for you, a little poetry

12.23.25

power

There’s a power outage affecting approximately 116 customers. I am not
among them, having traveled four hundred miles south, but the alert comes
to my phone and I picture the trees whipping against the cables, the roil
of ocean, the dark house. Years ago, on a drive through the middle of Montana,
I soothed my loneliness by imagining the walls of my apartment kitchen
painted a buttery yellow called “Mayapple.” There was a place to return to,
and I would in a matter of months, and this thought was enough to carry me
into North Dakota and beyond. Even as I write this, I feel the brush in my hand
making careful shapes around the cabinetry, the corners by the ceiling. The joy
that blossomed in the room as the old layer disappeared under each stroke
until the room seemed as if it were vibrating like some newborn thing.
Soon, the update comes: Power’s been restored. And I think of a snow-
dusted road up north and the simultaneous brightness of 116 houses
turning back on. And my heart does that thing where it’s like a switch
has been flipped, where I can see, suddenly, that whatever’s ahead is
the opposite of loneliness, the road glowing in the twin lights of the words
“I can,” and there is nothing I’d rather do than press on, than keep going.

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Now available!

Plotholders Calendar

A bold, bright downloadable calendar to help inspire your next year, with select images from my #plotholders series of potholder weavings

$5.00

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Build Your Own Calendar

Create your own potholder-themed calendar! Go to this page to look at the available images (and their corresponding titles, then fill out the form with your choices. I will import your selections, then send you a digital file of your completed calendar.

$10.00

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Writing opportunities in January

Storygathering: A Writing Exploration for the Visually Curious

January 5-12, 2026

Storygathering is an exercise in noticing the world around us for its rich narrative potential. For a single week, we'll be infusing our daily journeys with a layer of new attention, learn to identify the possibilities that lie in our literal path every single day—discarded, lost, or forgotten objects that we will use as platforms and inspirations for our creative writing. This course will focus on short-form work - poetry, flash fiction, brief essays - and our online classroom space will allow us to upload photos to help support our written work, as well as share in the experiences and discoveries of others. Please note this is not a live class—you will receive daily prompts, you can work at your own pace, and the Ruzuku.com classroom space is a place to upload your writing and share in exchanges with others.

$29.00

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Letters to My Former Selves

January 12-18, 2026

“Letters to My Former Selves" is an exercise in letting in and letting go, in saying hello and farewell in the same breath, and most of all, in finding the humor, tenderness and self-compassion in those narratives in which we might have experienced the opposite. As we pen notes to our old incarnations and reconsider the time and context in which we inhabited these selves, we might discover the gifts that live within the shadows of these stories, and the light they cast on our past, our present, and perhaps even our future.

Prompts are delivered for 7 days via email and you are invited to share the results and interact with other participants in a private online group (on Ruzuku.com).

$29.00

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100 Words: The Beauty of Brevity

"100 Words" is a practice of purposeful paring down, a bold writing journey in service to the electrifying (and clarifying) power of brevity. Each day, you’ll receive a single-word prompt, and you can share your words (up to 100) in supportive, inspired camaraderie in our communal classroom space. 100 Words takes place on the Ruzuku platform, which allows for easy interaction. Self-paced; no live sessions.

Dates:
January 19-February 6, 2026

$49.00

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