feb 3/RUNGETOUTICE

4.1 miles
river road, south / lena smith, north / hills
13 degrees

13 degrees sounds cold (I guess), but with the sun and all of my layers, I was too warm. Lots of sweat dripping down my forehead. On the way to the river, the sidewalks were bare, but on the trail, they were covered in slick ice and uneven snow. Bummer. Decided to turn off the trail at 42nd and run north on the Lena Smith Boulevard, and then do some hill repeats. It was wet with wide strips of icy snow. If it hadn’t snowed 2 days ago, the path would have been dry and it would have been a wonderful day for a run to the falls or the flats or the lake.

After a fun day yesterday, getting lost in baking m-n-m cookies for Scott and crafting erasure poems out of local business statements, today felt draining and a bit overwhelming. I’m not anxious, just tired and uncreative, which is not surprising. It’s an exhausting, unrelenting time here in Minneapolis.

One bright spot: I discovered this morning that there’s a new Mary Oliver book out: Little Alleluias! It’s 3 books in one: The Leaf and the Cloud, which I own and have taken notes all over the margins, so a fresh copy will be nice; Long Life, which I have checked out of the library enough to wish I owned it; and What Do We Know, which I haven’t read; plus, a foreword by Natalie Diaz. I bought it online from Moon Palace, and will pick it up in a few hours!

Alice Oswald

Still making my way through the Alice Oswald interview for the Paris Review. Here are today’s lines to remember:

Interviewer: Is swimming important to you?

Alice Oswald: It was probably when I took up gardening that I discovered that being was better than thinking–that actually you don’t have to think things through, you can garden all day and your mind will have been moved by the gardening. And it’s the same when you’re in water. You’re thought through by the water rather than having to think.

 an interview with Alice Oswald

I like the distinction between thinking and being, and the idea that doing something physical, like gardening or swimming, will move your mind. What does it mean to be thought trhough by the water? I’d like to pose this question before/during/after a swim at the Y — which I hope to do this week — and a swim at the lake — which I won’t get to do for 4 months.

Get Out Ice

1 — caregiving as resistance

Here’s a great article that I want to read more carefully when I have a chance: ‘We have to keep showing up for each other’: In Minnesota, caregiving is a form of resistance Wow, I would have loved to write about this on my TROUBLE blog!

2 — protectors not protesters

But behind the violence in Minneapolis—captured in so many chilling photographs in recent weeks—is a different reality: a meticulous urban choreography of civic protest. You could see traces of it in the identical whistles the protesters used, in their chants, in their tactics, in the way they followed ICE agents but never actually blocked them from detaining people. Thousands of Minnesotans have been trained over the past year as legal observers and have taken part in lengthy role-playing exercises where they rehearse scenes exactly like the one I witnessed. They patrol neighborhoods day and night on foot and stay connected on encrypted apps such as Signal, in networks that were first formed after the 2020 killing of George Floyd.

Welcome to the American Winter

3

Minneapolis Parks invite kids to write love letters to the city. I love Minneapolis Parks!

At parks around Minneapolis, heart-shaped love letters from kids are providing some wholesome relief during an especially grueling winter.

(source)

feb 1/RUNGETOUTICE

2 miles
river road, south/ lena smith, north
25 degrees
100% uneven snow-covered

We got about 2 inches of soft, slippery snow this morning. Very pretty and very difficult to run over (through? on?). The trail on the river road hadn’t been cleared yet, and it was uneven. I feel very lucky that I didn’t twist my ankle or roll over my foot. I would have liked to run farther, but decided I should head back after a mile on the road. Lena Smith Boulevard was better, but slippery ~ I could feel and hear my the spikes on my yak trax catching. Even with my not-so-great conditions, I’m still glad I was able to get out to run above the gorge. It looked like a winter wonderland! Everything white and soft gray, sometimes snowing, sometimes not.

