LightNews — News, ranked by scholars

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/DcvDat2m31...

#SealeyChallenge complete!

Just under the wire 😅

Gratitude to @nicolesealey.bsky.social for originating & to @sealeychallenge.bsky.social for carrying the torch. Happy 10 years!

#TheSealeyChallenge2026
#TheSealeyChallenge #31BooksInAugust

👆🏻Insta link for deets

On a white surface, my stack of 31 books are piled from bottom up in read-order (except The Lost Words is at the base b/c it’s big & Charismatic Spirals sits face-out b/c it’s small — the tower threatened to topple when these 2 were inserted chronologically — they each have a blue arrow drawn on to show where they belong) so that all spines are seen. There are yellow placeholders (labeled in blue, w/asterisks) for the audiobooks I don’t have physical copies of.

(1) We Are Not Where We Are - Matt Donovan & Jenny George
(2) Love Works - Janice Mirikitani
(3) Three Syllables Describing Addiction - Kate Daniels
(4) Night Owl - Aimee Nezhukumatathil
(5) Night Watch - Kevin Young
(6) _two-headed woman_ - Lucille Clifton
(7) Green of All Heads - Aracelis Girmay
(8) _asterisk_ - Jenny George
(9) To Those Who See - Gwen Frostic
(10) Enough Rope - Dorothy Parker
(11)* The Lost Words - Robert Macfarlane & Jackie Morris
(12) Life on Mars - Tracy K. Smith
(13) How to Continue - Matthew Zapruder
(14) Lives of the Poets - Beau Beausoleil & Ama Bolton
(15) I Am Minor - Ryan Nakano
(16) Ocean of Clouds - Garrett Hongo
(17)* Charismatic Spirals - Will Alexander
(18) Love That Dog - Sharon Creech
(19)* 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem - Nam Le
(20) Rogue Nun - Dana Levin
(21) Equilibrium - Tiana Clark
(22) Milk and Honey - Rupi Kaur
(23) Perennial Counterpart - Yongyu Chen
(24)* Where to Begin - Cleo Wade
(25) A Fire in My Hands - Gary Soto
(26) Sonnets for a Missing Key - Percival Everett
(27)* Echo Echo - Marilyn Singer
(28) The Haw Lantern - Seamus Heaney
(29) _the witch doesn’t burn in this one_ - amanda lovelace
(30) Splendor: Trans Poets - many!
(31) KNOT - Forrest Gander & Jack Shear

Half a full bookshelf (with books in the shape of “I” & “Y” atop), part of a chair & a glimpse of a couch are visible in the background.

September 1, 2026 at 6:55 AM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/Dcu0rb1GyZ...

#SealeyChallenge 31/31

KNOT by Forrest Gander & Jack Shear

I couldn’t finish the Challenge without opening/reading this (signed!) book I bought at sfartbookfair.com 2026, put on by The Minnesota St Project (10th anniversary!) …

Prose poem shown [line breaks are maintained here, but the text looks like a prose paragraph visually]:

Exhausted. I can't climb anymore. Yet I could, possibly, hang here for a moment, stop
this exertion, just cling, catching my breath, to this cascade of long dark hair which
she has let down from the window. The window that didn't look nearly so high, only
balcony level, wasn't it? when I started. Those hours ago. Haven't I been climbing for
hours? Above me, my overextended arms quiver and ache all the way down to their
sockets; the round swollen muscles of my shoulders press to my ears. Is she calling?
I can't hear. When I look up, I see the cascade of her long hair, nothing beyond that.
But it's as difficult to pause as to climb, so I keep going. To tell the truth, I never
paused. Deaf and blind, I keep tugging myself up into that falling blackness. I who
am bringing her the moon.

[Added blue text] Poem on p 9 of Gander's (& Shear's) Knot

September 1, 2026 at 4:47 AM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/DcugZNtGyQ...

#SealeyChallenge 30/31

Splendor: Trans Poets by 5 poets, & translators, & Intro by @rckylrnts.bsky.social 🏳️‍⚧️🤍

@twolinespress.com
@catranslation.org Calico series #14 💜

I got this gorgeous brand new book (plus goodies! See Image 4) in the mail b/c …

Book sits on blue & white patterned cloth (my pillow case).

