A Rebellion of Care starts right now

"A poet must stir souls, not nurture idolaters"

When people think about rebellion, they don’t think about poetry. They think about clenched fists, protest signs, a chanting crowd of people. They think about chaos, fire, and noise. But poetry? Most people think poetry is a dusty book, a required course, or maybe a Hallmark card limerick—something vague and sentimental, tucked politely inside the lines of pleasantry and form.

In a society humming along on productivity, efficiency, and results—the Google Calendar, the three-minute reply, the dopamine hit of instant feedback—poetry stands as an unapologetically odd friend who insists on taking her time. Poetry is inherently useless in the sense that it doesn’t “do” anything in the ways we usually measure, yet it exists defiantly in an economy driven by attention. This fact alone makes it subversive. A poem is an act of rebellion not because it throws bricks or gets into police fights but because it dares to take up space in our minds without asking for ROI. It is the opposite of a quantifiable goal, of task completion, of anything that could be “checked off” a list.

One of the defining features of poetry, is that keeps on doing what language isn’t “supposed” to do. Most of the language in our culture is entirely transactional - adverts, sound bites and status updates. Poetry is always the uncooperative child.

There are a thousand other Substacks offering you political analysis and hot-takes. Some of them are helpful. A few of them are brilliant. But I am going to concentrate on the creative work I feel most deeply in my bones: A Rebellion of Care.

Here are four pieces (three brand new, one refinished) to hopefully offer you something you are not finding in many other places. If you are reading this… I want you to flourish…