I heard some horns in the distance, at least one siren, maybe a whistle. Encountered SUVs and wondered who was driving them. A big part of the resistance and caring for the community is bearing witness and observing ICE. I can’t easily or safely do that with my low vision. I’m trying to find my own ways to show up. One way: I’m writing and giving a lot of attention to the powerful and loving words of small business owners. Another way today: I shoveled the sidewalks of my neighbors on either side when I went out to shovel mine. It’s not much today, but it’s something.

Get Out Ice

Here’s is a recent statement from one of Scott’s oldest clients. They asked him to post it on the main page of all of their restaurants.

Dear Guests and Staff,

Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota have had a very challenging month. Everyone within our communities has been affected by the actions of our federal government these past few weeks. Their original promise, purpose and intent was to ensure safety and to administrate with decent behavior and professionalism. However, it has evolved into a climate and behavior that is unfair according to the principles of our Constitution and individual-civil rights.

Day and night, our owners and staff have been assembling aid in many forms for our immigrant community. During these unprecedented times, we have kept our restaurants open to continue serving our guests and to ensure our workers can remain employed. Any past, current, or future closure of our restaurants in support of a protest was and will be the decision of the majority of the team at each location.

The generosity and care our staff has shown for each other is unselfish and truly inspiring. Many have sacrificed their money, time and efforts in the interest of helping other human beings without asking for anything in return. That is the American way!

We are seeing neighbors and communities come together all around us, and we hope this can be a time for all Americans to unite behind our collective shared values: life, liberty, and happiness.

We believe in civil rights for all and equal justice under the law. Our immigrant-friends and neighbors are one of the many things that make our country great.

In the name peace, calm and law and order for all,
Nova Restaurant Group

Nova Restaurant Group Statement

And here’s a draft of an erasure poem (that needs some work), made from the above text:

I like the idea of centering it all around the idea of what is the American way. I’ll keep working on it.

jan 31/RUNGETOUTICE

4.7 miles
river road, north/south
17 degrees
20% snow-covered

More sun, warmer temperatures. Heard lots of honking and chanting on the lake street bridge — people protesting the occupation, I’m guessing. The river looked like a patchwork quilt with squares of white and gray and brown. Heard more birds, wondered if they were singing or calling out a frantic warning. Saw another “Make Good Trouble” snowman by the trestle. Encountered at least a dozen different walkers or runners or bikers. Tried to wave to everyone.

It is such a strange time — so sad and scary and beautiful. The government is actively trying to destroy democracy and the president is more ghoulish and vile than the villain in an sci-fi movie, and yet, all around Minneapolis people are creating the world they want to live in. Practicing love, believing in dignity and rights and the law, caring for their neighbors.

Get Out Ice

The pubic statements against what is happening here continue to grow. Here’s one from Jessie Diggins, the Olympic gold medalist in cross-country skiing from Afton, Minnesota. She posted it on Facebook this morning:

I want to make sure you know who I’m racing for when I get to the start line at the Olympics. I’m racing for an American people who stand for love, for acceptance, for compassion, honesty and respect for others. I do not stand for hate or violence or discrimination.

I get to decide who I’m racing for every single day, and how I want to live up to my values. For everyone out there caring for others, protecting their neighbors and meeting people with love – every single step is for you. YOU are the ones who make me proud.

jan 30/RUNGETOUTICE

4 miles
river road, south / lena smith blvd, north
8 degrees

Ran south above the river and to the 44th street parking lot. Crossed over to Lena Smith Boulevard, then north to 33rd. Did 3 loops of up the small hill, which takes about 1 minute, then down it, then rest until the start of the next minute. This is a good hill to start on — not too steep, not too long, but enough to feel like I’m working a little harder. I felt strong on the hills; everything before it was sometimes okay and sometimes hard. Maybe it was because of the wind and the cold and the hard asphalt. Every surface that wasn’t covered in ice or snow was stained a dull white.

