Poetry Postcard Subscription

                             Poetry Postcard Subscription

I have created a Poetry Postcard Subscription where you will receive a postcard in the mail with a poem on the front and a handwritten message from me on the back. You will get a different card and empowering message each month. I may even create an artistic postcard with a poem on it for fun. This is a labor of love. I hope you like a happy mailbox!

How to sign up:  

Go to: www.buymeacoffee.com/laurakozylanik                    

Cost: 

3 dollars a month for U.S. addresses

4 dollars a month for International addresses.  (postage is 1.20)

If you want access to more of my poetry and other insider information then you would want to become a member for 5 dollars a month.

It's Free to become a follower and get my free content.

I will be mainly using this Buy me a coffee site as my poetry blog until I get a new webpage up and running.

Thanks for all your support during my 100-day project journey.

Day 100 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

Day 100 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

It's day 100! I did it!

I'm so proud of myself for taking on this challenge. I have learned a lot about myself and have grown as a writer because of this challenge. Some days I knew what to write about and other days I had no idea and had to trust the process. I had to let go of perfection (because otherwise, I would think these poems would not good enough) and be vulnerable and take risks. I had to trust myself and all of you too. Trust is hard for me.

Today's poem I think reflects my future and it's true I'm in love with not knowing things and discovery. I have a fear of the unknown as well so I'm simultaneously in love with not knowing and afraid of the unknown.

I'm not sure where my trial leads but I know I need to get ready to dance.

Thanks, everyone for reading my poems and going on this journey with me.

I'm going to continue posting daily poems to my membership and supporter levels on www.buymeacoffee.com/laurakozylanik .  Follow me there.

Day 99 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 99 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

My brother is a sleepwalker and one time when he was a kid he stepped on his fishing lure and it got stuck in his foot in the middle of the night. I imagine he was fishing in his dream.

I think we are all fishing in our dreams for ideas to catch and grow. We just need to reel them in and give them life. So tonight when you sleep, go fishing. Be careful and don't stop on the hook.

Day 98 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 98 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

Today there were hundreds of dragonflies swirling in the wind. It was amazing. I stood out there as they flew around me and it was awesome. My in-laws had Eucharist at home today and watched Mass on the television as they are too sick to attend church. It was emotional so I went outside and imagined the dragonflies as prayers flying up.

Day 97 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 97 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

I've been thinking a lot about my future and how I want to live the rest of my life.
So this poem is a metaphor and an important reminder to continue to drive your own life and not to take a back seat.

My students graduated on June 9th so this is also a poem for them, to say it's ok to make mistakes and change your mind. We are all on our own journeys, traveling different roads in life. So get in the car and drive! Be the driver of your own life.

Day 96 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

Day 96 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

Woke up this morning and a June bug was handing onto the screen door for dear life. She hung on all day until my husband flicked her off. I kind of grew attached to seeing the big bug hang out for the day. I am not a fan of June bugs and thankfully they aren't around long but they make good subject matter for a poem. The birds probably enjoy June bug snacks in the morning since most of them don't survive the night.

Day 95 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 95 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

In the early evening on Memorial day, my daughter and I visited Willow River State Park in Wisconsin and went to see the waterfalls and did a 2-mile hike. While we were walking we saw a lot of beautiful wild Phlox and noticed all the bumblebees. My daughter turned to me and said " this must be the place where bumblebees gather." I did some research and learned there are 255 different varieties of bumblebees and 46 varieties buzz around the United States and they are master pollinators.

Day 94 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 94 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

I met with my poetry book club tonight to discuss Marrow, Muscle, Flight by Gary Boelhower. The author/poet was there as well and from tonight's prompt to write about the frost I wrote this poem about my grandma and her journey of dying from lung cancer. Not a day goes by that I don't think about her and miss her.

Day 93 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 93 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

May 25th is my son's birthday and it's also the one-year anniversary of the day that George Floyd was killed. I've tried writing about this day multiple times. I think this poem captures how I'm feeling today. So much love and hope for my son and so much grief for George and his family.

Day 92 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

Day 92 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

I went for a walk in the meadow and saw my magic tree tonight. It reached its limbs out to me and I stopped to say hello and admire its beauty. It really is a beautiful tree and since I've written about it before in my poems, I feel a strong connection to it. Tonight the sunset was magical so I need to write about it and the magnificent tree together. As I write this the June Bugs are committing suicide by slamming into my windowpanes, drawn in by the light.

Day 91 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 91 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

I teach a political unit in AP Human geography and I have an assignment about walls that different countries have built to separate themselves and keep them safe from others and I was thinking about the internal walls that humans put up to protect themselves from danger real and imagined. I'm trying to break down my walls but they are tall and wide and deep and they have been there a long time. Safety is really a facade and these walls we build internally or walls we build to separate one country from another really do more harm than good. I feel like the walls I hide behind really limit me.

Day 90 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 90 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

OK, I am so enjoying summer. I'm so glad school is over and am happy to be enjoying lazy days and adventures. All the things in this poem remind me of summer and they remind me of my youth and college days living in Frogtown with my grandma. I loved going camping with my parents to my grandparents lake lot in the summer. June bugs scare the crap out of me and I still hear them hit my window panes.

