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 "Gentleness Is Strength." 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, clergy, outreach workers, philanthropists, an anonymous benefactor, activists, volunteers, teachers, parents, comares, strongmen, tough guys, superheroes, supervillains, other gentle and strong people, caregiving, feeding each other, babysitting, brushing or braiding hair, catching someone who's falling, lifting heavy things, volunteering, supporting people in hard times, offering crash space, helping someone move, 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, clothing banks, food pantries, soup kitchens, sobering centers, mentor circles, support groups, gyms, churches, sharehouses, intentional communities, other polyhomes, social justice departments in schools, clubs, quiet rooms, inclusive workplaces, Thalassia, the Maldives, community gardens, other helper hangouts, self-control, intentional neighboring, altruism, harm reduction, diversity, inclusivity, activist symbols, interfaith work, family dynamics, alternative family structures, partnerships not based on sex/romance, emotional closeness, first contact, rescue, interspecies relationships, trial and error, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.


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

Pride Fest Bingo Card 6-2-25


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

The Blueshift Troupers travel the galaxy helping colonies solve problems.

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

Daughters of the Apocalypse relies a lot on kindness for survival.

Frankenstein's Family has diverse subgroups interacting, of which the vampires in particular are gentle with others.

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

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis is about Shaeth learnng how to take care of his new followers.

Path of the Paladins balances gentleness and strength.

Peculiar Obligations is about Quakers and pirates learning to help each other.

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.

Quixotic Ideas is fantasy with a gentle angle.

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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The Best Part of Researching Trans History Is When I’m Wrong

Lost pieces are being found, and pictures are coming together after generations of obscurity.


If you or your people are being hunted, write down your history and culture. Copy it. And then scatter it as widely as you possibly can. Hide it in walls, under floorboards, tuck it into other books. Stamp it on clay, fire it, and drop the tablets into a landfill because archaeologists always know to look for middens. Fling the copies so far that your enemies will never find them all. And then you can speak your truth to the future and the listening ears who come after.

Now is the perfect time for this kind of activism.  It's something anyone can do.  It's cheap and easy.  Just pick any thing the fuckwits in charge want to suppress, and work against that to preserve it.  You can do this every time they piss you off.

I have made bingo down the N column of my 5-1-25 card for the Colors Fest bingo. I also have 4 extra fills.



N1 (true colors) -- "Show My True Colors" (Polychrome Heroics: Farce)
N2 (all that glitters is not gold) -- "Liberosis" (A Poesy of Obscure Sorrows)
N3 (WILD CARD: deep blue sea) -- "Ruling from Beneath" (Polychrome Heroics: Kraken)
N4 (silver-tongued) -- "Heartspur" (A Poesy of Obscure Sorrows)
N5 (riot of color) -- "Cause a Riot of Color" (Polychrome Heroics: The Big One and Shiv)

B4 (the green stuff) -- Cookie Jar Terrarium Part 2: Planting

I5 (grey area) -- "A Lens of Ice" (Polychrome Heroics: Rutledge)

G3 (caught red-handed) -- "The Care and Feeding of Supervillains" (Polychrome Heroics: Dr. Infanta and Kraken)
G4 (pale imitation) -- "The More Bizarre It Gets" (Polychrome Heroics: Trichromatic Attachments)

This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, June 3, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "Gentleness Is Strength." I'll be soliciting ideas for caregivers, first responders, clergy, outreach workers, philanthropists, an anonymous benefactor, activists, volunteers, teachers, parents, comares, strongmen, tough guys, superheroes, supervillains, other gentle and strong people, caregiving, feeding each other, babysitting, brushing or braiding hair, catching someone who's falling, lifting heavy things, volunteering, supporting people in hard times, offering crash space, helping someone move, 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, clothing banks, food pantries, soup kitchens, sobering centers, mentor circles, support groups, gyms, churches, sharehouses, intentional communities, other polyhomes, social justice departments in schools, clubs, quiet rooms, inclusive workplaces, Thalassia, the Maldives, community gardens, other helper hangouts, self-control, intentional neighboring, altruism, harm reduction, diversity, inclusivity, activist symbols, interfaith work, family dynamics, alternative family structures, partnerships not based on sex/romance, emotional closeness, first contact, rescue, interspecies relationships, trial and error, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

The Blueshift Troupers travel the galaxy helping colonies solve problems.

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

Daughters of the Apocalypse relies a lot on kindness for survival.

Frankenstein's Family has diverse subgroups interacting, of which the vampires in particular are gentle with others.

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

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis is about Shaeth learnng how to take care of his new followers.

Path of the Paladins balances gentleness and strength.

Peculiar Obligations is about Quakers and pirates learning to help each other.

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.

Quixotic Ideas is fantasy with a gentle angle.

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.

If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.

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

This post talks about time and money.



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These are the character notes for "The Release of Human Potentialities" Part 1: Prudence & Monroe.

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fuzzyred is hosting a pool for the half-price sale in Polychrome Heroics.  The pool will close Saturday evening, so if you want to join that, now's the time.

The sale itself will close Sunday evening, if you're shopping on your own, so you've got an extra day on that.

fuzzyred is hosting a pool for the half-price sale in Polychrome Heroics. Comment on the pool post there if you wish to join the fun. You can name your own targets if you wish, but the pool targets are starting with these Shiv poems:

If I have enough interest, I would like to purchase one of the three giant Shiv epics, or open one for microfunding if there is a good start but not enough to buy it outright. If there is not enough interest, I have two other Shiv poems in mind instead.

Giant Epics
"The Release of Human Potentialities" $568 (q.p. $284) OR
"Shopping for College" $639.50 (q.p. $319.75) OR
"The Bones of Chihuly" $618 (q.p. $309)

Cheaper Options
"The First Swath Cut by the Scythe" $106.50 (q.p. $53.25)
"So Monumental and Still" $162 (q.p. $81)

This poem is posted as a birthday present for Anthony Barrette.


"A Walking Song"


I walk in the morning, the sun at its rise.
I walk up the hill, and I there feast my eyes
On gardens and fields, and the grass growing green:
The loveliest sight that I ever have seen.

I walk in the midday, the sun at its peak.
I walk through the valley to find all I seek.
I pick the sweet berries, I taste the green leaves,
I gather the nuts underneath forest eaves.

I walk after lunchtime, the sun heading west.
I walk by the river, where fishing is best.
I catch a few catfish to hang on my string
And forage some cattails where young blackbirds sing.

I walk in the evening, the sun sinking low.
My baskets are full, and my heart is aglow.
The fireflies flicker, the fox and deer roam;
I walk down the hill toward the lights of my home.

The following poems from the May 6, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl are currently available. Poems may be sponsored via PayPal -- there's a permanent donation button on my Dreamwidth profile page -- or you can write to me and discuss other methods. There are still verses left in the linkback poems "Delight in Another," "A Sense of Weather Changes," "Ouroboros Insects," "The Loving Embrace of Night," "Generations of Cooks Past," "Homefree and Clear, " "One Bite at a Time," "Stars and Diamonds," "Mishpocha," "Changing Your Nature," and "Besa."

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