Cover image is a square photograph of two iridescent jellyfish (white/translucent, pink, & pale blue) on black: 1 heading up & 1 heading down.

White text in a central black circle over the space between the 2 jellies reads:
TRANS POETS

The margins around the photo are ombré pink-to-purple, left to right.

In the larger margin below the photo, inside a black-line-bordered box, in black text:
SPLENDOR

A paragraph shown:

The book you hold in your hands participates in this shift of the light, even if it does not exclusively spell out the mechanics of that change or remain solely & expensively interested in it. These poets assume a fuller breadth. Assembled here, these poets represent our Globe, one undergoing a series of ongoing revolutions not just in identity, but in Ways of Being—of Being with Each Other; that is, in our relations and, always, in power. Those of us Trans Beings, or our allies, understand the exponential rate of Time's arrow, and welcome the world steadily arriving by way of that Time, and we are in love with it. You get the feeling reading these poems that each poet adores their glorious change, whether that change is seen on the surface or sits more privately, nestled deep in the Soul's core. These poems assert we have always been who we are. Those of us Trans Beings recognize the world that is today, as if another bolt of lightning has in fact arrived, straight from God, forcing us all to be whole, to be intact and complete. So that we can be our own soulmates.

[added blue text]
End of the introduction "On (Trans) Ways of Being" by Rickey Laurentiis in Splendor: Trans Poets (p 19)

Poem on p 75 of Splendor: Trans Poets shown.

An almost-see-through sticker on the window
It looks like stained glass
breaks the light the same way

Take a big sip of water
Tilt your head from side to side

It really feels like the ocean
in your mouth

The same cool weight
as holding movement between your hands

[Added blue text]
From The Ocean in Your Mouth by Luka Holmegaard, translated from Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith & Jennifer Russel

Swag collection shown. The main prize is a canvas tote bag: it’s emblazoned with a black, white, & orange stylized San Francisco, with about 16 cats, most with speech bubbles saying “meow” in diverse languages 😻
On & around the bag are:
a Two Lines Press (fluorescent green) bookmark & (orange) sticker,
a (yellow) TBW Books matchbook that says “Do your part… BUY MORE BOOKS!!!! say yes to truth and NO to COWARD SCUM,”
a pink sticker reading (in white & black) READ TRANS POETS,
an orange coozy stating “[in white] I’m looking at the sea, [in black] it’s all I do.”
& a sliver of a postcard from The Center for the Art of Translation featuring Lauren Tamaki’s illustration. Scenes of someone reading in City Lights (over the word “Booksellers”), 2 people walking toward the Chinatown gate, & a dressed up person singing under flowers (with “Yerba Buena) are visible.

September 1, 2026 at 2:06 AM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/DcuJdAngWP...

#sealeychallenge BINGO ✅

If I hadn’t fallen so far behind this month I could’ve done more, but there’s always next year ☺️

Diana A on Instagram: "#sealeychallenge BINGO ✅ If I hadn’t fallen so far behind this month I could’ve done more, but there’s always next year ☺️ {Image 1 description} 5x5 BINGO card with (top left...

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August 31, 2026 at 10:27 PM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/Dcsdxhhm3C...

#SealeyChallenge 29/31

_the witch doesn’t burn in this one_ by @ladybookmad.bsky.social

I’d been curious about this, the previous book in the series (_the princess saves herself in this one_) & sequels — who wouldn’t be intrigued by those titles? — for a while…

Screenshot of audiobook cover:

On a white background, all text is in brick-red.

Left-justified, large:

the
witch
doesn't
burn
in
this
one

In the right bottom corner, medium:
amanda lovelace

Indented to be directly under the beginning of the poet’s name, small:
read by the author

Poem on p 156 of lovelace’s _the witch doesn’t burn in this one_ in brick-red text reads:

you
think
your body
is made up
of mostly
water,

but
really
your body
is made up
of mostly
poetry.

wherever you go,
you leave behind
puddles of
words
in your
wake.

collect the
integral pieces
of yourself
&
call the
words back.

you deserve
to be whole again.

