Love Letters from my typewriter to you!

February 2025 newsletter

In this business, we love love!!

February is a hectic season for me, and I’ve been zipping between high-end luxury stores like Ferragamo and skyscrapers like Merchandise Mart. What can I say, everyone needs their fix, and love poems are on the brain.

I write a lot of poems for people’s partners, girlfriends, husbands, and wives. But some of the most heartfelt poems I write are for non-romantic bonds. A man requested three Valentine's poems for his daughters, who were each named after a flower. A woman wanted a poem for her best friend. And another woman wanted a poem about being single and falling in love with herself.

There are a lot of different ways to love in this world, and I think all of them are worthy of poetry. We put romantic love on a pedestal above all others. And romantic love can be a central part of a fulfilling life.

But my favorite love poems to write? My favorite love poems to write were from Lindsay, who wanted to give her sister a Valentine, even though the aforementioned sister had just defeated her in a ski race. Or Mallory, who wanted to write a love poem for her fat orange cat, Garbanzo. Deep love is quirky, and sometimes it comes in the most unexpected places.

A love note to all my readers…

To everyone who gets this in their inbox, I appreciate you!! We’re up to 3100 people on this email newsletter—with a 40% open rate! Just FYI, a typical open rate is around 20%. So consider this my heartfelt love note to all of you who click on this email to read my meandering thoughts, and to get updates about my life. I couldn’t do this without you! And to everyone who has sent me notes saying that they appreciate my words, your messages mean more to me than I can say. Everyone needs to feel like they matter sometimes. I spend a lot of time holding space for other people and meeting their needs for connection with poetry. And I truly appreciate all the poetry enthusiasts receiving this who have held that same space for me.

News and updates

My most exciting update feels poetic, even if it’s not actually poetry-related. I have seven orchids. They all bloom for me at least once a year. Right now, two are actively blooming, and three more are putting up stalks! If the timing works out, I may have five orchids in full bloom at my house. Other than that, the updates have been a bit sparse. You can catch me at one of my engagements below for your poem!

• Valentine’s Day @ WNDR, Feb 14, 2025 (12pm-6pm)

• WNDR Poet Residency, Feb 22, 2025 (12pm-6pm)

What’s Kro working on?

One of my classes is an ongoing project about the area around the Calumet River on the Southeast Side of Chicago. I’m collaborating with Big Shoulders Book, a publishing project with a social justice mission to bring unspoken oral histories to light. We’re tracing the history of the river, from its Anishinabek history, the origin of the Steel Mills, and the ecological degradation and restoration. I’m sad that I won’t be able to continue collaborating on this project once I graduate in June. I very much look forward to seeing what it becomes.

What’s Kro reading?

There’s no justifying this book. It is pure candy. Romantasy is the genre that I turn to when I need to let my brain rot for a while and get cavities. I mean, can you blame me? I graduate from grad school in four months! I have an entire MFA thesis to write! And so I listened to the entire first book (all 20 hours of it) over three days. This is a 28 hour audiobook, and I am currently eight hours in. Dragons? Magic? Yearning? Sign me up!!

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