The ultimate high in 2025 was seeing Molly get her college degree. She started work at her new job this month despite the Trump presidency not making it easy for her simply because she chose a career in the sciences half a decade ago. I continue to be proud of her as she moves from strength to strength.
I got my act together in May and started writing more regularly for The Ugly Monster by the second half of the year. I'm proud of what I've written even if some of it hasn't been published yet. I want to continue and hope to have a number of pieces out in 2026 right out of the gate. I'm grateful to Oscar for his continued support of my work.
For the first time in years, I didn't put up any summer highlights. My summer was pretty low key. Didn't travel.
My girlfriend went to a special women's yoga retreat. That was cool. I just wanted to stay focused on the Boston Poetry Marathon.
Then my girlfriend returned with COVID.
For the entirety of the weekend, that meant effectively I had COVID.
I had to be a pariah for the show I helped make happen.
I gave up my spot, then suddenly I was asked to host.
So I didn't read this year.
No one asked why. No one noticed.
I had to wear a mask for the weekend except when I introduced poets.
The Boston Poetry Marathon is the one thing I look forward to consistently every summer.
And this year, for the first one I helped to helm, it was bittersweet.
Maybe now that I got this off my chest, I can go into the new year with a better attitude, finally refreshed.
My girlfriend's father passed away in June. I got along with him well enough. I appreciated his resilience. I would help him around his home often. It probably amused him given my lack of experience with tools. That's all I want to say about this. I value my girlfriend's privacy, but it would have felt wrong not to mention it.
As I said before quoting Bill Hicks, I'm a producer now. Sure I've hosted several panels at Mass Poetry, but they were all interview segments or featuring other poets. For the first time ever, I hosted and led a writing workshop.
"Filtering White Noise: Using Erasure and Blackout Poetry To Make Sense of It All" was an amazing success. The person who was presenting that day and the person I am today a half year seem like two different people. I can't believe how smoothly it all went and all the good work created that day.
I honestly don't know how I can follow it up next year.
Oddball Magazine's founder had a rough start to the year. I am so happy he is back on his feet and still writing and most importantly, still with us heading into 2026.
A John Coltrane tribute at the Boston Symphony back in March was an amazing night thanks to my girlfriend. Eventually it lead to my poem "Supreme," which was published on Fevers of the Mind later in April. It made me think I could write about music, which I've actually done since. I like when a poem leads to more possibilities.
I started 2025 in James Penha's publication with "Anita Bryant's Last Christmas Wish." Then I returned in the summertime with "I Can't Hear You" The poem I'm proudest of, however, is "Debate Rests," which was published in September during a time of political violence paired with fanatical bloodlust. Too subtle at the time to garner any outrage, I would rank the poem as one of my best works written this year. I hope to have a poem in The New Verse News before the end of 2025 (tomorrow, I guess), but if nothing else gets in, I'm still very pleased.
After finishing up "The Tuesday Poems," which were based on old work problems, I probably made the wrong move and started a series of poems called "Like a DOGE," which was based on new work problems (you can guess what those problems were by the title of the series). The one good thing is that I'll be putting it to bed with the final poem tomorrow. We'll see how the poems look a month from now when I look back on everything.
I started a series of blackout poems based on Trump's Truth Social posts on Medium in late 2024. In 2025, I kept on going. I don't know if they are collection-worthy, but given how I haven't had the time to craft the type of poems that made up the bulk of my book Cant Republic, these will have to do for now.
I submitted to the Don Kingfisher Campbell's Heart Flames anthology back in February, and I just kept going. I managed to get in most of the online exclusive anthologies for this year. It was great practice and I was in very good company with several Stone Soup poets joining in the fun. I also worked closely with Don and introduced several west coast voices to Stone Soup Poetry. I hope we can do more work together in the upcoming year.
Despite how depressing TikTok became and still is, I'm glad I stuck with it and at least used it's video making software to keep putting out News from the Front videos. I have fallen off a bit, but I'm proud of the work I've been able to do. I want to do more, and I will, one way or another.
Events both joyous and sad led me back into Cambridge this past year, which felt good. I don't know if I ever really wanted to live in Cambridge, but it's a place I love visiting. I used to go every week when Stone Soup was at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery, then that went away after 2017. It felt good to be walking its streets even semi-regularly for a good chunk of the year.
Toni went through a lot in 2025. None of her story is mine to tell.
I tried to support her as best I can, attending all the BeeFound and Poets in the Garden events I could make. I'm so happy I could get her back into the Boston Poetry Marathon.
I wish I could have been more present as the year was ending. I wish I had gotten Stone Soup back as a live event in 2025. I would have made sure she could have attended.
I hate when I can't be a better friend. There was a lot of that this year.
I hope to connect with her next week before New Year's Eve.
I hope the two of us get to feature in the same place in 2026.
I tried to average a poem a month in petro c.k.'s journal dadakuku. I really did. I really wanted it to happen. I love this outlet and came so close.
If only I had written a poem in September, I might have succeeded.
I had nothing in September.
Still, eleven poems is nothing to scoff at.
I'm still proud of having so much work accepted in dadakku.
I look forward to the year-end anthology.
I will submit again the minute the journal is open to submissions in 2026.