[ital.] - the sign you've been waiting for II.

August 31, 2026 at 6:52 AM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/Dcnb6GXm-g...

#SealeyChallenge 28/31

The Haw Lantern by Seamus Heaney

Couldn’t bear to post the sonnet from “Clearances” a/b speaker cutting potatoes w/his mother even tho I remet/read it as an old friend: the series slices too close as my mom journeys deeper into Alzheimer’s😭

Book sits in wood.

On slate grey background, all text is left-justified.

In large yellow:
Seamus
Heaney

In moss green:
The Haw
Lantern

In tiny yellow, far left bottom corner:
Poetry

[small Faber and Faber “ff” icon in grey in the far right bottom corner]

Poem on p 23 in Heaney’s The Haw Lantern reads

The Spoonbait

So a new similitude is given us
And we say: The soul may be compared

Unto a spoonbait that a child discovers
Beneath the sliding lid of a pencil case,

Glimpsed once and imagined for a lifetime Risen and free and spooling out of nowhere —

A shooting star going back up the darkness.
It flees him and it burns him all at once

Like the single drop that Dives implored Falling and falling into a great gulf.

Then exit, the polished helmet of a hero Laid out amidships above scudding water.

Exit, alternatively, a toy of light
Reeled through him upstream, snagging on nothing.

August 29, 2026 at 7:56 AM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/DcnL-KQm4_...

#SealeyChallenge 27/31

Echo Echo: Reverso Poems about the Greek Myths by Marilyn Singer

A very pretty book of myths retold in reversos, a form Singer says in the endnote she invented*
…
*I’m not so sure about that claim?

Screenshot of ebook cover.

Art by Josée Masse in saturated pastel-style blues, greens, yellows & whites shows (on the top half) a day scene with characters (like a flying Pegasus, eg) from Greek myths, columned classical buildings, & a boat with sail in the middle; (on the bottom half, upside down) a night scene with the same buildings, contemporary-looking children in a sailing ship, with a constellation-filled sky above (below) them.

All text is inside a central white divider space, accented with gold.

In a triangular space like a roof above the rest of the text area:
REVERSO POEMS
about
GREEK MYTHS

To the left:
Marilyn
Singer

In the middle, very large:
Echo [orange sigil dingbat] Echo

To the right:
Illustrated by
Josée Masse

A p from Singer’s Echo Echo reads

[in large gold, centered]
Narcissus and Echo

[on the left, on white background, in blue]
"Here,
here..."
Was
that
a nymph?
Was
that
an echo?
Leave me,
foolish pursuer!
I will forever be the
only
one
that
I desire—
the most beautiful of youths—
a flower among men.

[on the right, on blue background, in white]
A flower among men!
The most beautiful of youths!
I desire
that
one
only.
I will forever be the
foolish pursuer.
Leave me,
an echo
that
was
a nymph,
that
was
here.
"Here..."

[at the bottom, inside a light blue panel stretching all the way across horizontally, in tiny blue text]
Narcissus was a vain young man. He spurned the young woman, Echo, who loved him. She was turned into just a mournful sound—an echo. He fell in love with his reflection in a pond, wasted away, and was transformed into a flower.

August 29, 2026 at 5:32 AM

Reposted by Diana A

@Shamlet

@shamlet.bsky.social

For generations, students have memorized the names of the Great Lakes with the acronym HOMES.

Now I guess American students can use SHAME

August 28, 2026 at 3:06 AM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/DcnB-OPm45...

#SealeyChallenge 26/31

Sonnets for a Missing Key and Some Others by @percivaleverett.bsky.social

TIL that Everett is not only a master novelist (James is a must read, IMO) but also a poet & a painter 🤯

Diana A on Instagram: "#SealeyChallenge 26/31 Sonnets for a Missing Key and Some Others by Percival Everett TIL that Everett is not only a master novelist (James is a must read, IMO) but also a poet...

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August 29, 2026 at 4:04 AM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/DcmqbvZmf-...

#SealeyChallenge 25/31

A Fire in My Hands by Gary Soto

Go over to Insta to read some of my favorite bits from the back-matter “Questions and Answers about Poetry” (pp 62-63).

