Hey there, dearest invisible friends. Welcome to my virtual briar patch full of bunnies, blackberries, and becoming. Long sleeves highly advised – the brambles can be sharp. 🫐
After reading this week’s poem, if you’re so inclined, feel free to scroll down and check out some of the things happening in my world as I continue these adventures in writing.
Now, for some new poetry…
I have never fully trusted beautiful things.
That sounds bleak, I know. Please hold your applause for my radiant optimism. But beauty has a habit of walking into the room under good lighting and wearing expensive perfume, while pain sneaks in behind her carrying the actual luggage.
We know this, don’t we?
The prettiest rose still has thorns. The sweetest blackberry grows from a bramble. The most golden stretch of summer is already leaning, however slightly, toward Fall. Even cicadas, all noise and hunger and little operatic bodies, sing their brief hearts out for extinction by consummation.
Maybe that is why beauty moves us so deeply.
Not because it erases pain, but because it knows how to stand beside it without flinching. Sometimes beauty is not the opposite of suffering. Sometimes beauty is the mask suffering wears so it can survive another season.
I think we do this too.
We tidy the yard. We smile for the photo. We make dinner. We write poems. We plant flowers over the difficult soil and call it healing, which it may be, partly. But the roots know. The briar knows. The body keeps its own weather report.
Still, I don’t think that makes beauty false. If anything, it makes beauty braver. The rose opens anyway. The rabbits shelter anyway. The rain falls on whatever is waiting to become.
Relatable? What pain have you masked with beauty in your own life?
As always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts, feelings, and reactions to this week’s poem in the “Leave a Reply” comment section at the very bottom of this page.
-PS Conway 🫐 🫐 🫐
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the urgency of becoming
we left the backyard half-wild
when we built that house,
a home where rabbits could shelter at dusk.
brambles tangled with blackberries,
twisted midst oak and ash
midst August’s nettled perfumes,
midst twilight’s insistent pleas,
cicadas pining for their lovers
then expiring in passion’s briefest ease.
a summer rain shall nourish all,
let it scatter and seed the eager briar.
Fall always seems so far away
when the world is lush with green,
when the thorns prick deepest on the pinkest rose,
its petals damp with the urgency of becoming.
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This Week’s Links to My Published Work…
- Purchase Echoes Lost in Stars
- on Amazon USA: https://a.co/d/eZPzwxX
- on Amazon Canada: https://a.co/d/ebjqinU
- on Amazon UK: https://amzn.eu/d/avWTF19
- on Amazon DE: https://amzn.eu/d/8IDYSIv
- Purchase Life Sucks
- on Amazon USA: https://a.co/d/arnze2N
- on Amazon Canada: https://a.co/d/8sBYofv
- on Amazon UK: https://amzn.eu/d/brzfJ4l
- on Amazon DE: https://amzn.eu/d/95Y4WAA
- My author website: https://psconway.com/
- My Interview with AllAuthor: https://allauthor.com/interview/psconway/
Media News…
*NEW* My interview with Steve Cuden for his brilliant podcast StoryBeat – what a great conversation! https://www.storybeat.net/p-s-pat-conway-poet-episode-395/
*NEW* My interview with Editor-in-Chief, Gabriela Marie Milton of Literary Revelations Publishing House: https://literaryrevelations.com/2026/01/25/the-portrait-of-a-poet-ps-conway/
*NEW* My interview with author Tricia Copeland on her podcast Finding the Magic Book is now available to watch: https://youtu.be/NhieYECI-H4
Latest Publication News
It has been a productive last few months for me. 12 POEMS published. If you are interested in a reading any of these, I have embedded the Amazon links below.
- My 5 untitled haiku have been published in the haiku anthology, Haiku for Soulmates, published by the brilliant and award-winning Gabriela Marie Milton and Literary Revelations Publishing House. This is a gorgeous book – click on the title for the Amazon link.
* - My poem mercy were published in The Ekphrastic Review on May 12. They are a literary “online journal devoted entirely to writing inspired by visual art. Their objective is to promote ekphrastic writing, promote art appreciation, and experience how the two strengthen each other and bring enrichment to every facet of life.”
* - My 3 poems – the wet centre is bottomless, laugh tracks, and three flights away – were published in Mouthful of Salt in Issue #3 on April 27. They are “a Black-led literary journal dedicated to bold, boundary-pushing storytelling. Our editorial vision is shaped by a wide range of lived experiences, and we are committed to creating a space where writers from across the globe can be seen, heard, and celebrated.”
* - My poem the color of staying was published in the Spring’26 edition of PHIL LIT Journal on March 15. This literary journal “promotes writing that engages with philosophical, metaphysical, ethical, & existential themes; without sacrificing beauty, craft, surprise, or risk.” Please be sure to check it out.
* - I have 2 poems – paint and i have seen love do the same – published in The Belfast Review, Winter/Spring 2026. Based in the north of Ireland, this gorgeous emerging literary magazine, in addition to poetry, “aims to create a dialogue between the arts, featuring genres not usually included in literary journals such as song lyrics, plays, screenplays, and hybrid forms, to better reflect the lived experience of art, the self, and the city.”
Latest News – Life Sucks…
So far, Life Sucks has received many ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Editorial Reviews. More to come soon.
I’m anticipating a whole bunch of solid Reader Reviews to begin populating Amazon in the next few weeks, too. The goal is to get to 50 Reader Reviews ASAP to kick Amazon’s promotion engine into a higher gear.
Speaking of Editorial Reviews, we secured a BIG ONE – BookLife. This is the indie press division of Publishers Weekly and represents a major credibility lift to my published work. Here is a link, in case you’re interested in reading the entire review:
And here are a few other snippets of other editorial reactions so far!
– “Snort-laughs and gasp-worthy wit – PS Conway goes there, and it’s hilarious.”
– “A must-read for anyone stressed, cynical, or just in need of a damn good laugh.”
– “Darkly funny, brutally honest, and weirdly comforting – like therapy, but with colonoscopies.”
🫐 COME BACK EACH WEEK FOR NEW POETRY 🫐
I love the raw grit hidden in this piece. Leaving the yard wild shows a respect for nature’s chaos, and those dying cicadas really nail how fast time slips away. It reminds us that blooming is a fierce, urgent business—thorns and all. Another excellent piece, dear friend!
Thank you so much, PS! Yeah, I think, like I talked about in the blog, sometimes there is pain that beauty has grown from. And that, with almost certainty, it’s so hard to truly know true beauty without experiencing pain first. So glad you liked it, my friend!! 🖤🥂🐇🫐🥂🖤