What reminds you of summer?

Day 89 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 89 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

I've visited the Roman and Greek ruins and initially that was what I was going to write about but something else came out instead. I thought about all the people who have come before me and paved the way so that I could live the life I am living. We stand on the shoulders of many who lift us up.
It's never too late to rebuild your life or begin again.

Only 11 days left!!

Follow me on buymeacoffee.com/laurakozylanik

Day 88 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 88 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

Today I was listening to a podcast called Live Awake by Sarah Blondin and she said we need to learn how to feed ourselves love and it really stuck with me and I had to write it down and create a poem around it. I love Sarah Blondin and her mediations. She has helped me to grow, accept and love myself. I'm still a work in progress. Every day we have to make time to love ourselves by doing things we love and taking time to practice self-care.

Day 87 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 87 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

I was thinking today about all the things we carry and this poem just barely scratches the surface. We carry so much from our ancestors and their DNA, through historical trauma, Then we pick up the opinions, judgment, and voices of others and carry that too. We carry our children, our parents, illnesses, and deaths. Everyone we meet is carrying something that is heavy. We should help each other more to lighten the load.

Day 86 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 86 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

I actually wrote this poem yesterday but did not have time to type it up and sent it out. This is an ekphrastic poem that I wrote about a Mary Cassett painting titled Child in a Straw Hat. I included the painting for your reference.

I don't feel like I'm that good at writing in the ekphrastic style but the important thing is that I tried. So important to try and try again, until you get it right.

Shout out to poet Donna Isaac whose prompt inspired this poem.

Day 85 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 85 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

Another version of My Body. I tried to play with some symbolism in this one.
I've been thinking a lot about solace and sanctuary and of course my garden that is beginning to bloom.

Day 84 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 84 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

I'm listening to the audiobook- The Body Keeps the Score. Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk. It's really good and I'm learning a lot about myself from the book. He said something today and I wrote it down and some of it is included in the poem. He said that people who have been abused as children are trapped and have to reconstruct their inner maps if they want to change how they see the world. My Body also makes an appearance- but it's a little different than all the other poems about my body.

Healing is hard work and I'm exhausted just thinking about the reconstruction of my inner map.

Day 83 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 83 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

I went for a walk on Sunday and literally saw a stone on the path, it called my name and I picked it up. It felt comforting in my hand and gave me a measure of safety. Sometimes I feel that stones are old souls. I've always been a person who stops and looks at rocks and then takes them home where they live in my garden or in a glass vase on my dresser.

Are you a collector of stones?

Day 82 of The 100 Day Poetry Challenge

 Day 82 of The 100 Day Poetry Challenge

I really wanted to write a poem about the amazing work women's bodies do when pregnant and growing the next generation. II also wanted to honor the work educators do to foster the growth of children. It takes a village - right? We educate with our bodies as well as our minds. I hope I was able to capture in this poem the amazing work our bodies do.

This is my 5th "My Body" poem in this 100-day project.

Day 81 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 81 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

I wrote this poem on Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day to anyone who mothers or cares for children. You are so important and I value you. I spent the day with my mom and sister and then went for a hike by myself in the woods and then my son, Max took me out to dinner. It was nice-We went to a tequila bar downtown. So yummy.

I wrote today's poem about my grandma, Gertrude. She loved to play bingo and win money. We always played Bingo on holidays like today. It was so much fun.

I remember riding circles around the pool table while my dad, grandpa, and uncles. So funny to think of us roaring around the small space and the men actually trying to play pool. Honestly, they were probably just hiding so they didn't have to help do the dishes.

Hope all of you are lucky enough to have a great bingo queen in your life.

Day 80 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 80 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

I love trees and their vast network of communication. I could just spend all my time in the woods if I could. The forest is a healing, calming space for me.

Tonight I'm tired, not sure if this poem works. It's been a long week and will be a hard weekend. Tonight I hope I dream of being held by my magic tree.

Day 79 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 79 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

Do you ever have nightmares? If you are a trauma survivor, sleeping is hard. It's hard to fall asleep, stay asleep and the night includes nightmares. I had a nightmare every night for probably 40 years. I don't have them every night anymore but I had one last night and it's unsettling. They are hard to process and sometimes I don't want to fall back asleep for the fear of going right back into the nightmare again. I'm perpetually tired because of it.

I wish everyone sweet dreams instead of nightmares.

Day 78 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 78 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

I tried to write a poem about the sunrise today and it just didn't work for me so I wrote a poem about writing a poem and added a little insight into my writing process.

Day 77 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

 Day 77 of The 100 Day Poetry Project

Today I was looking through old pictures to put in my art journal and originally I was going to write about this picture I found of my grandma and her mom and I started that poem today. I also found this photo of me that I didn't recognize and have no recollection or memory of the checkered dress or the day the photo was taken. So I started writing about her and I just looked at her and thought of everything she went through. I didn't get through this poem without tears.