Author: inkinherveins
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reflections on love
I love too much.I love too easily.I hold on too long.I don’t expect enough. I don’t love enough. I’m too picky.I give up too fast. I expect too much. Keep looking for love – you never know who you’ll meet! Stop looking for love – that’s when it finds you. Love is a feeling. Love…
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In which the poet is political
Some of you would hand over the runaway to the slave patrolsin the name of law and order. Some of you would say that not all slave catchers are cruel. Maybe that man wouldn’t have been lynched, if he’d just let those slave patrols keep beating on those women. Maybe he just should’ve stayed home,…
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On being liked
I started this post a long while ago, and never finished it. I find myself ruminating on it again, as I continue to move through and process old and new wounds, and do that thing called healing. (ick.) I shared a meme to my Instagram stories a while ago that said i basically assume that…
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end of year reflections
I’m struggling with the reality that the year is almost over. 2025 did not go over like I wanted, or like I had planned it would, and I can’t help but feel discouraged by my lack of progress on some things, and what feels like regression in others. I remind myself of all I accomplished…
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I work in the dark
I am not a light worker, not a seeker of the sun. Yes, I like the warmth on my skin on a cool dayYes, the sun is beautiful as it glistens on wateras it reveals texture and color in granules of sandthe textures of tree bark and leaves. But I am not one who works in…
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try and try again
“It seems like the theme of my life lately is rejection.” I said these words to a friend as we took a walk and I shared news of recent rejections for publication and writer’s residencies. I know it’s part of the process, and that rejection just means I’ve been trying. Each rejection stings a bit,…
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and here we are…
In November 2016, many people watched in disbelief as a qualified and competent candidate lost the presidential election to a reality TV star with multiple bankruptcies under his belt, who somehow still had the reputation of being a good businessman. I suppose I wasn’t surprised, but I was heartbroken. The morning after the election, one…
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reaching
I used to reach for youand find your heart waiting,open, receptive to me. I used to reach for youand meet you there. Warmth in connection,warmth in mutual wanting. I reach for you, now,and nothing is there. A heart closed to me,yet open, wanting, reaching in new directions. I wore out my use, my welcome.I pull back, once more…
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spirals
A few months ago, I led a Playful Writing workshop where we drew the shapes of our narratives. This activity was inspired by Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison. In this book, she describes the shapes that narratives take, beyond the traditional arc that we often expect. I was so…
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Grief triggers grief
The poet Andrea Gibson died on July 14th, 2025 surrounded by loved ones. Their death sent me over the edge of a ledge I’d been teetering on for a while, into a deep and painful depression. I have a support system. I have people I can lean on. Most of those people live in other…
Ink and Vein 