Lawyer and Writer

The following poems from the March 17, 2026 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."


"Our Homemade Safety Nets"
Story Date: 2016-2017
Summary: Blainn never intended to stay in Mercedes -- or anywhere -- but it has turned out better than he expected.
364 lines, Buy It Now = $182

Blainn had never intended
to stick around in Mercedes --
or anywhere, really -- but
one thing led to another.


"Pearls of Wisdom"
Story Date: Saturday, October 4, 2014
Summary: Pips and Walden are struggling to get together, until a new friends lends a hand.
251 lines, Buy It Now = $126

Pips sat on the edge of a terrace
at Stairgrange Park, trying and
failing to pull himself together.


"A Proper Community Is a Commonwealth"
Story Date: Mid-February, 2016
Summary: Boss Blaster watches Pressnall Pocket Neighborhood go from a site plan to a community with new residents.
329 lines, Buy It Now = 165

Boss Blaster enjoyed
watching the progress of
Pressnall Pocket Neighborhood.


"The Sisters Grimké"
Story Date: late 1700s to mid-1800s
Summary: Sarah and Angelina Grimke were Quakers, abolitionists, and feminists who rocked a lot of boats.
278 lines, Buy It Now = $139

Sarah Moore Grimké was born in 1792, and
her sister Angelina Emily Grimké in 1805.

The girls grew up on a plantation in
South Carolina, where their father
Judge John Faucheraud Grimké
owned hundreds of slaves.

Supreme Court rules against Colorado's conversion therapy ban on First Amendment grounds

"Colorado's law addressing conversion therapy does not just ban physical interventions. In cases like this, it censors speech based on viewpoint," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority. "Colorado may regard its policy as essential to public health and safety. Certainly, censorious governments throughout history have believed the same. But the First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country."


Here's the thing about politics: every weapon in your hand is also a weapon in your enemy's hand.

We should immediately use this to attack every gag rule against talking about homosexuality and where to get a safe abortion and every other things the despots want to muzzle, on the grounds of free speech. All of them at once, forcing the despots to play whack-a-mole while contradicting what they just argued above. Then keep all the things they say, and match them up, showing how it's not about free speech but that they will say anything to get what they want. Shine a light on it. Cockroaches hate light.

This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, April 7, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "I am SO done with this!" I'll be soliciting ideas for  activists, rebels, Women Who Run with the Saberteeth, explorers, traitors, exes, people who escape domestic violence, refugees, runaway youth, escaped slaves or other captives, housemates, siblings, parents, teachers, clergy, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, stray or feral animals, other people who get into untenable situations, protesting, planning, throwing in the towel, escaping, running like someone left the gate open, adventuring, hitchhiking, quitting school, divorcing, disowning, betraying, teaching, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, expecting the unexpected, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, trails, sailing ships, campervans or RVs, distant lands, the forest primeval, prehistory, liminal zones, schools, homeless shelters, hotels, churches, sharehouses, campfires, laboratories, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, stores, farmer's markets, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other places where the intolerable happens, unhappy relationships, protest rallies, slavery or captivity, locks or chains, travel mishaps, sudden surprises, the buck stops here, trial and error, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, Get a Life Program, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One is developing its own neurovariant culture after rebelling against the Galactic Arms.

The Bear Tunnels introduces modern principles to people in the past.

A Conflagration of Dragons has the Six Races (plus the dragons) who all have different cultures and climates.  This often poses challenges for the refugees.

Coracle Shores is about leaving a distressed world for somewhere better.

The Daughters of the Apocalypse has people trying to find enough resources to survive, when former cities are unsafe.

The Moon Door explores a women's chronic pain group and lycanthropy.

Not Quite Kansas deals with demons and angels, also characters dumped out of their original worlds.

The Ocracies has a wide variety of countries crammed together, each with a totally different government.  Sometimes people leave their homeland to find something they like better.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis follows Shaeth as he works on becoming the God of Drunks after quitting as the God of Evili.

Path of the Paladins includes a few characters who have walked away from unbearable situations, like Johan.

Peculiar Obligations combines Quakers and pirates, the latter of whom are well versed in weighing anchor.

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society.  The supervillains are the most likely to cut and run from a bad situation.

Schrodinger's Heroes has a lot of situations that people want to get away from including Chris avoiding some of his relatives, Morgan moving to a new dimension, and dimensions that just suck for everyone.