I’d copy & paste here but I’m desperately trying to catch up before Aug ends 😭

Book sits on wood.

Cover image (by unnamed artist, who nonetheless contributes, in addition to this piece, a dozen+ B&W line-drawings to the guts of the book: classic 1980s-90s Scholastic-style) is a photorealistic illustration showing (foreground) a boy’s hand pulling a bright orange out of his black jacket pocket while (background) a girl with long hair in a green & tan winter coat, blue skirt, & brown loafers stands in a green field smiling down at a half-opened chocolate bar. Deep background shows some 1-&-2-story buildings above a hedge & a grey sky above.

Text is centered.
In large orange, inside a red stripe across the top:
A FIRE IN MY HANDS

Inside a red rectangle at the bottom:
[small yellow] A BOOK OF POEMS
[medium, bold, in orange] GARY SOTO

[tiny, in white, at bottom left corner] [open book icon] SCHOLASTIC

In a split image, 2pp poem reads:

IN AUGUST

A blimp was above me
And then gone,
Like all I would ever know.
Like father with hands in my hair.
Like uncle on the porch with his arms
As And little else. I walked
In the alley looking up
Until it wasn't the sky before
Me, but a plum tree,
Its dark fruit, notched and open
Where birds ate. I climbed
Into it, searched, dropped
With two in each hand.
I walked from the alley
To Coleman Pickle
Where brother, friends, tiny sister
Were standing in barrels,
Pickles in their hands
And saying, they're good,
Better than plums. I climbed
Into a barrel and fished for one
— came up to see the blimp
Pass quietly as a cloud,
Its shadow dark enough to sleep
Or dream in. We watched
It, with food in our mouths,
All wondering, until it was above us
And then gone,
Like all we would ever know.

[added blue text] Poem on pp 13-14 of Gary Soto's A Fire in My Hands

August 29, 2026 at 12:46 AM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/DckyIDHGzO...

#SealeyChallenge 24/31

Where to Begin by Cleo Wade

I found this book by searching @libbyapp.com for audiobooks with the key word “poems,” & this definitely counts, but it’s also self-help in a sense? Which I didn’t mind. All books are self-help, really …

Screenshot of cover of audiobook shown.
On a black background, most text is centered.

In tiny white text:
A SMALL BOOK ABOUT YOUR POWER TO CREATE BIG CHANGE IN OUR [added in from below with a caret & in handwriting]CRAZY WORLD

[In huge yellow orange] WHERE
[in huge white, with an Earth (Atlantic Ocean center) in place of the O] TO
[In huge yellow] BEGIN

[to the right of “BEGIN” in small white] READ
BY THE
AUTHOR

[in tiny white] NATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF [yellow ital.]HEART TALK

[in large pale pink] CLEO WADE

Poem in Wade’s Where to Begin shown. It’s in a font suggestive of handwriting; all inner spaces of letters (like the Os, Ds, tops of Rs) are filled in black.

MANTRA FOR ANXIETY:
THIS IS NOT YOU. THIS
IS SOMETHING MOVING
THROUGH YOU. IT CAN
LEAVE OUT OF THE
SAME DOOR IT CAME IN.

August 28, 2026 at 7:12 AM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/DciKSxJm8d...

#SealeyChallenge 23/31

Perennial Counterpart by Yongyu Chen

Winner of the Nightboat Poetry Prize, a deep, lit-smart, & dreamily lyrical book. … (More thru the link)

Library book sits on shiny white desk, reflecting overhead fluorescents.

Cover image (photo by Gabby Woo) shows zoomed-in grey & white fabric with 2 blue lines weaving through.

All text is large, white, pixelated (suggestive of embroidery patterns), & centered.

At the top: Perennial
Counterpart

At the bottom: Yongyu
Chen

Opening of the poem “Knowledge” (p 47) in Chen’s Perennial Counterpart reads:

[in grey pixelated-embroidery text] Knowledge

I read your letter last night
I slept

& in my dream felt the need to rest, immense the pull towards rest.
I was dying of old age. And if I wanted to live, I could, but I would have
to resist the resting. It was like making

my entire body vibrate with waking. Waking the dream
comprehends. I was lying down. I could lift my head
to look down at my body. Like this I lived. The dream took me

somewhere else through its cerulean channel.

