Hello 2026, please be kind.
Year-End Poetry Review + Photo Journaling prompts {Letter Three, Secrets & Stars}
In my burrow
I feel like I’ve traveled through the long, demanding tunnel at the end of December and emerged into the cozy, underground burrow of January. My body is sore. My mind is tired. But I’ve reached a kind of metaphorical save point, a place where I can finally pause, breathe, and take a look around.
January doesn’t feel like a time for bright beginnings (that belongs to spring), but it is a good time to take stock of things exactly as they are. A good time to pause and reflect on what has unfolded since last January, without rushing to interpret it or turn it into a story with a moral.
For me, this often looks like scrolling back through the photos on my phone, reminding myself of the year I actually lived (my memory is not great). I like to take notes as I scroll, jotting down major trips, accomplishments, struggles, times when the year felt out of control or chaotic, times when it felt good and full of ease and connection and joy.
For instance, in 2025, I spent Jan-April in a stake of shock and grief over the beginning of the Trump presidency. I was in freeze mode, barely able to do the most basic of tasks. By the summer, I was doing better, but I overbooked myself with travel and events and felt worn down to the bones by September. Fall felt good; I released Quietly Wild, I led an in-person retreat, I did a lot of walking and connecting to nature. Overall, it was a challenging but rewarding year for me.
I also started getting monthly prints made from Mootsh, so that I could begin to do some photo-journalling and photo-collaging, but I haven’t actually gotten around to doing it until this week, which feels just about right, honestly.
The truth is, I don’t really know what I’m doing yet when it comes to photo journaling. I find the prints a bit precious to glue down, I struggle to know how to make it visually interesting. I feel clumsy and out of my depth, but I also love this feeling of beginner’s mind, knowing there’s really no wrong way to do the thing, except to refuse to do the thing.
So, let’s play and experiment together this week, eh?
This Week’s Creative Practice
Photo Journaling & Collage
Let’s begin with fragmentary work; letting images gather and collect before meaning does.
Begin with witness - Take photos as you move through your days, both inside or outside.
Notice what your days look and feel like, what repeats? ( for me that might be: coffee, cats, the lined page, the lit candle, a muddy set of footprints at the door, coats all over the floor, my breath made visible as I leave the house, the red berries barely clinging to the holly bush, my neighbor’s giant metal rooster (just me?), the dogs I see everyday on my walks, the houses that feel warm, the ones that feel cold.)
Collect images, print them if you can, even in black and white on your home printer (do people still have home printers?)
Pair each image with a fragment of language:
A line you love.
A sentence you wrote months ago.
A phrase that comes to you when you look at it.
Let image and language sit together without explanation. You’re not trying to interpret the work, you’re letting it surprise you for now.
Leave things unresolved - January knows how to hold that.
A gift for the end of a beautiful year in community
At the end of this letter, you’ll find the Earth & Verse 2025 Year-End Poetry Review, a collection of poems written by members of this community over the past year. Many of these poems emerged during our community workshops!
I hope you’ll read it slowly, letting lines surface the way images do.
Our Next Workshop for paid subscribers is on Jan 10th!
As we move deeper into winter, I’ll be continuing to explore this quieter, more tactile creative territory with you. And if you’re feeling drawn to write more this year, I’d love to invite you to join us for our next live workshop: Something Resembling Love!
I’m grateful to be creating alongside you,
Alix
Download the Magazine for Free!
Thank you so much to all the contributors!
Courtney Lewis, Elyza-Breath Blooming (E.B.B.), Nicole Dalcourt, Rebecca Cook, Sarah Thompson, Abbie Shanahan, jesica m, NJ Simat 🤍, Amy Clark, Jody Crowley, Raquel Dionísio Abrantes, Leslie Ann Young, Johanna DeBiase, Bob Johnson, Christopher James, Katie Spring, esso (aka shawnessy), Blake Bell
"But I’ve reached a kind of metaphorical save point, a place where I can finally pause, breathe, and take a look around." I feel this, or rather, I feel the essence of this, it's laid thinly over my need to keep progressing. I get swells of ideas, and I am learning to just pick one or two, and pace myself. Your energy is helpful in that regard-thankful for your presence here.
Ps. Part of my 2026 goals is to take more photos, simpatico!
This is a prayer for the new year. May it be a good one.
Thank you for sharing the verses from everyone. It was so wonderful to read them again, especially those whose voices I could hear in my head.