Squills 12/31/25

Welcome to Squills, the official news bulletin of the Young Writers Society!

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1. READING THROUGH WINTER: SOME POETRY FOR YOU
2. ASKPRUNO
3. FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW: LALALUCKY
4. LIM’S END OF 2025 WRITING REFLECTIONS
5. SHAMELESS PLUGS
6. SUBSCRIBERS

READING THROUGH WINTER: SOME POETRY FOR YOU

written by cocteau < PM: >

Even if you're not a poet, you've likely had the thought that winter, despite its chill, has a certain aesthetic radiating from it - I mean, have you looked outside when it's snowing? Winter itself has a way of sharpening language. The world goes spare and bright, and suddenly a single image feels like enough, whether it is a breath in the air or snow on the side of the road. If you’re looking for poetry to match the season, here are a few winter-leaning, holiday-adjacent recommendations to read.

Thomas McGrath, "Beyond the Red River"

"Beyond the Red River" is a poem that begins in aftermath: birds gone south, flowers reduced to "flower-money," the small economies of summer already spent. What’s coming is a character, imagined as a "winter lion." There’s no sentimentality in McGrath’s winter. Instead, there’s a fierce, clear-eyed affection for place at the moment it turns harsh.

McGrath’s great gift here is scale. He moves effortlessly from bumblebees and bent grass to freight trains, oceans, and the vast, unsettled geography of the Dakota plains. Autumn becomes something industrial and smoky, hauling itself out of the land, while the narrator remains - though, it seems to be out of spite. That refusal is the quiet heart of the poem.

This is a poem for early winter evenings when it begins to get darker earlier and the world feels bigger than usual.






Megan Fernandes, "Winter"

In "Winter," Fernandes cycles through a series of intimate, slightly off-kilter domestic gestures such as buying discount flowers and watching television. The poem excels at this tonal balance; it is both funny without being light and melancholy without being grand. Even illness arrives strangely tender, imagined through snails and slowness rather than the expected panic.

It reminds us that getting through winter is often a matter of maintenance, keeping things alive, moving gently, and trusting that adaptation (however strange it may be!) will come.






Janet McNally, "Maggie Says There’s No Such Thing as Winter"

Fittingly, this poem moves fluidly between states: water and sleep, waking and forgetting, summer shade and the promise of seasons Maggie can’t remember. Snow is a philosophical problem - if you believe in it, you must believe in transformation, that matter changing form and returning altered must somehow describe the human experience. Winter, like illness or trauma, is something you don’t always perceive while you’re inside it.

McNally's narrator is more of a caretaker than anything else. They occupy the careful role of witness and translator, as they explain autumn, prove mountains, correct the sky, and remind Maggie of the existence of winter. There’s love in that, but there is also clear difficulty because of the burden that comes with telling someone that things fade and that even blue needs "some kind of help" to glow.

Sometimes, we all need a reminder that winter isn’t only cold or darkness. In the early months, that can be tough to swallow. Winter is the hard, necessary labour of helping each other see what’s still there.






Billy Collins, "Snow Day"

Everyone loves a good snow day, so it's only natural that someone would write a poem about one; "Snow Day" is winter at its most mischievous to say the least. It is a poem that understands the snow day as temporary anarchy. From the opening image of a "white flag" waving over everything, the poem frames snowfall as a gentle overthrow of schedules and adult seriousness.

Beneath the obvious humour is something deeper. Collins shifts attention from adult mundanity to nostalgia, briefly uncontained by routines. For a day, at least, winter is on our side.






Whether it arrives as prairie dark, a quiet apartment, a season someone cannot remember, or an unexpected day off, winter asks us to slow down and pay attention to what remains. I challenge you (yes, you!) to find a wintery poem that inspires you, and perhaps, you could try your hand at writing your own. What’s left, if we’re willing to look, is enough to carry us through to spring.

ASKPRUNOwritten by TheGreatPruno< PM: >

Welcome to Ask Pruno!!! YWS' very own advice column! Pruno is our resident magical all-knowing, all-powerful, immortal, dashing purple sprite as old as time and he answer any questions you throw at him, be it advice, personal opinion, solutions or philosophy.

