I once wanted to be avant-garde, but in a world where meaning is fractured, maybe a poetry reaching for connection is transgressive. Or not. Why not read my perfectly pedestrian book about #fatherhood, #family, #nuerodivergence and the #everyday to decide? www.finishinglinepress.com/product/what...
This weekend my Union, HFCC-FT Local 1650, celebrated our 60th year. We were thrilled to welcome our retirees, spouses, members, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammond, members of our school board, @rweingarten.bsky.social and @reprashida.govpeeps.us to a great party. We are #unionstrong!
4 months away from Christmas in July. How's the shopping going? Not well? Don't Panic. My 1st book is set for a July release and you can pre-order today. It's a chapbook, so it's perfect for your sunny x-mas stockings. @finishinglinepress.bsky.social www.finishinglinepress.com/product/what...
Connie Hills’s debut poetry collection, “Wet Season” is a crop of juicy riff-driven poems ripe with sensuality, clarity and humor…
#family #loss #sex #travel #Buddhism
To Order: www.finishinglinepress.com/product/wet-...
An image of the first poem of my book. Here is that poem: OUTGROWING BUKOWSKI this Bukowski survived for twenty- five years with nary a coffee stain, but left alone on the morning table for a moment it becomes embellished with Fruit Loops and yogurt by these little shits who anyway make the reading of Bukowski impossible with their intractable glee about things like Fruit Loops
Need a sample? Here is the first poem of my book:
Hey, I'm being featured. I've never been a feature before. I feel cool.
You too can be cool if you pre-order my book.
Ok, well, that a bit non-sequetorial, but when I get sales @finishinglinepress.bsky.social gets happy. Making people and publishers happy is cool.
Be cool.
My first chapbook will be released in July, but you can preorder now. Preordering poetry is like putting money in a savings account; the return is always greater than the investment. C'mon, you know you'll want words later this summer--why not them now?
www.finishinglinepress.com/product/what...
I've been dormant here over the last few months due to health issues, but I just received notice that presales for my first book of poetry have started. I will be sending out opportunities/requests/begging for purchases over the next few weeks. Please forgive the intrusions. But, Hey! Look at this:
You might want to pick up the latest issue of Barstow and Grand. www.barstowandgrand.com/vb9dgwt1le72...
It has some great work in it. And it also has a little poem by me.
I haven't submitted work to any journal since August due to teaching and some health issues, but I could not let this opportunity pass. Most of my work looks for the awkward spaces between love, faith, and sex, so I am honored to contribute to the conversation. Maybe you should too.
The Nobel Peace Prize for Literature will be announced on Thursday, so unless you're calling from Sweden that day, I won't be answering my phone. I mean, someone on the committee has to appreciate poems that explore an awkward, yet healthy, masculinity in narratives about the domestic front, right?
Yeah, same here. I was pretty active in pursuing scholarship for a while. Now I just want to write my silly poems and post an occasional political or pedagogical diatribe.
I don’t know if you pursue academic writing anymore. If you do, I just ran across this call: link.springer.com/collections/...
Photo of me reading the latest issue of ink in thirds in my back yard.
This is not the worst way to spend a beautiful fall afternoon. Purchase copies or access of the newest issue of @inkinthirds.bsky.social at www.magcloud.com/browse/issue... and then check out my poem “Water/Skin” on page 38. Such a beautiful journal, well worth your time.
I made it to the finalist stage in some recent single poem and chapbook contests. I mean, just a few, but a few is better than straight out rejection. I’m surprised how good not winning can feel.
On OneA this morning, Jenn White introduced this topic by taking about ‘unsettled science” and disagreements. There is nothing unsettled here, no real disagreements. News folk who change fact for listeners’ tender ears are no longer news gold: they are apologists.
Performance is more dependent on venue/communal modes than poetry is dependent on knowledge of conventions. New performers may echo what they heard in grade school or by some kinds of poets at open mics. Newbies deserve grace; old readers who practice vocal fry have earned some (polite) disdain.
Check out my poem "Water/Skin" in the new issue of *Ink in Thirds* (Fall 2025, 6.2) @inkinthirds.bsky.social, a journal full of wonderful writing and art. The print version costs a couple of well-spent dimes, but you can also purchase an online version for $3.33.
inkinthirds.org/vol-6-i-2/
Her daily Facebook posts are great too. I’m not sure if she publishes those elsewhere.
ICE has fatally shot an Illinois resident close to a school. Schools must be safe zones; ICE should not be creating this fear for our kids and families and communities- I join the IFT in calling for a full accounting
Why am I getting followed by a whole lot of "women" who love my posts and are just looking for friends? Do I come off as that lonely and forlorn? Or are these new friends really turned on by political/poetic/pedagogical content? Ah well, at least I'm reaching the bots.
Rush was actually a citizen before he went more batshit to remain viable in his later years. He wasn’t a good citizen, but he practiced some level of debatable argument. Everyone after has gone in spiraling circles into base, yet insincere, hate and alarmism to gain clicks and favor.
Mr. Rove, Dr. Arendt would like a word: “Thought..is still possible [when] men live under the conditions of political freedom. [N]o other human capacity is so vulnerable, and it is in fact far easier to act under conditions of tyranny than it is to think.” Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition. (1958)
Violence begets violence begets violence. Peace is attainable by breaking that chain with critical thinking, discourse, and the promotion of mutual rights. If a group commits to violence, all the rest can do is practice peace, support others who seek peace, and work to persuade those who don’t.
Image of my black and white hound resting his head on my thigh.
My dog may be the only one in the house who is grateful I’ve been forced to lay flat all week due to the sadistic tendencies of my back.
There's probably a poem somewhere in being flattened by back pain. If I wasn't so drugged up, maybe I could find it.
Please check out my new poem (as well as the other fine work) in the new issue of MINYAN. (Special thanks to editor Liz Marlow.)
It should be easy enough,
just choose a psalm, any psalm,
say #19 for starters…
www.minyanmag.com/leonardkress...
F25 office hours sign quote:
“Education is the point at which we decide whether we love the world enough to assume responsibility for it and by the same token save it from that ruin which, except for renewal, except for the coming of the new and young, would be inevitable.”
--Hannah Arendt, 1954
The fall semester has started and my submissions, my writing, and my reshuffling of poems to try to make them make sense have all fallen dormant. This is the way of both poetic and economic work, but I need a slight moment to feel bad about it. Alas...