The dying felt good, not unwelcome
to the senses, & was true. A true dying.

It helped me not be afraid.

The resisting felt self-contained.
If I

resist & in the resisting

resist the resisting would it be like listening? Here is the song. It leaves.

August 27, 2026 at 6:46 AM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/Dcf0Nqim0N...

#SealeyChallenge 22/31

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

Technically, I listened to the audiobook of this to complete a summer reading BINGO square (a banned book) for the Bookish Bay Brigade…

Book sits on wood.

On a pink cloth background, the book title is block-painted huge, centered, & in red:
MILK
AND
HONEY

Over & between the “ND” of “AND” & the “EY” of “HONEY” in yellow handwriting:
rupi kaur

2 line-drawing bees in white sit/fly atop the upper right edge & the lower left edge of ”AND”

In small white along the top edge:
10TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTOR’S EDITION

In same small white along the bottom edge:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR

Poem & annotation on p184 of Kaur’s Milk and Honey 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition shown. 5-line poem is in black, left justified. 2-line annotation is in pink handwriting on the bottom right.

to be
soft
is
to be
powerful

//

vulnerability is
a strength

August 26, 2026 at 8:58 AM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

Read this whole thread. You may cry, but you won’t be sorry.
RIP Dolly

Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 22d

This girl I used to waitress with in Austin, we moved to New York together in 2003 on a literal Greyhound bus. Shared a fifth floor walk-up studio that, when it rained, had more leaks in the ceiling than we had pots and pans. We used to get drunk and smoke off the fire escape and do “sad-offs.”

August 25, 2026 at 7:58 PM

Reposted by Diana A

🌈Tyranny🫧Sparkles🏳️‍🌈

@tyranny.sparklenoise.com

Dolly Parton with Keith Haring in 1985, incredible woman and supporter of LGBTQ people for decades going back to a time when few others dared.

Black and white photo of Dolly Parton with gay artist Keith Haring.

August 25, 2026 at 6:07 PM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/DcdFdxomx8...

#SealeyChallenge 21/31

Equilibrium by Tiana Clark

Last of my haul from @bullcitypress.com but not the 1st time Clark has blown my socks off with her poetry. Winner of The Frost Place Chapbook Competition 2016 — still reads fresh (& shattering) a decade later…

Diana A on Instagram: "#SealeyChallenge 21/31 Equilibrium by @tianaclarkypants The last of my book mail haul from @bullcitypress 11 months ago, but not the 1st time Clark has blown my socks off wit...

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August 25, 2026 at 7:24 AM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/DccV2GzGag...

#SealeyChallenge 20/31

Rogue Nun by @danalevinpoet.bsky.social

The 1st chapbook in Albion Books Series Ten — typeset, printed, & handbound by Brian Teare.
Getting this lovingly-crafted object in the mail 💌 + Levin’s speaker/vibe/words = reading as art therapy

Chapbook sits on wood.

Text in large wood type — on textured cream (Natural Via Laid) cover stock — takes up almost all the space.

[in gold, left-justified]
ROGUE
NUN

[in black, centered]
DANA
LEVIN

Part of the 2nd p of the poem “House of Feels (2)” in Levin’s Rogue Nun shown. The 1st 2 stanzas are prose-blocks while the 3rd is indented (5 lines of poetry).

I decided it was my heart, escaped my body. I wrote about it obsessively, off and on, for the three years I lived in Portsmouth. And life became a living theater: wandering the wooded areas around town in winter, startling my red heart through snow-banked branches—as if one of the tableaux I'd built in my childhood bedroom had finally come to life.

I started a long, sectioned poem about it, that I never finished. But I knew the end, which I transcribed into my journal over and over, along with all the other stanzas detailing the drama of my fugitive heart:

When the scalpel draws the line from throat to navel,
when the flesh is peeled back
and the ribs exposed,
it will be the cardinal there, red and beating,
against a cage of bone.