10 Things

  1. the voices of kids on the school playground, at recess
  2. a cerulean sky — empty of clouds, but not helicopters
  3. birds! chirping and twittering and chatting with each other
  4. empty benches
  5. the river’s surface: a pattern of white and gray and light brown
  6. the parkway was thick with cars, some going too fast, at least one too slow
  7. an empty parking lot
  8. running by Dowling Elementary, it seemed deserted — were they participating in the General Strike day?
  9. some of the path was bare asphalt, some was soft snow, some was slick snow, and some was slippery ice
  10. my shadow joined me today — hello friend!

Get Out Ice

Scrolling through Facebook, I found this example of non-violent resistance, love, and support of local businesses:

So proud of my community showing up for Central Ave this week. This is Lunch Club. We started with 15 people at Hodan three weeks ago (highly recommend the Jay Crack fries). Just a way to recognize the hurt that a part of our community is experiencing in Trump’s war of terror.

30 people joined us at Chulla Vida the next week (llapingachos!). And we brought more than 60 lunchers to Holy Land last week (Chicken Lovers Combo every time).

Tomorrow we’re supporting La Colonia. Gather at noon and stay as long as it takes! A different restaurant every Saturday.

Every business on Central Ave is hurting. Our customers and staff (legal residents) are afraid to leave the house. Many have been harassed by ICE. Several have been detained even with legal documentation. A few have even been shipped to Texas or who knows where. These are people of color.

Trump is waging a race war. This is retaliation for Minneapolis protection of vulnerable people in defiance of the MAGA cult. And it ends when this administration is gone. It ends when we engage with our neighbors and come to see each other as human beings. We need more community and less polarization.

Until then (and ever after) we will be here.

Join us. Join the nonviolent resistance. Be a part of something that makes a difference.

Recovery Bike Shop

My favorite bookstore, Moon Palace is in Lithub! Everything We do Matters: Minneapolis’ Moon Palace Books is a Hub for Anti-ICE Resistance

29 jan/RUNGETOUTICE

3.5 miles
trestle turn around
7 degrees
40% snow-covered

Another run outside! Yesterday, I ran south, today I ran north. RJP had told me that someone had made a snowman then put a sign on that read, “Make Good Trouble” next to the trestle. Of course I needed to go see and document it!

Make Good Trouble
Shadows and Snowman / Make Good Trouble

I love the shadows of the tree and the snowman and the message of making good trouble. 15 years ago, I would have posted this in my TROUBLE blog. Now, I’ll post it here. Could Sara from 2011 have even imagined we’d be living through the occupation of a fascist government?

It was a nice run. Slow and relaxed. At first, I was alone out there, but soon I encountered some other walkers, 2 runners. The river surface was cracked white, the sky was blue. I started by running through the neighborhood. Running by a house that was being worked on: empty outside. Had they stopped because of the cold, or was it ICE? Then I heard a drill from inside.

A favorite moment: as I neared the trestle, I heard a loud whooshing sound. Difficult for me to see, but I think it was a train traveling across the trestle! That doesn’t happen very often.

Get Out Ice

Lithub is featuring several Minnesota writers in the series, “Letter from Minnesota”. Here are some bits in a letter from the Minneapolis poet Michael Kleber-Diggs:

1

I am aware of a neighbor who will come to your house, take your trash and recycling to the curb, then, after they’re emptied, return and bring them right up to your door or put them back in your garage.

In times like these I write so I won’t forget. So I’ll keep hold of details that might otherwise slip away. I want to keep hold of exactly what it was like back in 2026.

Normalcy is Impossible Here. Normalcy is Violence

I was not aware of this until I read this letter, but I’m not surprised. On my local Signal group, some neighbors reported an ICE vehicle in our alley one day. When I bring out the trash, I make sure my ID/passport is in my pocket. I tell the kids that even though they hate wearing their coats, they must whenever they go out right now because it is possible that they could encounter ICE and be forced out in the cold for a long time. I read about the internal memo giving ICE permission to violate the 4th amendment and break down doors without a warrant; I see the picture of Hmong elder wrongly dragged out of his home in the 20 degree weather in his underwear. I’ve stopped wearing my pajamas in the morning while I drink my coffee; I put on warm clothes right away.

