On staying put, rooster attacks, and poetry
Issue #014, 07.Sept.2025 Newsletter Archive Edition
Issue #014 07.Sept.2025
Coffee, Chaos and Carrying On
with Mo Jo Jo
I’m starting to make plans for what happens when my 90-day allotted stay as a “tourist” in South Korea ends.
Thinking:
Sometimes it isn’t the arrival or departure that matters—
but how long we stay,
and how we spend our time while here (or there).
— Melissa / Mo Jo Jo
God, I Love Coffee!
Title: At the End of the Rainbow (Maybe)
Random thoughts from a rainy Monday evening with coffee and no Wi-Fi.
After last week’s issue, I had a rainy Monday WiFi outage and a slew of “random thoughts” about rainbows, immigration, and aggressive chickens.
Those random thoughts might give you a little context for the rest of this.
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This was really where most of my chaos existed:
Title: Why Did the Chicken Pick a Fight With Me?
A week later, I’m still not sure.
One minute I was three weeks into life on the chicken farm, walking through the coops like Moses parting the Red Sea.
The next, I had a rooster latched onto my knee and a host worried I might keel over at dinner.
(Spoiler: I didn’t. But there was a clinic visit.)
👉 Read on Substack | Read on Medium
And then there’s the bigger question: what does it mean to stay, really?
Title: Not a Nomad, Just Looking for a New Base
The dream vs. the process of staying put
People assumed this trip was about me becoming a nomad writer, living out of a backpack.
They weren’t wrong. But they weren’t right either.
Because if I could choose a base anywhere outside the U.S., it would be here—South Korea.
👉 Read on Substack | Read on Medium
And, just because:
Damn You & Your 3-Piece Suit (Notes on a Poem)
Most of my poems start from grief. Sometimes from lived moments, sometimes from shared ones, sometimes with a little fiction mixed in for magic.
I don’t live in the 3-piece-suit world, but the day I wrote this one, the news was full of Armani. Odd coincidence. Functional elegance. Practical art. I respect that.
Armani once said:
I design for real people. There is no virtue whatsoever in creating clothes and accessories that are not practical.
And like fashion, poetry is still art—even when it has to be practical enough to carry what can’t be said another way.
👉 Read on Substack | Read on Medium
Until next time:
May your coffee be available,
your chaos be entertaining,
and may whatever you’re carrying not cost you any extra.
— Melissa / Mo Jo Jo 💜