Please note, this is the advice of Pruno, and it is his opinion alone. Nothing he says can be considered incorrect or factual, even if you disagree with him.



Dear Pruno the Perfectly Purple, the Amazingly Amethyst,
What is your take on the age-old question of how to motivate oneself to do something one does not want to do? For example, homework (something quite relevant to those of us YWSers who are students). Also, if you have time, I'd love to hear about that intergalactic war that caused your absence >.>

-Prucras T. Nayshun


Dear Prucras T. Nayshun,

This is a very relevant question my friend, it is very hard to motivate oneself to do things one does not want to. However, there are certain.... methods one can use to combat this problem. One such method is to make sure that until one does not do what one doesn't want to do then one cannot do what one does want to do. For example until one does homework (I truly shudder to think what YWSers are doing with this intergalactic torture method, but my associate insisted it was better I not ask...) one cannot, say, read their novel!

Another method is to reward oneself, once said thing (that which one doesn't want to do) is done, treat yourself! That's right, treat yourself with something tasty. Something delicious, something so lovely and so marvellous that the mere thought of it's consumption makes your mouth water and your brain delight and spark!

Something..... like a Prune!!!! Ah the mere thought gives me such pleasure! This is also a very effective method. Now another thing one can do is ring up Mayor De. Vei. Lester the Mayor of the planet Heelishar who will send you one of his minions who will use their tickle stick every time you stall on doing your work. Also very effective! If you can survive the tickle fits that is.

Now as for the intergalactic war... it is a rather long story my child, but I do believe one your Earthlings had written a book about it? Wars I think it was called? Hm. Or was it Star Wars? I can never remember. Nevertheless do let me know if you would like the Mayor's number!

-Pruno




Dearest Pruno almighty,

Is it true that if you eat too many carrots, you will turn orange? Or do people just say that to scare you?

-A very worried bunny



Dear Very Worried Bunny,

Fear not my child, I have heard this many times. I know the answer well. Carrots you see were created on the planet So Ail Sah at the beginning of the The Great End Of the Starting for the purposes of lighting! They are, as you Earthlings would call them, Space Glowsticks. See during the tough times the Universe needed cheap sources of lighting and carrots were terribly effective. Made their inventors stinking rich it did.

We had sent carrots to Earth as a peace offering, asking them to stay well away from the rest of the Universe, but I see that the message was.... misinterpreted. Seeing as they are feeding you the Interstellar Portable Lighting System.

You will most definitely turn orange if you eat too many carrots. In fact I insist that you cease and desist and stop eating them at once!

-Pruno




To his highness the Great Pruno,

What do you think is the meaning of life?

-Ponderous Potato


Dear Ponderous Potato,

Ah, a tough question this. It has confounded many philosophers for centuries. But I will try to sum this up for you. Now, if you believe the Guradiananans then the meaning of life is that all blobs (they are a planet to very intelligent blobs) are destined to one day be crushed under the heel of their creator the Guraaaaadin as he walks over their planet shooting blobs out of his nose. So to them the meaning of life is to be crushed to death in lieu of more blobs being created. Very altruistic.

On the other hand the people of Naakhistak believe that the meaning of life is Khuabgih! Which is a fruit. That grows on trees. That they eat. Yes, they're not known for their philosophy. Their neighbours the Chalataticars believe that the meaning of life is Zuboralic . Which is a custom of their, it involves standing and waiting in long lines at the bank of their pay checks.

See their pay checks are often delayed and the entire planet has only one bank (you can't have more than one after all, that would be absurd!) So they stand in lines stretching several hundred kilometres. (Those who die waiting in these are considered the most lucky as they have fulfilled their purpose in life.) So to them, the meaning of life is bureaucratic inefficiency. Unsurprisingly it is the most agreed upon philosophy in the entire universe.

