Nan Patience on strike: top 10 reasons why

Click here to download Women’s Strike 2024 image (FREE; public domain)

Perfect for printing on adhesive shipping labels from a thermal printer.

I designed this as a vertical story format size in black & white for thermal printing. You can download this one or make your own!

Hey You, it’s Nan Patience!

A Women’s Strike has been called for June 24th. Tell the others!

Here are my top 10 reasons why I’ll be striking on June 24th, counting down from #10 to #1 on the 4seasonshelf YouTube channel:

Reason #10 : to send a message

Yes, yes, to send a message for sure, but in a mad yet fun way! So clear your calendar and drop everything on June 24th.

Reason #9 : all of our work should count

Women are priceless, yes, and no you can’t put a price on love, but you can put a price on labor in the marketplace. Fun fact: did you know that unpaid women’s work adds over $200,000/year in uncounted value per household? That’s not just women’s math, that’s actual math.

If women didn’t contribute this much unpaid labor, jacking up the economy every day, falsely inflating the official numbers by leaving out the foundation of most families, then what? “Women’s work” is important labor and needs to get more R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

Reason #8 : fairness

Women do more than our fair share of emotional labor, caretaking, preserving family legacies, coordination, celebrations, events, upkeep, planning, holding everything, homemaking, and household labor. At one point, it’s ridiculous. Each of us — men, women and children — need to pull our weight in this area.

Reason #7 : women’s health

Women’s health needs attention. Much of medical science and research is based on men’s bodies. Too little is known about why women are more susceptible to autoimmune diseases, cancers, and dementia. In many ways, women are getting poorer quality care than men. Women’s bodies are not well understood to this day in ways that they should be, putting strange ideas into people’s heads. I mean, menopause is an enigma wrapped in a mystery.

Women are in danger due to mass confusion and massive government overreach regarding abortion and contraception, among other gender issues.

Reason #6 : financial insecurity

Motherhood is penalized when it comes to retirement benefits. You’d think mothers didn’t work at all. There may be decades of supposedly being out of the labor force. Solution: credit parenthood generously in Social Security benefits. It’s fair, and it would help families. Start Medicare at 55 for everyone.

Reason #5 : childcare crisis

Quality childcare is unaffordable even if we can find it, putting children in danger and behind academically. Children like to be with other children from a very early age, and they like to play and grow together under the guidance and care of qualified, experienced teachers, nutritionists, and administrators. Children with early education have better outcomes in life.

Reason #4 : school & work schedule craziness

For five days/week, schools let kids out at 3 o’clock and employers let workers out at 5. Not to mention kids get summers off, they get sick sometimes, there are many, many other days and weeks off, and this is all very stressful. Let’s make up our minds.

Reason #3 : unequal pay

Women are still paid less than men in the workforce.

Reason #2 : fear of violence

Violence against women, guns and mass shootings.

Reason #1 : on June 24, 2022 the Supreme Court handed women over to the barbarians and said, do whatever the heck you want.

June 24th is the day the Supreme Court created a second class of citizens for women in America with no sovereignty over our own bodies.

So… I’ll see you out there on June 24th!

~ Nan

* Note: my strike is for women’s solidarity. I’m lucky the men in my life are great, so this is in no way a comment on any of them. Heck, I even dedicated my book of love poems to my husband. Love you!

Stay complicated!

“More Babies!” — video with short rhyming poem, artwork

by New York poet NG Swett

Just a quick video post today, including a couple of extra pieces of material:

• notes about the substance of the poem

• when and how I wrote it

• creating and posting the video

The substance of the poem

The billionaires, plutocrats, oligarchs — some are calling for more babies.

Women should have more babies, some say. Women shouldn’t be able to end a pregnancy under any circumstances, some say. Life is too… precious!

Over a lifetime, families can easily shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars per person for taxes, health care, child care, education, shelter, food, transportation, weddings, and finally assisted living. The willingness to pay is only limited by our means. The value of a statistical life was estimated at $7.5 million in 2020 according to FEMA. Oh how the shareholders must drool at a number like that!

Other happy civilized countries don’t have things set up this way. Every heartstring we have is tapped for all it’s worth. Every fear stoked for our last dime.

There’s pushback on social media to this idea of women as livestock, especially among women. But the good news for the owner class is that they can mute ‘em with algorithms. (Studies show that social media is terrible for women’s mental health, especially secular liberals.)

Scientists proved that the human race is stripping the planet of resources, causing mass extinction, and polluting it to the brink of extinction. So do we really need more people? Or should we get our house in order first?

Writing the poem

So this all tickled my funny bone a little, so I jotted down this little rhyming poem in a big black journal that I’ve been using lately for sketching and writing.

To illustrate the poem, I pulled up a painting I did some time ago of a made-up plutocrat, “One.” It’s from a series of mini acrylic paintings I made as art therapy to get me through writing and editing my first novel — a very, very challenging project! The paintings are all illustrations from scenes of the novel.

In the painting, One lounges god-like across a royal-looking chair in front of a glass window at night. You can see a bridge lit up behind him. The rug under his shiny black boots is a rough map of the Outer Lands Archipelago.

Making the videos

I made a short video in two formats, wide and vertical mobile. I added two audio tracks, one with the sound of a typewriter and another with the sound of an eerie lullaby…

I’m placing the wide format video here on 4seasonshelf.com first.

Then they will go on the billionaires’ platforms…

Download Love Poem: “Thoughts Upside Down” by NY Poet NG Swett

People really like this short rhyming poem from Hold Me Tight, my book of love poems

“Thoughts Upside Down” from HOLD ME TIGHT poetry book by New York poet NG Swett. On 4x6 adhesive shipping label printed on a thermal printer.