The Wandering is a series about fantasy time travel where people loop back within their own lifespan.

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! )

Today is cloudy and cool with howling wind.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches plus a fox squirrel.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 3/30/26 -- My bareroot plants arrived from Prairie Moon.  Regrettably it is now 79F outside with howling wind, not suitable for planting, and the rest of the week predicts rain. :/

The Quiet Alliance That Helps Cities Change

In city after city, a quiet alliance often develops between two people who rarely coordinate directly: the resident pushing from outside city hall and the staff member working inside it.

One pushes from outside. The other nudges from within.

This informal partnership rarely appears on an organizational chart, yet it turns out to be one of the most reliable ways local change actually happens. A recent story from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, illustrates how this dynamic unfolds, but before getting there it helps to understand the environment inside local government that makes this relationship so important.


Nagging as an activism tactic.

I have made blackout on my 3-1-26 card for the National Crafting Month Bingo fest.


B1 (smudges) -- "Confident Guesswork and Improvisation" (Frankenstein's Family)
B2 (mended clothes) -- "The Sisters Grimké" (Peculiar Obligations)
B3 (artisan) -- "Nuff Respect" (Polychrome Heroics: Trichromatic Attachments)
B4 (writing) -- "The Expression That Crosses Boundaries" (Polychrome Heroics: Shiv)
B5 (rag rugs) -- "Hidden Opportunities" (Polychrome Heroics and Schrodinger's Heroes)

I1 (ink pens) -- Photos: House Yard
I2 (thread) -- "Our Homemade Safety Nets" (Polychrome Heroics)
I3 (tension) -- "Find a Way Forward" (The Freaks Club)
I4 (upcycling) -- fruit box pots
I5 (lacking storage) -- "Foraging Forever" (A Conflagration of Dragons)

N1 (crocheting) -- studied video tutorials
N2 (time) -- "The Duplicity of Seasons" (The Freaks Club)
N3 (WILD CARD: paint) -- "Become for Us a Highway" (Feathered Nests)
N4 (sewing) -- "A Generous Impulse" (Polychrome Heroics: Iron Horses)
N5 (small spaces) -- "Walnut Park" (Polychrome Heroics: Broken Angels)

G1 (tangles) -- "Whirlwind Romances" (The Freaks Club)
G2 (stone) -- "A Darkness in the Sky" (standalone)
G3 (yarn) -- "Pearls of Wisdom" (Polychrome Heroics)
G4 (tape) -- "Colorful Opportunities" (Arts and Crafts America)
G5 (ribbon) -- "Refusing to Melt" (Alien Romance)

O1 (food) -- "Baked Innovation" (The Freaks Club)
O2 (woodworking) -- "A Proper Community Is a Commonwealth" (Polychrome Heroics: Broken Angels)
O3 (colors) -- "A Confusion of Honeybees" (standalone)
O4 (garden crafts) -- DIY tomato cage
O5 (poetry) -- "The Express Bus to Crazy-Ass Death Land" (Monster House)

Today is sunny, breezy, and cool.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches. A flock of blackbirds is flying around and singing.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 3/29/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 3/29/26 -- I trimmed brush around the Japanese maple tree.

EDIT 3/29/26 -- I trimmed brush between the parking lot and wild cherry grove, trying to reestablish a mow path there.

EDIT 3/29/26 -- I trimmed more brush along the mow path.

EDIT 3/29/26 -- I trimmed more brush along the mow path.

I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, plus a fox squirrel.

EDIT 3/29/26 -- I filled a trolley with sticks and dumped it in the firepit.

I saw a pair of red admiral butterflies courting. It's way early for them to appear.

I am done for the night.

Today is sunny and chilly.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 3/28/26 -- I did more work on the tomato cage.

EDIT 3/28/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 3/28/26 -- I sowed chives, catnip, and lemon bergamot in former fruit boxes that should make good upcycled pots.

EDIT 3/28/26 -- I fastened the tomato cage to the new picnic table.  It's much less wobbly now.

EDIT 3/28/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 3/28/26 -- I did some weeding around the forest garden.  There's a mayapple putting up leaves.  :D

I am done for the night.

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

If you were given the ability to reform how your country’s leaders were chosen and how they serve, what would you change?

( Read more... )