January - Birthday - Fountain Pen

Pictured to the left is my new pen, MaJohn 800. It's lightweight with good balance and especially comfortable for long writing stints. I love the physical appearance as well. A sort of orange and black marbled color. This beauty was a birthday gift from my daughter, Cathy Ann.

Perfect for journaling, and handwritten poetry drafts. I still do that from time to time till I take a draft to the laptop. 

Finished reading Deathbed Sext by Christopher Salerno, 2020, Two Sylvia's Press.  This was a winner of TSP Chapbook competition. There are some remarkable lines in this poetry. It is rich with dissonance (something I love) throughout the book.  Personally, I felt its strength was in individual poems and not so much as a cohesive manuscript, but that was just my opinion. 

Great P & W Issues Is Out

 For untold years I have looked to Poets and Writers Magazine as a central source of poetry/writing-related craft information. 

The most recent has an excellent section on inspiration with lots of great suggestions. It also has the annual debut poets' article that examines some of this year's breakout poets with new books. 

I recommend P&W in general, but this issue is great.