Double

poem + two years of Long Oddities

Iris Shaw, June 2025

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My ghost sits in the garden chair and reads,

the light aslant its shoulder

all afternoon

and each of us is there and here within

unmindful, watchful, hearing

some forgotten tune

in the wind

passing roughly through its hair;

the creak of bones

under slow sunburnt hands –

Soon

and perhaps never

my ghost will turn its head;

I go to bed

wondering if its eyes are like my own –

Whether it spoke

and I was deaf to what it said.

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Hello all,

Just writing this to let you know that as it is now July, I’ll be going on semi-hiatus for the next couple of months. Like last year, regular posts will come out biweekly, though the Journal will continue to post weekly. The usual schedule will resume in September.

Also, today marks two years of Long Oddities! In 2023 I had a backlog of poems and no real idea of what to do with them, so I started this newsletter on a whim. Possibly the best whim I’ve had for a long time.

So thanks to everyone who’s read, lurked, subscribed, and commented over the past two years— you’ve both encouraged and challenged me, and I appreciate you being here more than I can say!

Here’s to another year — and another — and another —

Iris Shaw