I'm seeing a lot of stressed out folks heading into the weekend.

Brain-stuff isn't much fun.

Here's a wee chuckle to offset the head-noise.

Take good care of yourselves, okay? ❤️

Related reminder:

As well-intentioned as the effort may be, PLEASE think carefully before sending any threat you come across to folks from the target demographic.

Every time folks are reminded that someone wants them dead or suffering, it's a *stressful* experience.

When it's a credible threat, a panic pile-on won't help much.

But also, if it's *not* credible? Then you've done the hater's job for them: elevating a targeted demographic's fear, anger, confusion, & despair.

Tread carefully. 💪

Friends, remember that we're in a bad timeline, so we have to be careful even when trying to warn others.

Sometimes people will plant fake threats and let the panic-engine of social media fan the flames, showing other haters just how much power hate can yield.

We're then consumed by fake news that *becomes* a serious threat, & traumatizes.

Misinformation, disinformation, malinformation, truthiness, & just-so stories:

Learn the 5.
Repost carefully.
Fight their spread.
https://onlysky.media/mclark/meet-the-fab-five-of-misleading-information/

I've been flipping between projects all afternoon, but my brain no quiere brain-ar. 🙃

Some days it do be like that, eh?

😠 Although... if your productivity this week did *not* include destroying 2nd Century Roman sculpture as a US tourist crying "blasphemy!" at an Israeli museum...

Yeah, go ahead and call this week win for yourself. And thank you for not destroying parts of our collective history!

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-761884

Friday already? Good grief! What a week.

Did I get enough done? Absolutely not.
Do I ever? Well, no. 🙃

But it is what it is and we are more than what we produce. Off now for a run.

Who's got Canadian Thanksgiving plans this weekend? I'm "apartment warming" by cooking lunch tomorrow for a friend. Best productivity goal all week. 😊🍂👩‍🍳

Every now and then I submit a poem to Rattle's Poets Respond open call, for poems responding to news of the week.

Tonight I submitted a news-based poem I'm quite proud of, and had a nice wee skip down memory lane, at the three pieces I've published at Rattle over the years: 2012, 2016, 2019.

The pauses between publication are a nice reminder that I can always return to a form, even after time away. It's always about what suits my purpose best.👌
#WritingCommunity #Poetry
https://www.rattle.com/tag/m-l-clark/

🙃 Any contenders for a better GIF/clip to sum up the current state of US politics than this one?
https://youtu.be/XQcBI5SKJgU

Pancakes aren't really a thing here--and with no real maple (or blueberry!) syrup why bother? But there's nothing quite like an arepa con queso: a big floofy mound of flour and cheese, griddle-cooked, flattened but still pillowy-soft, and drizzled with a creamy sauce. It is a cheese vehicle, somewhere between grilled sammich and pancake, and perfect for cool wet nights. 😋 #CoSoFood #Colombia

Now, we walk before evening classes and shake off all that emotional vulnerability stress. 👌🏻 (If only to make space for more in the writing to come!)

All right, lovelies. 🕊️

I was going to write a lighter piece for the free-to-read this week, but then I ran into another North American living in my apartment complex, at least for a few months.

The encounter reminded me how many ways we travel messily in the world, so today I’m sharing anecdotes from that exchange, tough personal history in the background, & suggestions for how to be a better visitor in other lands.

(I owe you a lit piece & an activist one next week!)
https://mlclark.substack.com/p/of-gringos-and-gentle-travellers

I have STORIES now (one hour later!), but I might make this into a newsletter post.

I won't *call* it "How not to gringo in Colombia", but that is definitely going to be the vibe of the piece all the same. 🙃

#Soon

:/ There is a gringo staying long-term in my building.

I use that term very specifically. This dude isn't a sex-pest, but he's explicitly come to the country to be the centre of attention because he's divorced, retired, his kids don't want anything to do with him. It is a Type.

And... he doesn't speak Spanish but proudly chose to live in a non-tourist area where he feels VERY COMFORTABLE taking up the time of anyone with even passing English here.

(I dipped in to rescue a neighbour. HOO BOY.)

Warm-up to fiction-writing tonight was a bit of poetry. Process photo below: I usually tinker with a key element in a few different ways (see: the chunks on the left, playing with image) before going for a full draft.

I like writing poetry by hand first because when you type it up, you can see the cheats you've slipped in, via cramped script on the page. Then you're forced to think differently about rhythm and the line.

How about you? How do you write your #poetry, if/when you do? 👀 #AmWriting

With no classes tonight, I have four hours for novel-writing. :) But... I think I might start with a warm-up poem that came to mind when I read this wild medical news story.

Life is very, very strange sometimes.
It is an extraordinary thing to survive.

#News
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/04/russian-woman-has-lived-80-years-with-needle-in-her-brain-doctors-discover