2

History is rhyming, not repeating; 2026 isn’t exactly like 2020. The violence is more specifically designed to advance authoritarianism. It’s conspicuously race-based. It’s more xenophobic; our Somali siblings are really going through it. The government’s violence and hate is intentional. It’s a feature not a bug, and all of it is out in the open.

Within the broader terror campaign, the administration is focused on the most vulnerable. They’re harming the elderly; they’re going after children. They grab up kids in front of other kids at the end of the school day on purpose: theft plus trauma, violence amplified.

Normalcy is Impossible Here. Normalcy is Violence

Talking with neighbors during the candlelight vigil, one of them mentioned how someone was taken at their church. He explained: ICE waits for people to come for food donations, then they grab them before they can make it inside.

Love #10 / 29 january 2026

Our message to all:
Violence & Intimidation
have no place here. 
100% of this space
is reserved for love.

Words taken from the social media statements by the following local businesses: Parkway Pizza / Norseman Distillery / Olio Vintage / Red Balloon Bookstore / Reverie Cafe + Bar

jan 28/RUN

3.5 miles
under ford bridge and back
7 degrees
50% snow-covered

A run outside! Cold, but not even close to some of my coldest runs in past years (I’ve run in a feels like temp of -20). I haven’t run outside much this month, so I forgot how to dress for it. Today, too many layer. Hand warmers and foot warmers and 3 shirts under my jacket.

Hardly anyone else on the river road path. A few walkers, a few bikers, any other runners? I can’t remember, but I don’t think so. Heard some cars honking in the distance. ICE must be nearby.

The river was white and looked cold. The parts of the path that weren’t covered in snow were stained white from salt — was it salt or something else? I know Minneapolis Parks is committed to not putting down salt because it ends up in the river. Most of the walking trail was buried in snow. Only one stretch, just north of 38th had some bare asphalt. I walked on it, then got stuck when it was covered in snow again. The snow looked brittle and made a sharp crack as I stepped on it. Mostly it wasn’t deep, but when it was, it was uneven and awkward to walk through. Empty benches, sharp shadows, blue sky. A strange feeling all around: unsettled.

Alice Oswald Interview, part 3

[on the idea of a Homeric formula] That seemed entirely wrong to me, this habit of draining the meaning out of the poems, of seeing orality as a machinelike way of composing. I was enraged by bein ggiven statistics about how many times a certain word or simile is used. To me, it felt clear that it was a more entranced way of composing, thta the poets would get into a kind of intoxicated state where they could incredibly, almost magically, find exactly the right adjective, the right meaning for the right place in the right melody.

 an interview with Alice Oswald

Get Out Ice

1

a fragment from Facebook: Not deescalate but:

abolish
withdraw

prosecute
witness

2

Love #9: After

We are still here.
We are still loving our neighbors, 
still supporting our community, 
still caring about the constitution.

We are staying warm, 
staying strong, 
staying impossible to ignore. 

Read this poem this morning and remembered when my mom died, how a colleague took me out for coffee and told me that grief is a continued connection to the person you lost. I’ve often thought about her words, and I use them to embrace my grief.

Sisyphus / Sharon Lessley

As if weightlessness were aspirational―
what nonsense―

                                  your death,

        a stone 

I can only hope to shoulder forever. Imagine
it gets better―

                                  what nothing

        am I left with

then? Even despair carries a particular
charge: that fantastic

                                  last whiff of lavender

      detergent

imprinted on the collar of a holiday sweater―

                                    mama,

the mourners are assembling. March me 
up that hill …

Your death a stone I can only hope to shoulder forever.

jan 26/BIKERUNGETOUTICE

bike: 35 minutes
run: 1.35 miles
outside: 13 degrees

Read a few pages of the Alice Oswald interview in the Paris Review then watched the Las Culturistas podcast with Amy Poehler while I biked. I love Alice Oswald and I love Amy Poehler. So good! I don’t have time right now, but when I do, I want to post some quotes from the podcast episode.

