Greetings from War-Ravaged Portland!

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Musings, Neighborhood, Political News, Writing

Where there are free bouquets available for passersby on their way to and from Alberta Park. Where there are no fires that I can see, no conflagrations, no insurrectionists warring in the streets. Where the sun is out and it is a glorious autumn day iridescent with green, melodious with birdsong, peaceful and calm and serene. And since I know that the tyrants are lying and gaslighting about what is currently going on here—in the city where I live—makes a person wonder why one would ever take anything they utter at face value let alone assume it is telling the truth
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Publication Day: America’s Slide Towards Authoritarianism from IHRAM Press

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Political News, Publication News, Writing

I took the above photograph at the No Kings Rally and March in downtown Portland, Oregon on June 14, 2025. It was one of my favorite signs at the march—after all, we are avid community gardeners! I had previously seen it at the April 5, 2025 Hands Off Rally but did not get a good photograph at the time. It sums up so much about this moment we find ourselves in. Luckily, IHRAM Press and its authors and artists are fighting back. I am one of those authors. As of today, October 1st, IHRAM Press is publishing America’s Slide Towards Authoritarianism, a folio of American and international writers and artists…

 
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Autumnal Equinox & the Diminishing Hours of Light…

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Gardening, Musings, Writing

This past Monday marked the passage from summer into autumn—a day of balance between light and dark—even though most of these late September days are still cloudless and warm. Tomatoes continue to ripen on the vine. Assorted flowers are in riotous late-season bloom. In spite of the growing menace—and very real harms—flowing 24/7 from the unhinged actions of too many

 
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Acceptance News: The “Burn It Down” Issue of TrashLight Press

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Publication News, Writing

My poem, “Rewind, or One More Reminder of Our Long and Ongoing History of Ochlocracy”, has been accepted for publication in the Fall 2025 “Burn It Down” Issue of TrashLight Press. This poem is included in my yet-unpublished chapbook, Postcards of the Hanging. Many of the poems in this manuscript—including this one—were informed by the newspaper articles and editorials collected in 100 Years of Lynching by Ralph Ginzburg, first published in 1962 and re-released by the Black Classic Press in 1988
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Oregon Poetry Association Contest Honorable Mention for a Prompt(ed) Poem…

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Awards, Writing

A few months back, I entered the Fall 2025 Adult Contest of the Oregon Poetry Association. One of the categories this time was called Extended Prompt. The rules were one page and one poem maximum in any form following the prompt, “Turning Point.” The judge, Richard Tillinghast, provided some additional guidance: “Write a poem about a turning point in your life, a landmark event or life-choice. Something—
good or bad—has happened that changes everything.”

 
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Seeking Refuge in the Flower Fields…

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Gardening, Musings, Writing

This afternoon we made our annual pilgrimage to Canby, Oregon—an hour or so south of Portland near the Willamette River—to see the forty-plus acres of dahlias in peak bloom at Swan Island Dahlias. Every August and September, they open their fields to visitors—there are food carts, music, fresh-cut bouquets, and general festivities all around for the attendees. Sunday afternoon was no exception as we lucked into a performance by the Salem-area blues band, Hank Shreve…

 
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Revisiting an Earlier Publication: “Untold Varieties of Potato Make a Poem”

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Gardening, History Lessons, Publication News, Writing

I have been thinking lately about the myriad ways one can construct a poem in multiple parts. I did exactly that when I wrote Great Hunger, my multi-part poem investigating the intersection of landscape and place as it relates to one ecological and humanitarian disaster, the mid-19th century Irish potato famine that was published by Anchor & Plume Press in Baton Rouge, Louisiana…

 
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Publication News: Two Poems in the Halfway Down the Stairs 20th Anniversary Issue

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Publication News, Writing

Two of my poems “A Baffling Earth” and “It Ends, It Begins: A Cento” are now online in the lovely September 2025 edition of the literary magazine, Halfway Down the Stairs. The theme of this issue is “Muse” in honor of their twentieth anniversary. In modern usage, a muse is a person who serves as a source of artistic inspiration. Recently, I did a number of poems that are “in conversation” with Emily Dickinson and her work; I guess that makes her my 21st century muse. And the cento form itself is a bit of collage/homage to the voices of other poets who inspired me as well. …

 
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Fog and Pelicans and the Central Coast of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State…

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Arts & Culture, Musings, Writing

Been on a bit of a road trip involving ferries, Electrify America charging stations, and quirky museums of local interest and then some. Navigating the two-lanes through the Olympic Peninsula rain forests, the Whidbey Island estuaries and driftwood bird sanctuaries, and now, tonight, the fog-bound Washington coast where Grays Harbor meets the Pacific Ocean and flocks of pelicans are careening overhead. The cars downtown in this coastal marina…

 
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Acceptance News: American Writers Review 2025

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Publication News, Writing

My poem, “A Long Way Around,” has been accepted for publication in American Writers Review 2025, a publication of San Fedele Press. This year’s collection has the theme of “Buyer’s Remorse.” This poem is in a form called a golden shovel in which the last word of each line is made from each word of pre-existing poem to which the poet is paying homage. It was created by Terrance Hayes whose 2010 poem
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