The Wordsmith's Forge

The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED. Thank your for your time and attention. Please keep an eye on this page as I am still writing.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Cozy Coping Skills." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting ideas for caregivers, first responders, counselors, clergy, outreach workers, activists, volunteers, teachers, parents, college students, bohemians, comares, superheroes, supervillains, other people who teach or use coping skills, meditating, crafting, playing music, forest bathing, relaxing, volunteering, supporting people in hard times, offering crash space, helping someone move, BookCrossing, yarnbombing, planting trees, creating intimacy, making friends, getting to know each other, cooking together, discovering things, improvising, adapting, cooperating, bartering, sharing, fixing what's broke, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, Triton Teen Centers, the Peace Store, charities, homeless shelters, sobering centers, mentor circles, support groups, churches, sharehouses, intentional communities, other polyhomes, life skills or family departments in schools, clubs, quiet rooms, inclusive workplaces, Thalassia, the Maldives, parks, community gardens, other peaceful hangouts, self-compassion, healthy touch, intentional neighboring, altruism, harm reduction, diversity, inclusivity, safety pin peace signs, interfaith work, family dynamics, alternative family structures, partnerships not based on sex/romance, emotional closeness, homemaking, hygge, hot tea or cocoa, comfort food, interspecies relationships, vivaria, trial and error, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.


34 Fuzzy Products To Make Your Life A Bit Cozier
35 Cozy Things For Every Room In Your Home
100 Simple Cozy Moments to Enjoy
150 Random Acts of Kindness
200 Coping Skills by Topic


Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Aesthetics Bingo Card 4-1-25


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One has neurodiverse characters coping with life in space.

Arts and Crafts America largely copes with challenges using creativity.

The Blueshift Troupers take care of themselves and each other while traveling the galaxy helping colonies solve problems.

Clay of Life has a lot of cozy coping moments between a blacksmith and a golem.

Daughters of the Apocalypse requires coping skills for survival.

Frankenstein's Family encourages coziness and companionship over torches and pitchforks.

The Moon Door features a women's chronic pain support group, which is all about being gentle with each other.

Peculiar Obligations has Quakers, who are good at coping skills.

Polychrome Heroics is largely about self-care and people helping people. Threads particularly focused on this include Antimatter and Stalwart Stan, Aquariana, the Big One, Iron Horses, Officer Pink, Rutledge, and Trichromatic Attachments.

Quixotic Ideas is fantasy with a high level of competence and compassion.

Schrodinger's Heroes save the world from alternate dimensions, and they take care of each other.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

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These are the content notes for "The Philosophy of the Sandwich."

Warning: These notes include recipes for delicious sandwiches that you might not be able to find or make (or supposed to eat).

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Here are the character notes for "The Philosophy of the Sandwich" Part 1.

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Here are the notes for "What You Choose to Build With."

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fayanora has posted the novel "Dalia Ravenstone and the Vicious Circle" which you can read for free. It is available here in multiple formats. The Goodreads page is here.

The Ravenstone Family series: It's a little like the Addams Family, a little like Harry Potter (without the bigotry) or The Worst Witch, a little like the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire, and a little like none of those things. It features an ethnically and neurologically diverse cast; the protagonist of the first book, Dalia Ravenstone, is a black, autistic, transgender goth girl with chronic anxiety, chronic depression, and a missing foot (by birth). Dalia's best friends are a Korean-American boy with ADHD who uses a wheelchair, a white ginger girl who likes both girly things and tinkering with machines, a kitsune living in poverty, a Goblin foreign exchange student, and a laptop computer that acts like it’s sentient.

If you are tired of Whitey McFantasy, this is something completely different.

This is the second freebie for the February 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl thanks to new prompter alchemicink. It also fills the "housework" square in my 2-1-25 card for the Valentines Bingo fest.

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The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED. Thank you for your time and attention. Please keep an eye on this page as I am still writing.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "I believe in dragons, good men, and other fantasy creatures." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting ideas for dragons, unicorns, pegasi, griffins, centaurs, merfolk, shapeshifters, boyfriends or husbands, caregivers, first responders, clergy, outreach workers, philanthropists, an anonymous benefactor, activists, volunteers, teachers, parents, comares, superheroes, supervillains, other fantasy creatures or kind men, questing, volunteering, making donations, supporting people in hard times, offering crash space, helping someone move, yarnbombing, planting trees, creating intimacy, making friends, getting to know each other, cooking together, falling in love, getting married, discovering things, improvising, adapting, cooperating, bartering, sharing, fixing what's broke, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, castles, the forest primeval, dragon hoards, romantic restaurants, Triton Teen Centers, the Peace Store, charities, homeless shelters, clothing banks, food pantries, soup kitchens, sobering centers, mentor circles, support groups, churches, sharehouses, intentional communities, gay bars, social justice departments in schools, clubs, quiet rooms, inclusive workplaces, Thalassia, the Maldives, community gardens, other helper hangouts, magic, enchanted artifacts, romance, the language of flowers, intentional neighboring, altruism, acts of kindness, harm reduction, diversity, inclusivity, safety pin peace signs, other activist symbols, interfaith work, family dynamics, alternative family structures, partnerships not based on sex/romance, emotional closeness, rescue, interspecies relationships, trial and error, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.


February is Black History Month, and that post lists some of my African and diaspora series.


Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Valentines Bingo Card 2-1-25


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

Clay of Life depends on the friendship between a blacksmith and a golem.

A Conflagration of Dragons is about dragons crushing civilizations, and how some people survive that.

Daughters of the Apocalypse has very few men left, but many of those are good.

Eloquent Souls features a lot of good men, mostly in the context of soulmates.

Frankenstein's Family is led by a queerplatonic male couple, plus diverse subgroups interacting.

Hart's Farm features a free love commune in historic Sweden, full of good men.

Peculiar Obligations explores the connection between Quakers and pirates, with most but not all of the good men falling on the Quaker side.

Polychrome Heroics is largely about people helping people. Threads particularly focused on this include Antimatter and Stalwart Stan, Aquariana, the Big One, Iron Horses, Officer Pink, Rutledge, and Trichromatic Attachments.

Schrodinger's Heroes save the world from alternate dimensions, and they take care of each other.

Starfather features a young man who accidentally adopts an alien baby.

The Yellow Unicorns is about a world where people normally can't see the color yellow, except for the unicorns.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks will reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

( New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )

Here is my card for the Valentines Bingo Fest over in allbingo. It has several different categories. I have made a mixed card. The fest runs from February 1-28. (See all my 2025 bingo cards.) There is also a Valentines Meet and Greet where you can squee over relationships, romantic or platonic.

If you'd like to sponsor a particular square, especially if you have an idea for what character, series, or situation it would fit -- talk to me and we'll work something out. I've had a few requests for this and the results have been awesome so far. This is a good opportunity for those of you with favorites that don't always mesh well with the themes of my monthly projects. I may still post some of the fills for free, because I'm using this to attract new readers; but if it brings in money, that means I can do more of it. That's part of why I'm crossing some of the bingo prompts with other projects, such as the Poetry Fishbowl.

Underlined prompts have been filled.


VALENTINES BINGO CARD

Interracial or Interspecies Love	Breaking the rules	Experimentation	nostalgia	Humor
love languages	Go Exploring	changes over time	Morning-after regrets	common goals
This Is Not a Date	Caught in the act	WILD CARD	Violent Behavior	Helplessness
Take a Class	Try a New Recipe	Housework	Our Special Place	Hugs
Set Boundaries	Age of Enlightenment	Taking It Slow	Make New Friends	family traditions