The only major contender to their philosophy is that of the Uughaarudhalictal, who live on the very edge of the Universe. They believe that the meaning of life is a sippy cup. A sippy cup is a cup. With a cover. And a straw. They have one large sippy cup in the centre of their planet on a pedestal that they worship. Legend has it their ancestor had a vision of greatness while sipping from this sippy cup (no one is aware what exactly, was being sipped.)

Following this vision their ancestor had set up their city and ushered prosperity to thier kingdom. So to them, the meaning of life is sippy cup. However whether the meaning here is what is being sipped or from that which it is sipped from, is a point of contention. Along with permanent instability in this kingdom it has caused a rather inconvenient number of wars (one of which led to The Great Carrot Shortage, which was truly a dark time.)

Anyway, that sums up the main theories of the meaning of life that circulate in the universe. Hope this cleared up some of the confusion!

-Pruno




Would you like to ask Pruno a question and get a slice of his interpretations? You can ask him anything you want! It could be a personal problem, or writing advice and tips, even your calculus homework or something else ridiculous! Just PM Pruno with your question! Be sure to follow this template --->

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[b]Name :[/b] (Please [i]do not[/i] use your real name. You can use your YWS username or a funny anonymous title like 'Stressed Buddy', 'Worried Wart', 'Crazy', 'Criminal Mind', 'Anonymous'.)

[b]Question :[/b] Ask me anything! Astonish me, I challenge you. But please [i]make sure that your question is substantial enough for me to give you a proper answer.[/i] The more I can write in reply the more fun it is for everyone. Tip: You may like to begin with something like 'Dear Pruno the Purple Supremo' or 'To most esteemed overlord' or anything you like.

[b]Is this a really serious or personal question? Would you be upset if the answer was ridiculous? : [/b] yes or no. (If you answer 'No' it doesn't mean you won't get a serious answer, it just means that you won’t get offended if you happen not to get one.)


FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW: LALALUCKYwritten by Liminality< PM: >

You may know this FM for their fun People’s Tab presence and signature emoticons. They are a fantastic poet, and famously was one of the YWSers to receive an orchid username during this year’s RevMo. That’s right, it’s @lalalucky! I had the chance to chat with them about becoming FM and about poetry. Read on below!


lalalucky: Sure!


L: I was pretty shocked, but also very grateful for the opportunity to be a FM!


L: Yup!! Especially when during that time since I was just starting to get the hang of becoming active again, it was a pleasant surprise! What I love the most about poetry is so hard to even express with words!! I love the versatility of poetry, how you're able to say so much within a short time, how you can move your words like a song for it to become poetry, how freeing poetry can be despite others' perceptions of what makes a poem and what is poetry being very restricted. There is just so, so much you can do with poetry and I really love that!!


L: One of my favorite poems has got to be "Before Summer Rain" by Rainer Rilke that completely inspired me to finally write more poetry this year. It's a rich poem that does so well with its imagery and anticipation. It inspired me so much, because it is such a strong poem while remaining to be short - not only I aspire my poetry to that powerful, but also to bring that kind of passion in others! Of course my list of favorite poetry is always in development since I really need to read more poetry books, which has been hard to get to (as well as writing) due to lack of motivation. Other than that, there are so many great poetry on here that I remember fondly of, and have a liking towards, that I may or may not put them on my (mental) favorite list!


L: I'm sure as I develop my writing more, my opinion on this will change. Though, I was proud of smothering then boring because at the time, it was the longest (and experimental) poem I wrote. For most of the time I've written poetry, I've always restricted to more shorter ones because after a year of not writing any, a longer poem was intimidating for me to write. I guess the poem doesn't show skill, but it did show that I was capable of writing more! Which is a great comfort for me, and is the most important to me, especially considering it's been hard for me to write.


L: Yes, and thank you very much! Advice.. hm! Well, I think the most important thing to realize is that community means a lot on here - it's what establishes your presence here more than the skill of your works or the length of your reviews. As long as you are kind to others and are willing to be open to others, you will have a much more satisfying time navigating here. Rather than only focusing on when to post the next work, or to focus on what to review next, which is why at times, people tend to come and go on here.