4YOU! Click image for free DOWNLOAD of png for personal use.

Here is a short video I made of the same poem:

Thermal poetry?

I printed the poem above on a thermal printer and I’ll tell you why.

Printing a poem on an adhesive thermal label is an idea I got by two accidents.

One accident was in the original printing of the paperback poetry book. A poem accidentally sucked. So I made a label with a better poem and covered my shame. (And updated and uploaded my files to Ingram Spark and Draft2Digital for the revised hard cover and ebook editions.)

The other accident was printing out a dozen of the same shipping label for an eBay sale. A waste of precious labels, for sure! But printing a dozen poems on purpose and then sticking them up around town might be fun.

When I’ve got some thermal poems in my bag, I keep my eye open for a good spot. What’s a good spot? Visible, public, out of the elements a bit, smooth surface, and possibly used by other sticker people…

Can you see my thermal poem?

In selling online, I’ve become aware of a huge number of creative, entrepreneurial and community-minded people doing ecommerce, and many of us have thermal printers because of the time, money and paper they save in shipping. The cost of ink these days, am I right?!

“The Best Season?” a small talkin’ one-minute love poem

Three slides of a short 1-minute mobile video for the poem “The Best Season?” by NG Swett, Outer Lands Archipelago / NY poet

This is the 1:09sec video for posting “The Best Season?” love poem from HOLD ME TIGHT poetry book.
The video and the individual slides (pngs) are for posting on social media platforms with links back here to this website at 4seasonshelf.com.
Audio is added on each platform to avoid copyright issues.

What is YOUR favorite season
-- winter, spring, summer or fall?

Here's a nice and easy one-minute short poem about a great small talk topic. Everyone cares about the seasons and the weather!

Small talk is a lost art, isn’t it? People are so shy and wary of talking to strangers. When you’re at the front desk, as I’ve been from time to time over the years, small talk is perfect for engaging with people. It’s friendly but not nosy.

People feel nostalgic for the seasons and what special things each season brings to life. Changes, cycles and transitions are in our human nature.

About this poem

The short rhyming poem, "The Best Season?", is one from my new collection of 36 poems, HOLD ME TIGHT (link to buy internationally). The book is available in hard cover and ebook formats.

Minimalist aesthetic photo illustration

The poem is Illustrated here and in the book with a black and white photo of a flowering spring daffodil for a contemporary minimalist aesthetic.

In the book, each of the 36 poems shares a two-page spread with its own minimalist black and white photo collage illustration.

I’m experimenting with short mobile videos like the one above for sharing poems, blog posts and new paintings online.

Thanks for checking out my blog!

~ Nan

P.S. I invite you to keep in touch by subscribing to my email list.

Love in the air in New York

Love, walking & poetry trending as New York poet publishes book of love poetry

Did you know? Brand new studies say New York is now a top LOVE capitol of America? And most walkable too!

And poetry is red hot.

Serendipity! What better time for a New York poet to release a collection of love poetry than during a national love fest for New York?

Walkability, Romance Trending in New York

According to a recent study, New York City is one of the best, most walkable cities in America, and according to another one New York is one of the most romantic states in America.

Walkability

At first, I was surprised to see the Big Apple ranked #1 most walkable city in America*. But think about it. You don't need a car to get around town. There are sidewalks, parks and bike paths everywhere. The walking grid of streets is easy and always interesting. Lovers can easily stroll up and down the town. And what a big, big town it is.

Walkability is a growing smart trend connecting some key groups of people including families, young adults, Gen Z, price-conscious people, millennials, seniors, visitors, tourists, workers, and New York locals — basically for everyone. Walking can help keep us healthy and fit. Owning cars has become too expensive and too much of a hassle. Even public transportation can be too expensive. Walking and biking are better for the environment. A nice stroll is a good activity for getting out of the house for our mental health.

No need to spend the most. The sights are free. Go for a romantic stroll.

Enter new book of love poems by New York poet

Love is in the air in New York!

Last summer, when the sky was alarmingly yellow from Canadian wildfires, I wrote a book of love poems. Now I’m self-publishing the collection.

Poetry is trending, too.

All kinds of poetry — the good, the bad, and everything in between. I’ve done some research, and poetry is hot right now. I don’t know how long it will last, but hopefully forever. It is also all over social media.

Poetry is a powerful, elegant, fun and expressive way to describe the world. This first book of poetry was fun to write, edit, format and self publish.

In Hold Me Tight, I tried many kinds of poetry formats from traditional rhyming poems to limerick and haiku, rap to free verse. The nature of the poem’s message and tone was a key piece of which kind of poem I used.

In the poems, I talk about the blind elation of falling in love, the wedding, the lovers spat, the love for children, the courtship dates, the building of a life together, the love of neighbors, artificial intelligence and good friends — and more. And toward the end, I indulge in some strident poetic justice type of topics which may or may not have anything to do with love.

Each of the 36 poems is formatted in a two-page spread with a black and white photo collage illustration. The style is minimalist and modern.

The type is large, and the poems are short.

New York minute love poem video

To pull the above trends together and tie them to my new book of love poems, I made the vertical one-minute mobile video below.

Book of love poetry as a gift?

A book of love poetry is a romantic and inspiring gift for any occasion — a lovers stroll, Valentine’s Day, springtime romance, birthdays, anniversaries, weddings and engagements.

Treat yourself to some poetic inspiration! It’s perfect reading for coffee cafe lounging and people watching.

The poems are about love, relationships, falling in love, everyday love, long term love, love of children, self love, reflections on the world at large, declarations, city life and country life.