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Hi everyone!

Grace here hosting our last OpenLinkNight for 2025 and then we are going on a holiday break.  Thank you for your support and participation for the last year.   This community thrives because of all of you.   We wish you a good holiday break and see you back on January 5, Monday.

For Open Link Night today, this is your opportunity to link ONE poem of your choice, either from our past prompts or a poem you want to share with us.   As a courtesy, please provide a link to dVerse Poets Pub, so others may find us too.

There is no specific form or theme required for OLN but if you are looking for a little inspiration, here is an optional mini prompt:

Source:  Extinction of Useless Lights
by Yves Tanguy (1927)

  1. Use the image above as a muse for your poem. Write an ekphrastic poem.
  2. Or use the title of the image as a title or part of your poem: Extinction of Useless Lights.

And lastly, as we close the year 2025, here is poem reading Beatitude by John Keene (read by Maria Popova).

BEATITUDE
by John Keene

Love everything
Love the sky and sea, trees and rivers,
mountains and abysses.
Love animals, and not just because you are one.
Love your parents and your children,
even if you have none.
Love your spouse or partner,
no matter what either word means to you.
Love until you create a cavern in your loving,
until it seethes like a volcano.
Love everytime.
Love your enemies.
Love the enemies of your enemies.
Love those whose very idea of love is hate.
Love the liars and the fakes.
Love the tattletales and the hypercrits, the hucksters and the traitors.
Love the thieves because everyone has thought
of stealing something at least once.
Love the rich who live only to empty
your purse or wallet.
Love the poverty of your empty coin purse or wallet.
Love your piss and sweat and shit.
Love your and others’ chatter and its proof of the expansiveness
of nothingness.
Love your shadows and their silent censure.
Love your fears, yesterday’s and tomorrow’s.
Love your yesterdays and tomorrows.
Love your beginning and your end.
Love the fact that your end is another beginning,
or could be, for someone else.
Love yourself, but not too much
that you cannot love everything and everyone else.
Love everywhere.
Love in the absence of love.
Love the monsters breeding
in every corner of the city and suburb,
all throughout the soil of the countryside.
Love the monster breeding inside you and slaughter him
with love.
Love the shipwreck of your body, your mind’s
salted garden.
Love love.

If you are new to dVerse, here’s how to join in:

  • Write one poem and post it to your blog.
  • Enter your name and direct link to your poem into Mr. Linky.
  • You will also find some other amazing poems! Please read and comment.
  • Provide a link to dVerse so others can find us too.
  • Drop in to say hello in our discussion below.
  • Have fun!   See you on January 6, 2026!