Liz Ahl

@surlyacres.bsky.social

665 Followers 609 Following

it's a coup https://linktr.ee/lizahl

six examples of advertising texts using similar type, design, and imagery
an open laptop surrounded by poem drafts and notebooks
A photograph of a red-cloaked figure statuette next to an orange traffic cone in front of a dirty snow pile, with a tree and brick building in the background.
Lifespans One swallowtail keeps dragging the dark kite of her shadow back to the lilac bush even though it's mostly burnt out now, all its humid scent stolen by the ever-widening splay of daylight towards solstice. She's got a month at most, to sip whatever she can find and leave a clutch of eggs on the cool underside of a leaf. The yellow tatter of her persistence at the corner of my eye all morning: a flicker that I won't let let me be.
two poetry book covers side by side, Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz and Echidna by essa may ranapiri
four gladiola stems is a vase
a white dish full of tomato cobbler
black and white photo of peter gabriel, the cover of his album SO
July 3, 2025 Lace of last light seeps through tree filigree while live free or die fireworks pop off somewhere past these oaks and maples, mixing with automatic weapon fire maybe from the gun range maybe just neighbors asserting their ownership of the air ordnance either way blunt syllables uninterested in being understood and the startled crickets pause their own old song in the rush of echo and somebody pledges allegiance to this percussion, under god, this reverb, and then, finally: full dark, slow thunder gathers steam, rolls out a promised rainstorm, shushing the other drumming, washing, weeping, cooling the burnt dust and bent peonies, hissing against embers and lead.
a selection of twelve handmade chapbooks
ABOVE AND BEYOND “Please let us know of any faculty and staff you would like to nominate for going above and beyond this semester. . . . We'll make sure that the people you've nominated receive a certificate of appreciation.” –email from the admin The air’s already thin up here – the bright cold zone just past life-supporting, but still a distance to survivable – here, we continue to rise, slowly, into strictly breathable, the oxygen rarer but sufficient to sustain the machines of our bodies if we don’t move them too much – it’s harder now, but sometimes we can remember what we left, are still, are always leaving, down beneath the clouds, though we are encouraged only to look above, beyond– we are, after all, still alive, acclimatizing so well, and mission control is so proud of our achievement, they are issuing proclamations in our names– they encourage us to practice believing that this shallow panting is actually breathing, that the oxygen available is oxygen enough– and we shouldn’t tax our respiration with worry: so many thousands of feet still remain between this zone– with its sufficient shallow sips of oxygen– and the Armstrong limit, where blood begins to boil inside the body, where they would never send us, but just in case, they are hard at work on a special suit, a special set of wings–
photo of Matthew Shepard in a gray sweater
Image of the cover of the book, "Calling for a Blanket Dance" by Oscar Hokeah, along with a brief facebook post praising and recommending it.
broadside of Diane Seuss' poem, “I drove all the way to Cape Disappointment but didn't," with a woodblock or linoleum printed image evoking a sparkling surface of water
the torso of a person wearing a black t-shirt that says "What's more punk than the public library?”
A board game (Beer and Bread) set up with game pieces and cards next to a green plate with three unlit candles — one in the shape of an orange pumpkin, one a green gourd, and the third a pale yellow Day of the Dead skull.
the entrance to an underground spring at the fot of a wooded rocky hillside and a lamp post in the foreground
photo of a red-spotted newt from https://fieldguide.lewisborolandtrust.org/reptiles-amphibians/eastern-red-spotted-newt/
a city sidewalk, and a sign that reads Deli Haus restaurant truly unique
thanks very much for the opportunity to review your decline.
a photographic collage containing an eagle eye, scrap of map, living and dead deer, green leaves, green water, and an autumnal mountain landscape
birds eye view of a dark brown drink on the rocks, two cherries
a completed scrabble board
"The poetics of wrongness wants a poem that will not last forever because it is fresh, alive, unstable, potentially (hopefully) useful at a now moment even if sometimes the poem is on its deathbed. The poetics of wrongness is not afraid of hospice. Everything fresh expires. The poetics of wrongness wants poems with a shelf life, made with living ingredients." (31)
impressionist painting of rocks in colorful water
Cover art: Painting of people, walking away, their backs to us, carrying luggage, wearing backpacks, etc.