1. Poetry: The Temple Builders by Gretchen Schmelzer, There’s No Stage Here and The House of Your Heart from Julie Barton, When We’re All the Way Out of the Way and How I’ve Started to Pray and Revolution from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Spring by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Spring springs and Hopkins’ lines spring too from Pádraig Ó Tuama, and Celebrate National Poetry Month with Orion, “A curated list of 12 poems, from our shelves to you.”

2. Protests Won’t Save America, “How the #HandsOff event can catalyze or anesthetize us” on The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz. In related news, Why the protests mattered, “and what we need to remember as we move forward” on The White Pages, and Nationwide ‘Hands Off!’ protests erupt against Trump and Musk, and In photos: “Hands Off!” protesters rally against Trump across the U.S., and Angry protesters from New York to Alaska assail Trump and Musk in ‘Hands Off!’ rallies.

3. It’s Right to Read Day, part of National Library Week. In related news, Holocaust book, Maya Angelou’s autobiography among nearly 400 items pulled from Naval Academy library in DEI purge. 

4. Apocalypse Now. “In the wake of LA’s wildfires, American Artist asks Octavia E. Butler what we could’ve done differently.”

5. Even if the World Is Burning: A Manifesto for Storytellers, “when everything is falling apart, we write” from Esmé Weijun Wang.

6. Love in the Time of Hate, “Can you be spiritual and still hate someone?” from Susan Piver.

7. Good stuff from The Gurdeep Magazine: Our Phones Weave Their Influence into the Very Fabric of Our Existence (“Our awareness and mental energy are precious resources that deserve to be invested in meaningful activities like deep focus, nature, and real human connections”), and The Medicine of Joy: A Story of Finding Peace in Life’s Crucial Chapter (“For those who are wounded and hurting, joy can serve as a healing balm. For those who have lost faith, joy can rekindle their belief in possibilities”).

8. Good stuff on The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz: Don’t Let These Days Kill You (“You dying inside or leaving this life is how the bastards win”), and We The People Are Not Afraid of You, Donald (“An April 5th Declaration of Decent Americans”), and The Conservative War on Everything.

9. Reflections of Life on YouTube. “We use our passion for filmmaking and our love of storytelling, to remind our audience of one simple truth – that we are all human – inside our hearts and minds, we all face similar challenges. We have so much to learn from each other, and our connections run so much deeper and stronger than we think. The more that we understand and believe in this interconnectedness, the more we will treat ourselves, one another, and planet earth with a greater sense of compassion.”

10. Can I Enjoy This? “Try out this four word question for yourself” from Satya Robyn on Going Gently.

11. the weight of narcissism. “On Surviving Decades of NPD and How I Learned Its Language” from Elissa Altman.

12. Armor and Ash: Magazine Dreams, “Notes on the People the World Refuses to Hold” from Frederick Joseph.

13. An Open Letter to Pastor Andrew, “Re: the Super Nintendo Game Genie He Borrowed and Did Not Return to Me the Year We Graduated High School” on Short Reads.

14. Good stuff from Seth Godin: Credulous and Four-word Advice.

15. Wisdom from John Higgs: “When you become extremely rich, you become isolated. You will be surrounded by people, but they will not be equals or peers who will talk frankly and honestly with you. They will only be there because of the money and if the money vanishes, so will they. You will be, essentially, alone with your staff and the constant buzz of people attempting to get something from you. You will trust no-one, feel no loyalty, and avoid facing what you have lost. On paper billionaires are rich, but in practice they are some of the poorest people alive.”

16. Rewind and be kind: what happens if you do one act of kindness every day? “When Bernadette Russell decided to perform one good deed every day for a year, it made a difference to the world around her but also had a big impact on her own life.”

17. Stories can be Seeds, Stories can be Weapons, “Protecting our Radical Imagination as we Birth a World of Multi-species Flourishing” by Rowen White.

18. Uncertainty carries its own weight, “Exploring what makes the cut, and what doesn’t” from Patti Digh.

19. Fighting Back: A Citizen’s Guide to Resistance, “Ordinary people have more power than they know.”

20. How To Wander (And Why You Should).

21. 10 Small Things Neurologists Wish You’d Do for Your Brain on The New York Times. (gift link) “Easy everyday habits can help keep you sharp. And it’s never too late to start them.”

22. The healing power of crafting: how creativity supports mental health and connection.

23. 10 Best Botanical Gardens (2025).

24. Why I’m Replacing Doomscrolling With Poetry. “Friends tell me they are seeking out poetry in uncertainty, just as many of us have long done to celebrate marriages and to mourn our loved ones. Now we are doing so to parse and bear a startling moment in history.”

25. Looking to take a break from your phone? Here’s how to reduce screen time.

26. Photographer Nigel Danson Embraces the Beauty of Local Landscapes and You Should Too.

27. And finally, this random collection of things I saved to my phone this week.