Listened to the first 3 songs on TS’s “Reputation” while I ran. It felt good, and I felt more relaxed than I have in many days. I think it’s the combination of almost being done with my 2-week cold, and news that some Republicans are taking back some of their more extreme statements in support of ICE. But, I know that we’re not close to being done with this nightmare.

1

I think there are places you build in the imagination that become stable. I love the metrical forms, the sonnet and the ballad, but to me the real thing is what I call patience, the idea of creating your own stability within a length of time. I responded to that when I discovered Homer. There was something in that poetry, because it was orally composed—I could feel Homer making forms of patience within the poem, lines coming back and coming back and then coming back. It makes habits. There’s something steady and reliable about its way of moving, while at the same time, it loops wherever it wants to go, and remakes itself.

 an interview with Alice Oswald

2

I could feel straightaway that Homer was quite different from teh other types of poetry I’d read. I can remember, when I was told that he was blind, having this dizzy feeling of what a poem would be if you were hearing it and speaking it rather than reading it

 an interview with Alice Oswald

This year, I want to keep pushing at this question of what a poem would/could be if you’re hearing it and speaking it instead of reading it? I want to do more poetry that does just that.

Get Out Ice

A slightly more helpful, less terrifying day than Saturday. Some Republicans are speaking out against the shooting of Alex Pretti, Walz talked to Trump and he agreed to send Greg Bovino somewhere else; Rand Paul is asking for ICE to testify at the hearing next month. Only very small successes that are possibly only offered to get Democrats to pass the budget and give ICE even more funding by the end of this week. Don’t do it Democrats!

I surrounded myself with the loving words of other Minnesotans again this morning, and created 2 more love poems. Here’s one, both are posted here.

Love #6: How to Be a Better Person

Hold space for pain, anger, confusion.
Make hope happen for others.
Open the door for love, close it in hate’s face.
Wear boots, a lot of wool, scarves, and mittens. Bring extras to share.
Believe in small acts: they matter.
Demand the exit of ICE from our beautiful cities.

jan 25/BIKERUNGETOUTICE

bike: 35 minutes
run: 1.5 miles
outside: 0 degrees

Still too cold and too icy (and ICE-y?) outside, so more time in the basement. Watched the men’s 2024 Kona Ironman while I biked and tried to focus on my posture and my knee lift. As always, I’m wondering why my left knee often gets stiff after biking for a while. Listened to Lawrence, Acoustic-ish while I ran. I tried to empty my mind, but bad thoughts crept in: how far will the federal government go to keep power? I’m always thinking of Heather Cox Richardson’s refrain: it’s going to get worse before it gets better and her prediction that it will go one way (the people win) or the other (democracy in the U.S. dies) by March — or did she say May? Ugh.

Get Out Ice

Still reeling from the terrible murder yesterday, but going to my block’s vigil and witnessing how Minnesotans stayed peaceful and people around the country/world expressing outrage, is helping a little.

I read a post on facebook about how hundreds of Target employees have signed a letter pushing the CEO to do more against ICE. In the post, it was mentioned how people are going to Target at the same time, buying salt, the immediately returning it, as a way to disrupt business. This action is modeled after an earlier one at Home Depot: buying ice scrapers then immediately returning them. Is this effective? Looked it up and found this Guardian article which describes many different actions against Target, including the salt:

On Martin Luther King Day, SURJ-TC said it had gathered 70 people at a Minnesota Target to “interrupt business as usual”. Participants repeatedly lined up to purchase salt, return it and repeat the process as a way to hold up lines, representing a desire “to melt ICE”, the organization wrote online. The organization plans to repeat this tactic at five Twin Cities Target stores until the company speaks out against ICE.

sit-ins and salt purchases: activism takes many forms

Alice Oswald

Started an interview with Alice Oswald in the Paris Review (thanks to my library, which makes it possible to check out current issues of some journals online!). So far, she’s talking about teaching Palestinian kids via Zoom and then getting arrested for protesting against the UK’s designation of Palestine Action as a terrorist group. When she’s asked if she planned on being arrested when she joined the protest, she said she did and:

One direct consequence of allowing genocide, though, is that, in order to excuse it, you have to pass all kinds of laws that destroy democracy from the inside. I’d been angry for a while, and confused about what to do, and as soon as I was decided, I felt a relief.

