a year in poetry

October 16, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i did a thing
and i’m hesitant to say i did well
and that i’m good at it
because i still have two more evenings
but i suppose i can treat those two evenings
like i treated yesterday
and look at them as though this is all
a learning opportunity

i mean, that’s kind of what life itself is, isn’t it?
just one giant learning opportunity:
learning how to be a human
learning how to interact with others
learning what you love and what you don’t
learning how to say goodbye
learning how to live
learning how to learn

maybe?

October 15, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

just a quick
little poem
today
before i run
and do things
all day

[well, thing,
one main thing
throughout the day
a load-in, tech, and opening
all in one day

today will be
a very long day

hence the short-ish poem
to start the
day]

October 14, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

it’s been fun
reading books that
aren’t my normal reading vibe

i’ve been getting sucked in
[as much as i can when surrounded by
the chaos of the mta]
and i just want to have
more commute
in order to read more of these
spooky books
throughout this spooky month

but first i gotta finish this one
which is only my second book
of fifteen

thirteen more await me

and i am
so
damn
stoked

October 12, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i have artist’s utensils
next to my writing spot
[which is also my eating spot
incidentally] i have a pencil with which
to sketch, a few good erasers, a sketch pad
i’ve actually been using, some colored
pencils to the other side,
and even a bag that i got at the art store
that has art all over it, and yesterday
i even gave advice
about art
[to kip, whom i would call
the artist in this house]
that made a piece of art
better

so maybe
i am learning
some artist skills

maybe
you can teach
an old dog new tricks

maybe maybe maybe
i’m not as set in my ways of
‘i can’t draw at all’ as i thought i was…!

October 11, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

yesterday, we met
a prehensile-tailed porcupine
named Bruce Quillis
a hog island boa
named Wilbur
a common raven
named Waggles
a binturong
named Kevin
and an african giant pouched rat
named Hemlock

and when asked which animal was my favorite
i talked about getting emotional when in the same room as a raven
and how cool it was that i got to meet an animal
from a species i hadn’t even heard of
until that moment
and that i have a special place in my heart
for all snakes
especially ones i get to pet
and that the porcupine was so adorable and clingy
with its owner, and i couldn’t get over that
and that, of course, i thought that rat
was so darn cute
and so darn smart

and then i took a moment
and noted that i had just talked about
every single one of the animals we had met

because of course i did

because i love all animals

and i can never pick just one favorite

even in a wild encounter.

October 10, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i feel as though
i may be
an outside cat —

made of strong stuff
able to digest some of the
nastiest things
willing to take a treat
but wary of any sort of trap
that may take me
and able to make friends in the wild
but also able to bolt
at a moment’s notice

and kip is an inside cat —

on a special diet
longing for the outside
but staying indoors
all the time
finding enough variety from
room to room to
content themself
daily

or maybe, we are both
indoor/outdoor
and each have our own relationship
with what we have
and what we could achieve

or something…

October 7, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

drawing cats
for catober
figuring out a style?
maybe?
[i don’t know, a majority of my cats so far
look exactly the same as they did
when i was 13]
but at least i’m drawing
and even if i don’t draw
11 other months in the year
i have 31 drawings to show for october
as bad as they are…

i’m always encouraging others to make bad art

why can’t i let myself make bad art?
why can’t i let myself?
why can’t i?