Diana A

Diana A

@dianalog.bsky.social

Poet, tutor, book dragon

90 followers141 following186 posts

Diana A
@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/DeyLNyHG7F... #MetresMemorizationMonth #MetresMemorizationChallenge 3/4 Poem “65” (“my world is green”) in Appalachian Elegy by bell hooks 💚

instagram.comdianalogbooks on Instagram: "#MetresMemorizationMonth 3/4 @philipmetres Poetry Memorization ChallengeConfession: I actually wanted to memorize Ross Gay’s “Sorro…"#MetresMemorizationMonth 3/4 @philipmetres Poetry Memorization ChallengeConfession: I actually wanted to memorize Ross Gay’s “Sorrow Is Not My Name,” but I worried 23 lines of free verse (although lyrical & attentive to sound) would be more than I could handle in 7 days. I especially love the ending of “Sorrow Is Not My Name,” so when I came upon the penultimate poem in bell hooks’s Appalachian Elegy: Poetry and Place (my RIS poetry group’s October pick), I thought “Ohhh, here is a shorter ode to green with similar spirit!”This 8 line poem (also free verse) wasn’t “easy” to memorize, but it felt powerful, almost like a magic spell or mantra, especially repeating it to myself while walking city streets & driving on gray highways. Without punctuation or capitalization, the line breaks & repetition take on extra weight.{slide 1/3}A video of me (a white woman with long blonde hair in a ponytail, wearing large blue tortoise-shell glasses & a gray @oaklandish hoodie w/ purple @fairylandca magic key print on heart side) reciting “65” from Appalachian Elegy: Poetry and Place by bell hooks. I hold the book up in front of my face to introduce the poem. Bookshelves (1 w/glass doors) are behind me. The lighting is not professional 🙃{slide 2/3}Sorrow Is Not My Name [smaller, ital.]—after Gwendolyn BrooksNo matter the pull toward brink. No matter the florid, deep sleep awaits. There is a time for everything. Look, just this morning a vulture nodded his red, grizzled head at me, and I looked at him, admiring the sickle of his beak. Then the wind kicked up, and, after arranging that good suit of feathers he up and took off. Just like that. And to boot, there are, on this planet alone, something like two million naturally occurring sweet things, some with names so gorgeous as to kick the steel from my knees: agave, persimmon, stick ball, the purple okra I bought for two bucks at the market. Think of that. The long night, the skeleton in the mirror, the man behind me on the bus taking notes, yeah, yeah. But look; my niece is running through a field calling my name. My neighbor sings like an angel and at the end of my block is a basketball
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 ☺️

instagram.comDiana 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...0 likes, 0 comments - dianalogbooks on August 31, 2026: "#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 descripti...
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😭

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 🤯

instagram.comDiana 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...0 likes, 0 comments - dianalogbooks on August 28, 2026: "#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...
Diana A
@dianalog.bsky.social

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

Gillian Brockell@gillianbrockell.com

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.”

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…

instagram.comDiana 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...0 likes, 0 comments - dianalogbooks on August 25, 2026: "#SealeyChallenge 21/31 Equilibrium by @tianaclarkypants The last of my book mail haul from @bullcitypress 11 months ago, but not the 1st tim...

Diana A reposted

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.)

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…

instagram.comDiana 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...0 likes, 0 comments - dianalogbooks on August 22, 2026: "#SealeyChallenge 17/31 Charismatic Spirals by Will Alexander I got this tiny, dense book at @medicinefornightmares on a @bay_area_books_and_c...
View full thread
Diana A
@dianalog.bsky.social

Many isolated communities are without water, power, or even access by car. These are resilient people that know how to take care of themselves & each other, but a lot more help is needed (not least b/c this 🤬administration has cut FEMA & refuses to support blue states in emergencies). 3/

Diana A
@dianalog.bsky.social

Punalu’u is one of 2 iconic beaches in Ka’u, the Southern part of the Big Island. If I was at the beach as a child, it was, 80% of the time, this beach. Waiohinu & Na’alehu, where I grew up (& Pahala, where the “big” hospital & library are), all very rural, have been devastated by Hurricane Lala. 2/

