Hello, Travelers!
In case you missed it, on Wednesday, I announced some changes to my publishing schedule. This will be my last Friday issue of the newsletter. I will still be posting Monday through Thursday, with free poetry comics each of those days and member-exclusive stuff on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
This is also the third anniversary of the Weirdo Poetry Substack1 (sort of).
One of the reasons I’m stopping my Friday posts is to give me more time to rest my mind and body. I want to keep doing this for a long time, and I need three-day weekends to be at my best.
I know from my many failures over the years that rest is critical for any creative work. It’s a lot like hiking. I love hiking and backpacking. I’m not as fast as I once was, but I can still walk for miles and miles.
However, for the best hiking experience, you need to take enough rest to recover your strength and hydrate. Short breaks are also a wonderful time to impress yourself with your progress.
Today, I’ve reposted some of my favorite poetry comics (in no particular order) from the past three years. The one at the top of this newsletter is the haiku I have illustrated the most times (including different versions in two different publications.) While my favorite changes from time to time, the haiku comic at the top currently holds the top spot in my heart. It’s a good example of my earlier style and the poem still feels as true as anything I’ve ever written.
Thank you all for joining me at different points on this wild ride—I can’t wait to see where we end up over the next three years!
the moon's reflection illuminated pond and our nocturnal tryst
moon and mars eavesdrop on gossiping great horned owls deep in the dark woods
crisp, decaying leaves death vivacious imposter seasonal slumber
caught in folds of time unachored to location forever floating
crabs can see the stars do they dream of swimming in the celestial sea?
beam of golden light filters through bright autumn leaves a holy relic
procrastination has never killed anyone wait for tomorrow
the raindrop ripples radiate out over the Willamette River
have you even lived if you haven't almost died in the ocean at least once?
cool summer morning lone gree heron examines the shimmering pond
I wander between conifers and the cosmos discovering clues
in the seam between brooding sea and starless sky, hope searches for me
Be the poetry you want to see in the world!
Cheers,
Jason
Technically, my first post was September 11, 2020. That was just a welcome post and I don’t want to use that date as my milestone because, well, September 11th. My second post wasn’t until December 28, 2020, but I don’t want to wait that long to mark the occasion of starting this project. so I’ve arbitrarily chosen the end of September as my time to look back.
You know that friend, who always gives you a bigger present than you think you deserve? Weirdo Poetry shines with that spirit of honest generosity. What a blessing in my inbox! 📨
Awesome best of group here, as a relative newcomer this is a great sampling. Good to take the Fridays off, it also models what we should all be able to do, and the more of this work life balance is done, the more employers will be pressured to allow it, too. A better world is possible.