Chad Parenteau's Lost Causes, 1-8-25
2025 will eat me alive
I’ll tell you the Chad News First
The above photo is of me walking down Boylston Street just before New Year’s Eve.
It might have been the last time I was fully relaxed.
I hit the ground running. The ground hit me back.
Personal issues have come up, and it’s 2024 all over again.
Stone Soup is still back tonight. Hiatus is over. The Chad abides.
Buy My Two Books (please)
My two collections All’s Well Isn’t You and Cant Republic: Erasures and Blackouts are available for purchase.
All’s Well has been called “[a]stunning work of original poetry that delves into the Bukowski-esque nether-regions of the psyche and comes up shining with a rollicking, stunned silence of the three-in-the morning, whiskey-soaked poetic journey into the hazy memory of yesterday.” Order it here.
Cant Republic was recently called “[a]n interesting, provocative, and ultimately terrifying rumination on the words of one of the most divisive figures in modern politics.” Order it here.
I appreciate your support.
Stone Soup Poetry
Our last feature was BeYouT, who closed the year amazingly. Read the last Stone Soup Crouton poem for the year, “Some Things Can’t Be Held in Haiku.”
Stone Soup returns tonight with an all-open mic. Next week, Jennifer Martelli is this year’s first feature.
Oddball Magazine
Click here to read poetry by Susan Isla Tepper, Paul Shovlin and Shontay Luna with visual art by Glenn Bowie, Bill Wolak and Bonnie Matthews Brock.
Thaks to Mike Mesterton-Gibbons for kicking off the first full week of 2025 with his acrostic. Steven David Justin Sills debuted the latest chapter of his ethics treatise with Richard Spisak’s illustrations. Cartoonist Anne Skove (“She Who Laughs Lasts”) survived 2024. Plus Nicholas De Marino was the first 2025 Oddball Stories contributor for this year.
This Tuesday Jason Wright’s Jagged Thought poem column made it in (barely). Thursday and Friday we should also have the returns of James Van Looy (It’s All One Thing), Janet Cormier (Bamboozled No More!), and Bruce Wise (Wise Words).
My thanks to the contributors of the 2024 Christmas Wars:
Jon Wesick, Timothy Gager, Susan Isla Tepper, Lynn White, Rich Boucher, Patricia Carragon, Shirley Smothers, Duane Anderson, Mileva Anastasiadou and Ari Whipple.
And an even bigger shout-out to Robert Fleming for providing this year’s banner art.
It's Fun Writing Angry Stuff
Ode to My Second Appendix Part Two. Read "Pound Sand" over at my Patreon.
Issue 8 of Stone's Throw Released Just in Time
The "Unalive the Algorithm" issue came out just in time to wish 2024 a very happy Y2K! Featuring the writings of Mark States, Jon Wesick, Robert Fleming, Ari Whipple, Richard Spisak, Edward S. Gault, Katharine Schulz, Shannon O’Connor, R.M. Engelhardt and Luis Lázaro Tijerina. Cover art by David House and additional art by Robert Fleming.
Available for download here.
Post-Holiday Dada
"Squinting at New York Post Headlines on Christmas Eve" is my latest poem up on the first day of dadakuku's return. Thanks to petro c.k. for keeping the journal's lights on. Watch for news on the upcoming second volume anthology!
First Blackout of the Year
"Turnout" is my first Trump Truth Social blackout poem for 2025. Read it now on Medium.
Saving the Last for Best
Forgot to list this as my last publishing credit (not published by me). Thanks to Alien Buddha Press for including me in The Alien Buddha's Best of 2024. Includes work from my release Cant America and several other writers. Grab a copy if you can.
A January 6 Special
A special poem up on my Patreon for paying and non-paying members. Pay as little as a buck to see all my secret poems.
Miscellaneous
Check out my website and get a lot of the news before it winds up in this newsletter. Also includes links to my other social media.
Check my blog out for exclusive content and poetry news not related to Stone Soup.
I really, really want to add to my Medium again.
I now have over 1,000 followers on TikTok! Just in time for the ban!
More on my Patreon soon.
Thanks for reading down this far.
Chad