The Wordsmith's Forge

Happy Earth Day!




25 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day

40 Fun Ways to Celebrate Earth Day Throughout Earth Month

Everyone needs contact comfort sometimes. Not everyone has ample opportunities for this in facetime. So here is a chance for a cuddle party in cyberspace. Virtual cuddling can help people feel better.

We have a cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is a basket of grooming brushes, hairbrushes, and styling combs. A bin holds textured pillows. There is a big basket of craft supplies along with art markers, coloring pages, and blank paper. The kitchen has a popcorn machine. Labels are available to mark dietary needs, recipe ingredients, and level of spiciness. Here is the bathroom, open to everyone. There is a lawn tent and an outdoor hot tub. Bathers should post a sign for nude or clothed activity. Come snuggle up!

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When is Draw A Bird Day?

Draw A Bird Day is April 8th of every year, all day long in whatever time zone you currently reside.

How do I celebrate Draw A Bird Day?

Quite simply, just draw a bird and share it with whomever you choose. The drawings are not meant to be "professionally" done by any means, though that certainly can be the case if you are so talented. The important thing is just to draw and bird and share it.

Today is my birthday. So far I've gotten an assortment of gifts from recent outings.

This is a prank-free zone if the rest of the internet is annoying you today. Enjoy!

This poem is spillover from the January 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from nsfwords. It also fills the “Why be good?” square in my 1-1-25 card for the Public Domain Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Dreamwidth user Lone_cat. It belongs to the Telepathic Kittens thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

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32 Activities To Celebrate Women's History Month

March is Women’s History Month, an annual celebration in the United States that recognizes and celebrates the contributions of women all throughout the nation’s history.

We made it to the end of February! \o/ If you have completed any of your short-term goals or subgoals, and/or you're still chugging away at your ongoing goals, then pat yourself on the back. You worked hard for that. About 95% of New Year's resolutions crash and burn before the end of January. If you're still going, you have beaten the odds!

This year I'm trying something new, continuing to track goals at the end of each month. So far it seems to be helping, so that's encouraging. I'm looking at my goal list more often and trying to keep ticking off more of them.

These are the previous check in posts:
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 4
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 10
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 17
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 24
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 31

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Today we went out shopping for Half-Price Chocolate Day. :D

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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! )

... for those of you celebrating February 1-2 aka Candlemas. See Imbolc recipes and rituals.