Welcome to the first installment of the second edition of Coffee-Fueled Perspectives. Thank you to the eight of you who’ve already subscribed - I cannot imagine why you did, so long before I decided to restart this newsletter, but I appreciate you. And now, you make me want to write something to justify your blind faith.
The Rebel Outpost is the creative virtual space for a close-knit group of poets who met during the inaugural year of The Stafford Challenge, 2024, during which registered participants wrote a poem (more or less) each day for a year. Members of The Rebel Outpost are mercurial: by turns serious, playful, collaborative, open to experimentation, and always eager to learn and to try new things.
Creating an anthology together is one of those things, and we hope that you enjoy the poems contained in our little book. It includes the the work of poets Necia Campbell, Mary Eichhorn Fletcher, Holly Jahangiri, Karen McCaskey, Jenny Olson, and Sheila Robertson.
It seems fitting that this book is being published on William Stafford's birthday, January 17, 2025 - the one-year anniversary of the day these poets first met and the start of the second year of The Stafford Challenge.
To buy Poems from the Rebel Outpost from Amazon, click here: https://a.co/d/5Rr8sj7 This book is also available from Barnes & Noble online: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1146869670
Many of us have grown disenchanted, lately, with social media. Since 1981, I’ve seen more platforms than I can remember vanish into thin air. I literally cannot remember the names of about half of the ones I used to participate in on a daily basis. We were fine before the advent of the ones we take for granted today; we will be fine if they implode tomorrow.
Meanwhile, let’s try not to lose touch. Isn’t that the reason we give for refusing to leave them? Read “We Are Hostage to Each Other” on my blog, “A More Positive Perspective.”
One of my 2025 resolutions is to use social media more intentionally, and to that end, revive my blog (yes, again, don’t look at me like that). Why do we build other people’s “content” more enthusiastically than we do our own? Because that’s where everyone is, of course. But as more and more people leave various platforms, finding and keeping smaller communities of friends who share our interests is clearly more important than mere numbers. And it has occurred to me that maybe Substack is as close to the old webrings as we are likely to get.
So here I am, giving this another go. Join me?
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