Diana A
@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/DcFFFuUGb4... #SealeyChallenge 11/31 The Lost Words: A Spell Book by @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social & Jackie Morris A physically huge & visually stunning book of 20 acrostic poems & accompanying art, partially made with the aim of rewilding childhood…

instagram.comDiana A on Instagram: "#SealeyChallenge 11/31 The Lost Words: A Spell Book by @robgmacfarlane & @jackiemorrisartist A physically huge & visually stunning book of 20 acrostic poems & accompanying ar...0 likes, 0 comments - dianalogbooks on August 15, 2026: "#SealeyChallenge 11/31 The Lost Words: A Spell Book by @robgmacfarlane & @jackiemorrisartist A physically huge & visually stunning book of 2...
Diana A
@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/Db9zblRm2q... #SealeyChallenge 9/31 To Those Who See by Gwen Frostic A gorgeous art book published in 1965 by Presscraft Papers (Frostic’s own print shop …

instagram.comdianalogbooks on Instagram: "#SealeyChallenge 9/31To Those Who See by Gwen FrosticA gorgeous art book published in 1965 by Presscraft Papers (Frostic’s own prin…"#SealeyChallenge 9/31To Those Who See by Gwen FrosticA gorgeous art book published in 1965 by Presscraft Papers (Frostic’s own print shop — still in operation as of 2018 at least, according to Wikipedia). Perceptive followers might recall that I found & read a copy of Frostic’s Wing-borne last year. I recognized her linocut style, nature themes, & Heidelberg press-produced papers as soon as I picked up this book today (Aug 12, still playing Sealey catch up) on my volunteer shift at @fopl_bookmark 💛#TheSealeyChallenge2026#TheSealeyChallenge #31BooksInAugust #poetry {Image 1 description}Book sits on scratched-up light-colored wood counter of The Bookmark Bookstore. The spine & 1” into the cover is grey-brown paper with a pattern reminiscent of book cloth. Wrapped over that, the rest of the cover, is cream paper printed with tall green furled fiddlehead ferns & brown vines, grasses or ferns reaching up from the bottom. Along the bottom edge, in darker green stylized-handwriting, large text over the plants/stems:To those who see - -{Image 2 description}2 pp spread in Frostic’s To Those Who See shown.On the left, on dark green paper, in black text: caterpillar - - - [slightly bigger]cocoon - - - [bigger still]butterfly —can one not believe in miracles . . . . . ?On the right, embedded in a sheet of white rice paper, is a very realistic-looking butterfly (brown & white wings, green body & antennae, red eyes). Through the rice paper, the following cream-colored p can be seen, w/ a green print of tall grasses, long blades & grainy top heads blowing in breeze.
Diana A
@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/Db3wgOBATE... #SealeyChallenge 6/31 _two-headed woman_ by Lucille Clifton 💜 This book was published in 1980, but is as fresh & necessary as clear water…

instagram.comDiana A on Instagram: "#SealeyChallenge 6/31 _two-headed woman_ by Lucille Clifton 💜 (I’ve never been this far behind this early in the month before, but we’ll see what this travel day can do😬) Thi...0 likes, 0 comments - dianalogbooks on August 10, 2026: "#SealeyChallenge 6/31 _two-headed woman_ by Lucille Clifton 💜 (I’ve never been this far behind this early in the month before, but we’ll see ...
Diana A
@dianalog.bsky.social

www.instagram.com/p/DbwTQEzklY... #SealeyChallenge 5/31 Night Watch by Kevin Young This book has so much in it that I will definitely need to reread in a less rushed season...

instagram.comDiana A on Instagram: "#SealeyChallenge 5/31 Night Watch by Kevin Young thehungryear This book has so much in it that I will definitely need to reread in a less rushed season. 16 years in the making...0 likes, 0 comments - dianalogbooks on August 7, 2026: "#SealeyChallenge 5/31 Night Watch by Kevin Young thehungryear This book has so much in it that I will definitely need to reread in a less rush...