August 25, 2026 at 12:35 AM

Reposted by Diana A

Annalee Newitz

@annaleen.bsky.social

Now it can be told! The sequel to AUTOMATIC NOODLE is coming next fall ... get ready for NOODLE UNION! (Also note that my editor Stephanie Stein has a way with dad jokes.)

This is a clip from Publisher's Weekly, for "book deals the week of Aug. 24, 2026." It reads: "Stephanie Stein at Tordotcom picked up world English and German rights to Annalee Newitz’s Noodle Union from Laurie Fox at Linda Chester Literary Agency. The book is a sequel to the 2025 cozy science fiction novella Automatic Noodle, set in the near future, “about a labor movement gaining steam in the pneumatic delivery tubes surrounding a robot-run noodle restaurant,” per the publisher. A fall 2027 publication is scheduled."

August 24, 2026 at 11:43 PM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/Dcaad3tG26...

#SealeyChallenge 19/31

36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem by Nam Le

Wow. This is a virtuosic book, & Le’s is a powerful voice, both poetically & literally (he reads the audiobook beautifully)...

Screenshot of audiobook cover.

On a cream background, centered black text all together creates a visual rectangle (kind of book-shaped) in the white space.

[along the top edge, all on one line, small] 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem

[below that, huge, as if in the biggest possible wood type]
NAM
[slightly smaller vertically, but center-justified so it stretches horizontally to equal width as all above]
LE

The poem "[12. Communist]" from Nam Le's 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem as posted on poetryfoundation.org shown. (Most of this text is added to the screenshot, smaller & in blue, at the bottom)

We are for perpetual revolution!
We are for monkeys and tigers!
We are for permanent re-education!
We believe in necessary rectification.
We are against cows and snakes!
We are against monsters and demons!
Let rocks and pebbles turn into rice!
Let a hundred flowers bloom!
(Tell us: What are the correct
revolutionary traits of the moon?)

August 24, 2026 at 6:31 AM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/DcXmeHem7r...

#SealeyChallenge 18/31

Love That Dog by Sharon Creech💛💙

I was gifted this book (& 1st read it, & cried) 25 years ago. Rereading by listening to the audiobook today was lovely …

Screenshot of audiobook cover.

On a yellow background, all text is centered.

[in large black] SHARON CREECH
[very small] WINNER OF THE NEWBERY MEDAL FOR [ital.]WALK TWO MOONS

[in big blue] LOVE
THAT
DOG

[small] a novel

[childlike black line-drawing of a dog]

performed by SCOTT WOLF

[in a blue stripe along bottom edge, in big white] UNABRIDGED

Poem on pp 15-16 of Creech’s Love That Dog shown. All the “small”s are in a smaller font than the rest. Hard to tell from the photo, but the text is dark blue (not black).

NOVEMBER 29

I liked those
small poems
we read today.

When they're small
like that
you can read
a whole bunch
in a short time
and then in your head
are all the pictures
of all the small things
from all the small poems.

I liked how the kitten leaped
in the cat poem
and how you could see
the long head of the horse
in the horse poem

and especially I liked the dog
in the dog poem
because that's just how
my yellow dog
used to lie down,
with his tongue all limp
and his chin
between
his paws
and how he'd sometimes
chomp at a fly
and then sleep
in his loose skin,
just like that poet,
Miss Valerie Worth,
says,
in her small
dog poem.

August 23, 2026 at 4:16 AM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/DcXchh8m_a...

#SealeyChallenge 17/31

Charismatic Spirals by Will Alexander

I got this tiny, dense book at Medicine for Nightmares on a Books & Chocolate Crawl (thx @charliejane.bsky.social et al!)♥️
Reads a bit like sci-fi Gertrude Stein: language & philosophy I simply let…

Diana A on Instagram: "#SealeyChallenge 17/31 Charismatic Spirals by Will Alexander I got this tiny, dense book at @medicinefornightmares on a @bay_area_books_and_chocolate crawl. It reads a bit lik...

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August 23, 2026 at 2:52 AM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/DcSzjKLmx5...

#SealeyChallenge 16/31

Ocean of Clouds by Garret Hongo

I didn’t pick the excerpt in image 2 b/c it was my favorite or b/c it is representative of this book, but because my heart is with Ka’u…
Please click thru link above.
Will add some replies here, too. 1/x

Book sits on wood.

