1. Poetry: Anniversary by Edward Salem and Sonnet Overheard at Phone Booth by Elane Kim and Smalltown Lift by Brian Blanchfield and The plum you’re going to eat next summer by Gayle Brandeis and Community by Emily Bright on The Slowdown with Maggie Smith, Messages Back Home by Ananya Venkateswaran and Monarchs by Caryn Lazzuri and What Work Is by Matthew Buckley Smith and Milk by Frank Dullaghan on Rattle, Sparrow Child by Julie Barton (because this, those first two lines: “I’ve worn sorrow like wet feathers, unable to find lift”), Dear Peace by James Crews, Origin Story by Esther Lin shared by Patti Digh, They Say the Heart Wants by Danusha Laméris on Heart Poems, and that place in myself by Maya Stein (do yourself a favor and click on the link included to hear Maya read it).

2. Good stuff from Patti Digh: I am carrying my red metal lantern again (“After a long darkness, a small and steady light illuminates my way”) and “Oh my god. Dude.” (“Four words that said everything”).

3. The Simplest of Gestures, “On making friends with your work” by Jami Attenberg on Craft Talk.

4. Calm in the storm on The Imperfectionist. “Keeping your centre of gravity immediate and local means treating the world of national and international events as a place that you visit – to campaign or persuade, donate or volunteer, to do whatever you feel is demanded of you – and that you then return from, in order to gain perspective, and to spend time doing some of the other things a meaningful life is about.”

5. Good stuff from Elissa Altman on Poor Man’s Feast: The Most Dangerous Man on Earth is a Malignant NPD Who Is Out of Options (“On the Normalization of Evil”) and we are not in pieces (“The good things that are holding me together”).

6. Harrison Hill Tells Us About Nothing Ever Being the Same Again, “another installment of my occasional Tells Us series, in which I ask an author to tell us about five things” from Cheryl Strayed.

7. 16 Lessons From 16 Years of Self-Employment from Alexandra Franzen.

8. Dusking: The Dutch twilight ritual helping people slow down.

9. Why Pain Is Different From Suffering. “We’re basically trying to avoid pain and discomfort because we think that by doing so, we will be able to avoid suffering. What this showed is that there’s actually a hidden variable that most of us are completely unaware of. Suffering does not equal pain. Suffering equals pain times resistance. So if you can dial resistance down to zero, you are not doing away with the pain, but you are completely eliminating the suffering.”

10. The Stolen Minutes by Danny Gregory. “Finding time in a busy life.”

11. A rock in your shoe, “A small thing you kept walking with” from Jasmine on The Tiny Joy Project.

12. The Cliff’s Notes, “Stringing together the days” by Jena Schwartz.

13. Naming our Sacred Gifts, “I know you’re tired but come, this is the way” from Alix on Earth & Verse. 

14. Not to Complain, But…“Actually, yes—to complain. In great detail” on “The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad.”

15. “something larger than money, larger than death” my 6 favorite quotes from Britchida.

16. Artemis II Lunar Flyby Image Gallery. “The first flyby images of the Moon captured by NASA’s Artemis II astronauts during their historic test flight reveal regions of the Moon’s far side, as well as an in-space solar eclipse. Released April 7, 2026, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen captured the images during the mission’s seven-hour flyby on April 6, 2026, showing humanity’s return to the Moon’s vicinity.”

17. If Only I Sent This, “A modern archive for unsent memories, anonymous confessions, and heartfelt messages you were never ready to send.”

18. Americans still opt for print books over digital or audio versions; few are in book clubs, and other interesting results from Pew Research Center.

19. Over 70 Powerful Winners From the 2026 World Press Photo Contest.

20. ‘I got everything I dreamed of – when I had no ability to handle it’: Lena Dunham on toxic fame, broken friendships and her ‘lost decade’ on The Guardian. “Stardom came fast and hard for the wunderkind who created the hit HBO series Girls aged just 23. Now she’s written a tell-all memoir about why she was forced to retreat from the spotlight.”

21. Josh Thomas on his nemesis, men’s shorts and fighting Harry Styles: 10 Chaotic Questions on The Guardian. (video) “Who is Josh Thomas’s preferred celebrity body swap? What’s the weirdest thing he has done for love? Michael Sun sits down with the comedian to talk the ideal length of men’s shorts, fighting famous people and his most controversial pop culture opinion.”

22. How to change your life when you are in a rut, wisdom from Ted on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. (Facebook reel)

23. Hillary Waters Fayle Creates ‘Portraits of Place’ from Seeds, Foliage, and Petals.

1. Poetry: Destiny by Carolyn Chilton Casas and Submission by Homa Mojadidi on The Dewdrop, Sourdough and Seasons Care Nothing for War and A Girlhood by Julie Barton, The Reflection and Head Down by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Stones in My Pockets by Elizabeth Becker shared by Laura Lentz on Writing at Red Lights, Whenever You Think There Is Nothing by Hannah Fries shared by Maria Popova on The Marginalian, Spring by Gerard Manley Hopkins shared on Poetry Unbound by Pádraig Ó Tuama, How To Be Alone by Pádraig Ó Tuama shared on Heart Poems, Things to Do About Autocrats by Suzanne Edison (this whole Letter to America series is pretty great), Peonies by Danusha Laméris and The Little Boy by Lola Koundakjian on poets.org, A Working Class Villanelle by Rachel Custer and Decomposition by Christiana Doucette and What Growing Up Poor Taught Me by Daniel Donaghy on Rattle, The Opening by James Crews and a bonus post from James that includes the poems Notes by Moudi Sbeity and Tablet by James Crews, The Problem with Early Warnings by Charles Rafferty on The Slowdown with Maggie Smith, and The rings inside you: What time leaves behind by Jasmine on The Tiny Joy Project. 

