A Month of Paying Attention

Today feels like a quiet convergence.

It marks one year since I began writing on Substack—an unexpected home for reflections, stories, and questions that continue to shape how I see the world.

It also marks the twentieth anniversary of the Fib poem, the deceptively simple poetry form built on the Fibonacci sequence—one that reminds us how structure and creativity often grow from the same mathematical seed.

Note: Some of you shared your own Fib(s) to help commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Fib (primalbeet, Alegria de Rose, Joshua Robinson). You can find the offerings at Twenty Years of the Fib. And if you missed the original tribute to Greg Pincus and his formalization of the Fibonacci Poem, Fib, you can find it here: Fibonacci Poetry

And of course, today begins National Poetry Month.

Taken together, it feels less like coincidence and more like invitation.

Over the past year, I’ve found myself drawn less to declaring answers and more to the act of paying attention—to language, to silence, to the spaces between what we think and what we know.

Poetry lives there.

Not necessarily in mastery, but in noticing.

So for the next thirty days, I’m going to try something small.

Each day in April, I’ll write a single couplet—two lines only. Nothing elaborate. Just a brief moment of attention. Perhaps an image, perhaps a question, perhaps a shift in understanding.

No promises of brilliance. Only presence.

If you’d like to follow along, I’ll gather these small pieces here as the month unfolds.

Holding the Bloodstone

A National Poetry Month practice

I thought I needed more words—
until the silence began answering back.

This month I’m carrying a small polished bloodstone in my pocket.

Each day I’ll write a two-line poem—a couplet—about whatever the day offers while that stone travels with me.

Thirty days.
Two lines at a time.

Sometimes poetry begins not with speaking, but with listening.

And so the listening begins.

Day 1—Paying Attention

I turn the bloodstone once in my palm
as if beginning a conversation

Day 2—Paying Attention

palms press against coolness
warmth gathers in the stone

Day 3—Paying Attention

flecks of iron peek through
red drops on a field of green

Day 4—Paying Attention

ancient silica and iron
my breathing slows

Day 5—Paying Attention

the stone in my pocket
a quiet weight

Day 6—Paying Attention

the bloodstone rests in my palm
long before and long after me

Day 7—Paying Attention

by the end of the week
the stone knows my hand

Day 8—Asking

do I hold you to take your shape
are the blood flecks yours or mine

Day 9—Asking

between thumb and forefinger, you resist
something in me gives

Day 10—Asking

end to end I feel your height
however I measure you

Day 11—Asking

your polished surface catches light
reflecting more than I like

Day 12—Asking

from a distance you do not impose
I begin to ask more of you

Day 13—Asking

you’ve known many places and purposes
are you settled here … am I

Day 14—Asking

you’ve gathered the appearance of moss
I dare sense your stillness

Day 15—Listening

where does memory rest in your form
I follow the lines that hold it

Day 16—Listening

tilted trapezoid, I think
polished in someone else’s hands

Day 17—Listening

obsessed with red flecks
do they mark your making or shape it

Day 18—Listening

gentle curve, undeniable thumb fit
shaped by hands before me

Day 19—Listening

did the rubbing erase or imprint a history
yours … mine … more

Day 20—Listening

pushed, polished, and pressed
something held its shape

Day 21—Listening

you have outlasted what I know
I hold you anyway

Day 22—Seeing

once held by wire as a talisman
now free in open light

Day 23—Seeing

tossed across the tabletop, wobbly then steady
you arrive whole

Day 24—Seeing

sitting in the shadow of raw heliotrope
your origin shows

Day 25—Seeing

rough-cut from another time
still, you fit in my hand

Day 26—Seeing

you fit in my hand softly
settling where you land

Day 27—Seeing

you fit wherever I place you
wherever I find you

Day 28—Seeing

I like how you feel in my pocket
the weight of attention

Day 29—Held

I reach for you with no intent
not needing to know

Day 30—Held

all month I thought I carried the stone
today I notice it has been carrying me

One year ago, I pressed “publish” here for the first time.
Thank you for reading, thinking, and wandering with me.