This place isn't like many other social medias - this place is much more kinder to those no matter if you've had a longer experience with writing or not. This place is kind to those who are beginner writers, or having a hard time with their work or even life. Which can be intimidating - because of how many others are so used to how social media operates on being jaded and superficial. I'm just saying, well I don't know, talk to people. Have a few bonds with people. Go in a writing pad one day. I did once. It was nice. Super fun stuff. But well yeah... value community!


L: Thank you! You're welcome, and thank you once again! It was great doing this interview with you!

If you have yet to do so, join us in congratulating Sunny (lalalucky) on their FM thread or on their wall!

LIM’S END OF 2025 WRITING REFLECTIONSwritten by Liminality< PM: >

In 2025 I was a lot more in-the-world than I have been in the past. That meant less of my energy was going towards writing and/or being on YWS, at least after April. I had a brief resurgence in reviews in August, but I almost entirely slept on Review Month! Having not written much column-style stuff for Squills this year, I thought I’d close off the year with some personal reflections on what I’ve been doing creatively.

Posting Less

This year I’ve posted much, much fewer poems. My reasons for doing so are a little complicated. Part of it was maybe the feeling of wanting to save some pieces I liked for publication (at some distant point in the future), but maybe I also felt like I didn’t want to split people’s attention. After all, there are so many poems on YWS to read each day. Some poems I wrote also felt like they were just for me. I think the poems I did end up posting had had more work put into them overall, so perhaps it made me more intentional in developing individual pieces.

Project Vows

At the beginning of the year I started a project called ‘Project Vows’. It had a convoluted plot and premise and I was trying to be experimental with form as well – way too much going on! (Time loops, fantasy kingdoms AND dreamscapes? Give me a break!) After drafting over fifty poems, I decided it just wasn’t feasible for me to write this thing and enjoy it with my current life circumstances, and so I decided to let it go. Project Vows had been an attempt to turn very nebulous daydreams into a concrete story, but ironically the story remained nebulous even when I tried to map it out. So maybe it’s for the best I let it go!

Exchanges

Another thing I started but didn’t really get far with was my poetry thread Exchanges. I came up with this thread thinking the theme of a ‘exchange’ was vague enough that just any poem I wrote could fit under it, but boy, was I wrong. I ended up being quite picky with what I posted in there. Out of all these poems, I got the most joy out of Screensaviour Complex, which is a rewrite of a really old poem I wrote, originally titled Screensaviour Syndrome. It made me feel like I’ve ‘improved’ as much as that can be said. Still, all the poems in the thread are ones I put work into and hold some value for me still. I’m probably going to branch out from the style of poetry in that thread however, as I’m finding I have other interests I might like to explore . . .

Poetry Collection

This brings me to another thing I did writing-wise this year, which was working with ecological and environmental themes. I wrote a four-poem mini-collection I was hoping to submit for an annual competition. It turned out the competition this year restricted who could participate so I was inelligible, but I still ended up with four poems I thought were pretty neat. For now I’m keeping them private, potentially for publication elsewhere, but I can say they brought me to some unexpected places, like the story of the matchstick girl. I also really put effort into polishing this collection. Poems got cut, new poems were drafted just to fill gaps in the overall ‘story’ of the collection. I also learnt how much I really like writing nature poems and how much the idea of ‘nature’, whether it be a real environment or a fictional one, informs my poetry.

Wrap-up

Overall, this felt like a year with less writing in it, but largely because I either didn’t finish as many things or because I didn’t share what I wrote. (And because I didn’t review as much, which is a shame!) I think I’m slowly learning what is feasible for me to write given my busy lifestyle as a graduate student (so yes to a four-poem collection, no to an epic cycle) and trying to find space for creative stuff.

With the YWS holidays in full swing, it’s a great time to reflect on your writing this year, whether you feel good, bad or meh about it. For me at least, it helps me figure out what I want to do differently. So go on to the Yearbook thread, a blog, your wall or even a private journal and get those thoughts down!

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