th 6pm to 7:30pm EDT Register here
Daylight Savings is so unnecessary! ⏰ I don’t know why we even still do this. Is it for farmers? Is it because of the time space continuum? Is this the only way to keep the earth on its axis?
I’m exhausted! Always this springing forward warps my sense of everything! My body has the hardest time adjusting. I’ll be sleepy but can’t sleep.
The weather this week didn’t help either. A little bit of sun ☀️ and a whole lot of rain ☔️ and wind 💨 and tornado 🌪 warnings!
But! 🤗 The week wasn’t all bad. No siree! I got to experience a joyous (virtual) gathering of time traveling letter writing creators! I wrote a letter to my favorite wig – Mermaid Tendrils and tapped into a future self that will be absolutely instrumental in living my best life. #Living🙌🏾
I read two short Black lesbian romance novellas and even got some writing done.📚💜
I got some stellar cocktail recipes and suggestions from my Facebook pals today (hence the late night post) and yummy 😋🍹 My bar cart is adequately stocked again!
This gives me an idea! What if my poetry collection had a signature cocktail🧉 Yep! I’m gonna make one and post it before my book release.
Stay tuned for 💕Love Libations💕🍸😉
In the meantime preorder This is Not About Love and sign up for the launch party on April 10th! I’ll be in conversation with DeMisty D. Bellinger!
(Featured post image by Gaelle Marcel Unsplash 2019)
#WednesdayNightWrite
Went to virtual writing group tonight even though it’s been such a long time. Feeling welcomed and encouraged is such a balm any time, but especially now when we are all working through so much. Grateful for that! 🙏🏾💜
Managed to put 914 words on the page. I’m absolutely going to celebrate that! Whoohoo! 🥳 And double Whoohoo Whoohoo🥳 because this new project is outside my comfort zone. Completely different from my SpecFic or my poetry collection This is Not About Love coming out April 6th!
My cat – Tiny Cat- was asleep during my writing session so she, rightfully, had to attack my headphones 🎧 once she awoke.
The calm after the storm. Headphones belong to Tiny Cat now 😅
Show yourself some love and get some rest. Good night, y’all!
Hey Wordsmiths! Are you working hard or hardly working? I’m not gonna answer…Plausible deniability, ya know what I’m saying! 😅
I might not be working all that hard, but I am time traveling with the help of photos today. It’s wild to be able to look at a moment from the past and remember a smell, a feeling, a thought.
Like this pic from college. I was studying and using a friend’s laptop. My friend Will is out of frame to my right with his long legs stretched out. This apartment was always cold and noisy with neighbors stomping back and fourth.
Throwback to studying in a drafty apartment at Appstate Univ.
And here writing/revising at Scuppernong Books here in Greensboro during Come Write In. I remember the smell of cider and coffee mingling together, people chatting, and light music playing. Makes me miss face-to-face community events.
Come Write In at Scuppernong Books
Traveling to events for readings and meeting other writers is one of the perks being a writer. These pictures remind me of the excitement of arriving, the jitters before reading, and the laughs with readers and fellow writers.
OutWrite 2016, DC
Malaprops Bookstore 2018, Asheville
Ahhhh the memories! They’re all coming back to me! 🤗
I think writing creates memories in the same way looking at photos can bring you back to them. In my upcoming poetry collection This is Not About Love I use memories to create and connect to moments that need resolution, release, or righting. Memories aren’t always fun, uplifting periods of the past, but they can often affect our future. Bringing this to light is paramount to growth and real healing.
Hey there Wordsmiths! I hope you’ve all had a good week! I made it through unscathed so I’m certainly not complaining. Especially since my request for vacation was APPROVED! ✔️
I ordered a couple of books Tuesday (I know, I know, but I NEED them). #TreatYourself 💅🏾
photo by Suad Kamardeen on Unsplash
I also virtually attended Carolina Poets poetry reading on Thursday and that was such a rejuvenating experience.
Galleys for #ThisIsNotAboutLove arrived this week and I’m absolutely smitten! Re-reading the poems in this collection I felt the flow, the energy, the healing all come back just as I felt it while writing. I think there is something in these pages for everyone.
Pre-order info can be found here on the BLF Press website. Readings and events are being scheduled too. I’m so ready to read and perform these poems for you.
This is Not About Love galleys
Valentines Weekend is here and I’m prepped and giddy with anticipation for Valentine’s activities starting tonight! I’m writing gratitude lists, crafting, reading #romance, sipping fizzy beverages and snacking in between naps. I’m celebrating the love I have for myself this year and the love I share with friends and community. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Hey Wordsmiths! Happy Monday! I hope your V-day weekend was super sweet!
It’s well past lunchtime over here so I encourage you to eat something if you haven’t already. And enjoy these tasty tidbits a/b my upcoming poetry collection. Here we go:
1. I adore these poems! No question. Ask any writer what an accomplishment that is.
2. Exactly 2 of these poems were previously accepted by journals/mags but had to be pulled cos folks didn’t wanna ack right 🙃
3. One of the poems was first written while I was in undergrad at Appstate.
4. One poem mixes both English et française.
5. Parentheticals prove extremely important in this collection.
6. I tried my hand at a duplex after a Jericho Brown online class and Yaaas!! 👌🏾👏🏾
7. There are 3 previously published pieces in this collection.
8. I try my best to evoke time, and place in these poems.
9. These poems are about you! Yes, YOU!
10. I’ll be in conversation w/DeMisty D. Bellinger on April 10th (info below) and I hope you’ll join us to talk This is Not About Love. Get a copy here from BLF Press
It feels special to make it all the way to the end of the week with minimal hiccups! I am grateful! I was present and deliberate this week. I like that I can acknowledge that.
(Image by Amador Loureiro (Unsplash) Desktop calendar with uplifting message that reads: “Life is short. Do stuff that matters.” )
I did have to let a few folks know I wasn’t the one to mess with, play with, or involve in their pettiness! That felt good too. I got a rush! LOL! Don’t start nun, won’t be nun, okay.
Writing is coming in spurts. I did start a new piece Monday and reviewed a draft for a writing buddy. #Community #AmWriting
Good snacks were within reach all week. Tasty-good, mostly; some healthy-good. I hit my water goals too! 🍟
The Nerd/mail junky in me got excited every time my phone pinged with an email. It was me, y’all. I sent myself several email reminders throughout the week! 🙂
I got to bed early 3 nights this week. I know that made a difference. Sleep is my friend! Halleloo! 🛌
Oof! Google photos got me with a memory from a couple years ago. A picture of me in the sun smiling, flirting with the camera. It held my attention because I recognized in the photo I was falling in love then. The glow, the smile, the light in my eyes. I was radiant. It dawned on me I haven’t seen that woman in a while. I think I will again though. ❤
Issue 2 of my lit journal Inkwell Black came out this week to great success. Check it out here.
I hope you’ve had a good week as well. Enjoy your weekend. Do something you enjoy. Show yourself all the love.
What a month! 30 poems 30 days! Congratulations! While this challenge was great in so many ways I am likely never doing it again. The unnecessary anxiety that hit late in the evening was too much!
I asked for a few suggestions on social media on what to write today’s poem on. I got some great suggestions: doors/beginnings and endings, triscuits (lol I wrote a short and silly bop for my friend Kristie).
The suggestion that is today’s poem was an elegy for April – Thanks, Stephanie!
Fare Thee Well
Like most things that come and go, we must mourn appropriately- April 2020!
So much changed. So much still to come. We don’t know. But we hold fast and let go. Let go!
Krystal A Smith 