Jacket photo (“Morning Fog on the Yachats Hills” by Russel Tomlin) is a totally socked-in landscape, all grey & fog-blurred. The top half is lighter grey & blueish, suggesting sky behind the clouds, & the bottom is dark grey, with a couple perhaps-evergreen trees poking up, suggesting forest valley.

Text, all left-justified, large, & in the top left corner, over the lightest part of the sky:

[blue] Ocean of Clouds
[green] Garret Hongo
[white] Poems

Part of poem (“Beaches”) on p39 of Hongo’s Ocean of Clouds reads

[ital. & indented] Punalu’u

The magical underside of the world,
black glass shattered into sands
heaved into the dark spires of each successive wave...

Bowl of shadows lined with white curls of froth,
fingers of seawrack wreathed in spume,
baubles of turtles sliding through your grasp,

You heave with the sighs of an invisible moon,
you mount the earth with salty loins,
you crest with pyramids of desire,
while indecipherable wisdoms,
intoned by each splash of the sea
reach out to us, surging to steal the shoals of our bodies,
to bring to us its barren, black-toothed bite.

August 21, 2026 at 7:40 AM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/DcQOdoUG_6...

#SealeyChallenge 15/31

I Am Minor by Ryan Nakano

A thought-provoking book put out by the wonderful Nomadic Press (now also an awesome bookshop in Oakland, CA)…

Book sits on light, scratched wood (sales counter at The Bookmark Bookstore). Cover art by Arthur Johnstone (on white background) is a watercolor of a gold-brown dog (or coyote?) lying down, nibbling on its back right leg.
All text centered.
Above the art, in large black hollow font:
I AM MINOR
Below the art, smaller:
RYAN NAKANO

Poem on p 10 of Nakano’s I Am Minor is typed inside a Venn diagram. You can read it horizontally across or vertically down the three columns. I’ll put a “((“ or “))” in wherever the circles cut thru the horizontal line of text

LIGHT WORK

How is it (( that )) we work
with each- (( other )) without a word
hand in hand (( skin )) dissolving into
a soft comfort (( knowing )) its limitations
will eventually (( end )) unless some
seed or root (( finds an )) alternative
pushing its way (( out )) toward presence
through a fault (( )) of our own

August 20, 2026 at 7:35 AM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/DcNu7UWG7m...

#SealeyChallenge 14/31

Lives of the Poets by Beau Beausoleil & Ama Bolton

I have no recollection of how I got my mitts on this chapbook, but it’s a quiet, lovely one. The poems, some co-written, are threaded through with images by Ama Bolton.

Chapbook sits on wood. Cover art is abstract blue & white watercolor suggestive of sea & sky. All text is centered.

In large blue, in midst of a white (cloud?) portion:
LIVES OF
THE POETS

In medium white, in lower dark blue (water?) half:
Beau Beausoleil
and Ama Bolton

Poem on p 15 of Beausoleil & Bolton’s Lives of the Poets reads:

AWAY FROM HERE

the days came
toward us
as simple
as grass

we had
waited for
some direction
to present itself

but instead we
found our path
at the threshold
of colours

just before
the first bird
awakened

a yellow leaf
on the road’s
grey page
marked the way

August 19, 2026 at 8:17 AM

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/DcLFo6rm63...

#SealeyChallenge 13/31

How to Continue by Matthew Zapruder

Lucky enough to find this sweet chapbook published by The Economy Press in the Friends of the @sfpubliclibrary.bsky.social shop… A perfect title for this time in the month, this time in the world 😮‍💨

Chapbook sits on wood. All text is left-justified on a beige cover. Title in large green & poet’s name in small red. It reads:

HOW
TO
CONTINUE

Matthew Zapruder

An early p in Zapruder’s How to Continue shown. It’s the last paragraph of his introductory note & reads:

Poems are my way of staying engaged with things, and the people who touched and made them. They are a way of staying alive in relation to language. And a way of remembering all that still matters, and all that must be preserved.

[in added blue text:] End of forward to Zapruder's How to Continue

August 18, 2026 at 7:43 AM

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