Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

John James

@ecotopian.bsky.social

4.3K followers 6.8K following 180 posts

Poet, scholar, environmental humanist • Author of The Milk Hours (Milkweed, 2019), Winter, Glossolalia (Black Spring, 2022), and Extinction Song (Tupelo, 2026) • Following the X-odus.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Nov 21

New poem in @hopkinsreview.bsky.social with thanks to @doramalech.bsky.social!! I’ll post it’s brother this afternoon.

8 18 130

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Apr 26

I’ve got two new poems out in Image. Here’s a teaser, but you can read both poems in full on the website — or order the print issue!
imagejournal.org/issue-124

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Apr 14

Thank god one of these universities has finally grown a backbone.

Harvard Will Not Comply With a List of Trump Administration Demands

Federal officials said Harvard must enact “merit-based reform” in hiring and admissions and report international students who broke rules, among other steps. Harvard called the demands unlawful.

www.nytimes.com

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Apr 5

Finally someone stands up to this bs.

1 2

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Mar 31

Do they have special parking spots for rideable luggage?

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Mar 31

So sorry for your loss, but that’s a life well lived!

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Mar 27

Yep.

Reposted by John James

Jorie Graham @joriegraham.bsky.social · Mar 22

'Columbia Has Lost Something It May Never Regain': Outrage as the University Yields to Trump's Demands www.commondreams.org/news/trump-c...

'Columbia Has Lost Something It May Never Regain': Outrage as the University Yields to Trump's Demands | Common Dreams

Columbia University faces backlash for caving to Trump admin demands after the school lost $400 million over alleged inaction to curb antisemitism. Critics decry the move. Is this the end of Columbia ...

www.commondreams.org

8 33 140

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Mar 20

Louise Glück.

2 5

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Mar 19

Um. Have you seen their beaks? Stuff of nightmares.

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Mar 19

I read this as “I lick your assonance,” which I guess is okay too.

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Mar 16

Please, New Yorkers. It’s time for new leadership. 😩

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Mar 16

This is why they hate us. Because we make things. Because we resist their structures of power, and do so with intelligence. Because they know, as Shelley says, "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world."

This one's mine, from Winter, Glossolalia (BSPG, 2022).
#smallpoemsunday.

THRUST // The purple-stippled, / brindled cultivars defeat / the heat, wrest moisture / from topsoil desiccated / by the sun's dialectic / with the earth, ripe plums / further ripened, the fogged light / chalked across their skin / gesturing to the red flesh: / the plant supplants a word, world.

1 13

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Mar 16

“[W]hat we are witnessing is not just an attack on academia or a set of fiscal reforms or a painful political rebalancing. It is an attack on the conditions that allow free thought to exist. We may not yet know its full cost, but we will feel its consequences for decades.”
@meghanor.bsky.social

Opinion | The View Inside Trump’s Assault on Universities (Gift Article)

The Trump administration’s attacks on universities will lead to the permanent diminishment of vital American institutions.

www.nytimes.com

1 6

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Mar 15

“We must learn from the past. We cannot remain silent in the face of authoritarian attacks on our peers, even if they have not yet come for us.”

Jorie Graham @joriegraham.bsky.social · Mar 15

Finally. Thank you @thecrimson & Levitsky & Enos for this importantly, urgently sane set of analyses & above all the recommendation that all the Universities speak in one voice. All the reasons given here are powerful. In addition, what is the mission of the University 1/

Jorie Graham @joriegraham.bsky.social · Mar 15

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Mar 15

I disagree with parts of this article, but one thing it gets right is the absolute cowardice of university administrators in the midst of an all out onslaught unfolding against higher education. Saying nothing will not save anyone.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/o...

Opinion | The Authoritarian Endgame on Higher Education

This is a moment to trumpet the strengths of higher education and address its weaknesses.

www.nytimes.com

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Mar 13

I used to do the same. I’m in a different place now, so don’t need to keep as many subs in circulation, but it was an effective way to get things accepted early on.

1 2

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Mar 12

“If someone legally in the United States can be grabbed from his home for engaging in constitutionally protected political activity, we are in a drastically different country from the one we inhabited before Trump’s inauguration.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/o...

Opinion | This Is the Greatest Threat to Free Speech Since the Red Scare

Mahmoud Khalil’s detention is a frightening sign of an authoritarian slide.

www.nytimes.com

3 15

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Mar 10

The arrest of Mr. Khalil represents a clear instance of retaliation against constitutionally protected free speech. This is an attempt to diminish support for Palestinian people and those suffering in Gaza (not to be confused with support for Hamas).

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/n...

Mahmoud Khalil Is Moved to Immigration Detention in Louisiana

Mahmoud Khalil is a permanent resident of the United States. His arrest sets up a fight over free speech and immigrant rights.

www.nytimes.com

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Mar 8

I feel the exact same way, Meghan. It rings of McCarthyism, and I fear Columbia is just the test case.

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Mar 7

Don’t… tempt me, Frodo!

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Mar 4

As if he has control over most of this.

1 2

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Feb 28

Oh yes. I much prefer “have written” to actual “writing.”

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Feb 27

Terrifying times we’re living in.

1 1

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Feb 26

I hear this is a pretty great contest, with some excellent winners from previous years. Submit!

Tupelo Press @tupelopress.bsky.social · Feb 26

We are accepting manuscript submissions for The Snowbound Chapbook Prize!

Deadline: February 28th

Prize: $1,000, publication by Tupelo Press, 25 copies of the winning title, a book launch, and national distribution with energetic publicity and promotion.

tupelopress.submittable.com/submit

2 1 11

John James @ecotopian.bsky.social · Feb 22

You’d be doing better than the current administration.