Phebe Kirkham

Our March Issue is live! pitheadchapel.com/2026/03/01/vol… cover art by KYLE MERCER   fiction by CHARLIE KIEFT @CharlieKieft PHEBE KIRKHAM @7thPhebe KATHRYN REESE DOUGLAS BAKER   nonfiction by AMY TURN SHARP AUSIÀS TSEL   prose poetry by SEAN CHO A. LILY CROWDER MATT POINDEXTER

Richard Mayhew, a painter of Black and Native American heritage, was known for his explosively colorful abstract landscapes inspired in part by his forebears’ relationship to the land. He has died at 100. nyti.ms/481Jl6Y

"Pronunciation" by Phebe Kirkham: "Even as his dementia deepened, my father could still correct my pronunciation on complex and obscure vocabulary. Simpler words, however, sometimes hopped out of his reach.” Image: Julian Hanslmaier, CC 2.0.

Couldn’t quite believe my eyes just now in Bryant Park, but a woodcock is unmistakable and he was doing his bounce strut. Seems very early for one to have arrived.

Got to see a woodcock today in Bryant Park without even intending too. They are almost almost shockingly visible, but quite busy, like any other NYC visitor. Such a welcome surprise.

@OKeeffeFeminism @Plathbiography One real revelation of that biography for me was that Plath herself had such a strong visual sense—painting, sketching, collaging, etc., and often taking inspiration from paintings.

Among the notable details in @plathbiography RED COMET: At Smith College in 1951, Plath and her roommate "decorated their . . . room with . . . a large Georgia O'Keeffe print . . . [believing] the print would tie the room together, with its cool shades of green, blue, and white."

One pot of burnt #ValentinesDay fudge later, I can attest to two things: 1)you really should test the calibration on your old candy thermometer; 2) with family, at least, it really is the thought that counts (provided you don’t insist they actually taste the fudge).

I have a story out this week from Poydras Review: poydrasreview.com/blog/2021/2/8/…

I’ve been reading Amanda Hickie’s novel Before This is Over, which is set in Sydney during a viral epidemic. And it’s so close to the current reality that I couldn’t stand the suspense and had to skip ahead to the ending.

@nathan_austin Excellent idea!

My growing collection of warning post-it notes for the bedroom door:

Struck out on the owl, but I got glared at by a phoebe.

Wondering today if the assumptions and hierarchies within a given family are actually revealed in the resolution of smaller dilemmas such as who gets to take the only intact umbrella on a rainy morning. But maybe it’s just because I’m grumpy when I’m damp.

@DeShawn_Charles You should!

Heard a common yellowthroat singing its distinctive “witchity-witchity-witchity” this AM near @YorkCollegeCUNY Seems early this year.

Seen on a walk (#2): large dog racing fleetly down the sidewalk, dragging an upturned metal bench behind him as easily as if it were a sled. Two men ran after him, but it took a third, coming from the other direction, to intercept him by catching hold of a leg of the bench.

Something seen on a walk (#1): Fierce orange sparks snapping out into the air as two workers weld a stanchion into place on a bridge railing.

@s_inayatulla @xUnionMaidx Every time I encounter the haughty disdain of an NYC bodega cat, I feel as if I’ve stepped into an inverted fairy tale.

Glass was there and came out to join the curtain call.

Was nervous about seeing Philip Glass’s Akhenaten. Have listened to the music before, but only as background, so I worried I might, well, doze off. But the staging at the Met was mesmerizing. Juggling! And ethereal singing, especially by Anthony Roth Constanzo and J’Nai Bridges.