2. Suleika Jaouad’s Love Letter to a Two-Hundred-Year-Old Farmhouse. “In an 1830s Delaware River Valley home, the writer and her husband, musician Jon Batiste, planted bulbs and blessings for the future.” In related news, The Best of the Isolation Journals, “Celebrating six years with a selection of our greatest hits” on The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad.

3. Plumbed by Seth Godin.

4. How Tender These Spring Days by Anne Marie Vivienne on The Wonder + The Haunting. “I shall be richer all my life for this sorrow.”

5. Nine Creative Blocks (and How to Move Through Them) on Earth & Verse. “The enneagram on creativity, patterns, and growth.”

6. I miss the pandemic by Danny Gregory. “We are so smart. We write everything down. We publish books, make films, hold memorials, build museums. We talk about never forgetting. And then, more or less on schedule, we forget — because remembering would require admitting that we are not exceptional. That we are just the latest version of the same animal, making the same mistakes, feeling the same dread, and somehow, improbably, carrying on. And yet — no matter how dark things get, no matter how many times we have to be dragged back to the same hard lessons — we can still see the mountain. We can still hear the birds. We can still draw the beauty of ordinary things. We can still float in a pool at night and look up and feel, for a moment, that it’s all somehow worth it. That’s not nothing. For a species as hopeless as ours, that might even be everything.”

7. All the Reasons by Laurie Wagner, inspired by the poem “Make No Apologies for Yourself” by Glenis Redmond. 

8. 8 Things to Let Go of When You’re Craving a Simpler Life by Courtney Carver on Be More With Less.

9. 9 Things I’ve Learnt About Going Gently by Satya Robyn. “An updated list of the very best advice I have for you.”

10. Living Wonderfully Does Not Mean Living Perfectly, “Wisdom from my wife” by Jena Schwartz.

11. The Stubborn Optimist’s Guide to Global Joy, “what the happiest places in the world can teach us about everyday living” by Brad Montague on The Enthusiast.

12. dressing who I am, going where I want, “Knowing Myself After a Lifetime of Enmeshment” by Elissa Altman.

13. Truck Full of Flowers, “Just working and thinking” by Jami Attenberg on Craft Talk. Also from Jamie, Pep Talk for Consuming The News, “(And still being able to write afterward).”

14. You’re Not Lazy. You’re Overwhelmed. “How we paralyze ourselves with thought” by Meg Josephson.

15. Extending Women’s History Month by Frederick Joseph. Whenever Frederick Joseph has a project and needs help with funding, I give, because I absolutely trust that he does the most good he can do directly when and where he is.

16. Who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance and why has it changed?

17. What SpongeBob Understands About Life (That You Don’t). (video) “SpongeBob seems an absurd character, a fool who makes us laugh. But could it be that, behind the ridiculousness, lies a hidden philosophy to living well?”

18. What Are the Routines of So-Called Super-Readers? “Kelsey Rexroat Investigates the Mindsets of People Who Read Hundreds of Books a Year.”

19. The 7 Types Of Rest You Need To Feel Your Best.

20. 6 Reasons We Ignore Our Needs and How to Stop by Lori Deschene on Tiny Buddha.

21. Seven ways to take back control of your digital life by Angela Garwood. “Addiction is a feature of social media platforms, not a bug, a US court has ruled in a globally significant case. Here’s how to take back control from the algorithm.”

22. 5 Years of Lessons From Running My Own Bookstore.

23. Lucy Sante on Collage: ‘You Have to Kill One Thing to Make Another’ on The New York Times. (gift link) “The visual historian and celebrated author of ‘Low Life’ has two shows of recent artwork made from decades of gathering materials, a trove she slices and glues.”

24. She Worked As A Janitor At Yale Hospital For 10 Years. Now She’s Returning As A Doctor.

25. How To Paint Protest Signs.

26. ‘As soon as I left the first session I felt taller’: is reformer pilates as amazing – or awful – as they say? on The Guardian. “One of the fastest-growing fitness trends is also one of the most divisive. To its fans, it promises a stronger, healthier body; to its critics, it’s another way to make women feel insecure. Time to sort fact from fiction.”

27. Less stuff, more joy: seven lessons from ‘enoughfluencers’ on how to live a happier, simpler life on The Guardian. “Meet the influencers encouraging us to stop buying new.”

28. Marriage over, €100,000 down the drain: the AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion on The Guardian. “One minute, Dennis Biesma was playing with a chatbot; the next, he was convinced his sentient friend would make him a fortune. He’s just one of many people who lost control after an AI encounter.”

29. David Morrison’s Alluring Drawings Spring from the Blank Page.

30. Infinite Versions of Success from Alexandra Franzen.

31. A Nature Almanac April 2026 / Rewild Your Garden & The Pink Moon on Looking for the Magic.

32. Texting a Random Stranger Better for Loneliness Than Talking to a Chatbot, Study Shows.

33. Change Doesn’t Happen the Way You Think on The New York Times. (gift link) “[A]fter decades of working to change myself, and nearly six years spent talking with changers and would-be changers — from personality reinventors and esoteric self-actualizers to name-swappers and ideological shape-shifters — I’ve come to believe that the ‘self’ in self-transformation is only half the story. Change is less about willpower than we imagine, more shaped by other people than we admit, and far more mysterious than the self-improvement industry can afford to sit with.”