This. 🎯

Frank O’Hara remains undefeated

I think all the time about Jack Kerouac heckling Frank O’Hara that he was ruining American poetry & O’Hara responding without a beat, “That’s more than you ever did for it”

I'm speedrunning my train of thought upon reading this, but I'm thinking about all of the pressure put on young people to work hard & get a good job & never do anything that might fuck up your employability & yet when you enter the workforce the assaults on your dignity never stop.

Look at that!

Picture of a book "My Index of Slightly Horrifying Knowledge" by Paul Guest

Used bookstore score! @paulmguest.bsky.social

if you invented public libraries today, every opinion page in the country would be arguing for means tested subsidized Amazon Prime memberships

Know I told you it was okay to leave me. Why'd you believe me? You always believed me.

This era and political movement have revealed beyond a doubt that many Americans simply don’t think non-Americans matter, or that they are actually even people. There is no way around this conclusion. As a nation, we must agree to accept we are part of a vibrant, larger world, not its master.

A nurse was going on about this series to me the other day; are they any good?

a man in a top hat stands next to a child and says " goggles on please " Alt: Mike TV from Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory

It makes so much sense to put ALL these villains on TV, non-stop, for ongoing viral-video interrogations—to get them to slip up, to say something that pisses him off, to look weak— because the only thing that matters to this guy is what happens on the tube

the internet is poison

Gossamer just when we believe our bodies have adjusted to absence comes a new season of smoke and wildness take me now in this unexpected heat take me until I cannot help but bleat your name in hunger a horizon of geese naming the sky

new poem in @oneart.bsky.social --

When AOL and Prodigy started taking off in the early 90s, our neighbor bought a bunch of cement slab and busted it up and sold it online as "Real Pieces of the Berlin Wall" and "Real Pieces of the Great Wall of China" and that guy realized what the internet was gonna be before everyone else

the best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity

I say this three times a day and mean it more every single time, but what is going ON?????

one of my strongest beliefs is that we're in our situation right now bc some of the most prominent talking heads (e.g. joe rogan, andrew schulz) are learning about politics in their 40s and 50s, instead of their teens and early 20s, and we have to go along for the ride as they learn basic things

In less than a week the Kennedy Center has effectively closed and our local DC paper has been gutted, both by billionaires.

I don’t think immigrants are our problem in this country.

Gov Spanberger has directed Virginia’s state law enforcement agencies to end 287g agreements with ICE, saying the agreements "improperly cede accountability and discretion over VA law enforcement" to the feds.

I'm just waiting for Donald to tell Sean Hannity he'd be so much prettier if he smiled more.

I’ve Been Laid Off. I’m Not Done. After 20 years at The Washington Post, I’m suddenly on my own — and still writing about books.

After 20 years, I've been laid off at The Washington Post.
substack.com/home/post/p-...

No we don’t you worthless lump of campaign bribes, we want ICE abolished and every person who committed crimes, as well as those who allowed it to happen, prosecuted. Go fucking retire, you’ve done enough damage already.

We want it abolished, old man

The center-will-hold folks seem to understand very little about widening gyres and mere anarchy.

We are ruled over by thieves and murderers and rapists who are hellbent on taking everything from us.

Evidence like the Epstein Files just makes abundantly clear what we already know and continually confronts us with a question we must answer: how much more of this are we willing to take?

Fri 2/6 at PVCC Campus in Charlottesville Va: a poets panel, Guardians of Wonder: Writing What We Must Not Lose

I’ll be in conversation with these smart poets a week from today, Fri 2/6 starting 6:30 pm—& the temps will be above freezing! Free @PVCC campus in Charlottesville VA. Register & get a free book! piedmontgarden.org/event/a-poet... #poetrycommunity @paulmguest.bsky.social @haydensaunier.bsky.social

This is wonderful

We are so thrilled that Aracelis Girmay has been selected as a finalist for the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection for GREEN OF ALL HEADS!

The winner will be announced live at the 2026 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony, held at The Town Hall in New York City on March 31, 7:30pm.

Also, the worst actor in every Quentin Tarantino movie?

Always, always Quentin Tarantino.