Paris Review

This is how she describe the arrest:

They read me my rights and asked whether I knew I was breaking the law, and did I want to come easily or did I want to be an obstruction. And I said, ‘I’m happy to be arrested, because I don’t believe it’s an offense,’ and that I didn’t want to come easily, and so I lay down and imagined my heaviest self. I was imagining I was made of gold or lead, just enjoying the difficulty the police were having picking me up.

Paris Review

I love this idea of imagining herself as her heaviest self, as gold or lead. Sometimes I like imagining myself as a boulder — I turned into some poetry lines: be a boulder/too big to/lift too much/trouble to/move.

When asked if she’s always considered herself an activist, she says:

Gilgamesh, the Illiad, the Bible, Paradise Lost — all teh poems that profoundly shake me are really about how we manage kings. The texture of a life devoted to poetry is activist, in the deep sense. Quite often it’s not activist in the superficial sense. You come at poetry with the momentum of having failed. It’s only when other communication is absolutely impossible that a poems has to exist.

Paris Review

Yes! I feel that with my poetry about vision loss and the new ways I’m learning to see and be now.

Wow, there is so much in this interview that I love, so much about Oswald that I love, including her discussion of insects as speaking with wings instead of mouths. And then there’s this bit about an old woman, “an angry old battle-ax,” who had only ever been one village over:

I used to go up the road just to talk to her, and during one of these conversations she broke off because she’d heard a bumblebee go into a foxglove and change the tone of its buzz. She said, ‘Did you hear that? I love that sound.’ I remember thinking, If you don’t move away from a village, that’s the sort of thing you notice. I made a determination at the point that I wanted to be that sort of person.

Me too! Oh, thank you Alice Oswald for saying such beautiful and interesting things and making me imagine the current world otherwise for a few minutes!

jan 24/BIKERUNGETOUTICE

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Minneapolis, filled with fierce love as thousands of Minnesotans (I heard 50,000, but I’m not sure if that’s accurate), marched downtown. Today was terrible; another Minneapolis resident was executed by ICE. I’m struggling to write any words right now, but I wanted to at least write that.

bike: 30 minutes
run: 1 mile
-5 degrees

I hoped that working out might help me feel a little less overwhelmed and it did but not much. Guess I’ll have to try more deep breathing.

jan 22/BIKERUNGETOUTICE

bike: 33 minutes
run: 1.5 miles
basement
outside: -4 / feels like -22

Brrrr! And that wind! I was outside this morning, shoveling, but otherwise I’ve been inside. Devoted much of the day to surrounding myself with other Minnesotans words of love and solidarity, then turning them into a cento.

At the start of my bike, I watched the first episode of “Pluribus.” So good! Then I got to the lab scene with the rat and I realized it was too much for me right now. I found an old, “from the vault” 2018 triathlon on youtube and watched that instead. By the end of the bike, my left knee was feeling stiff, like it sometimes does. Hopped on the treadmill and listened to “Mood: Energy” while I ran. The first song was, “Harder Faster Stronger” and somehow it made me feel more anxious instead of less. But, Ok Go’s “Here it goes Again” helped.

Get Out Ice

Here’s what I posted on my new page, Love, Minnesota-style:

After Consulting with our Team, We Are Choosing Love / Sara Lynne Puotinen

This is a call to everyone. This is a call to anyone. 

Here, now, in Minneapolis, our hearts are open.
Here, now, in St. Paul, our hearts beat strong.
Here, now, in Minnesota, we are choosing to take the day
and fill it with resistance, solidarity, reflection, love.

Let us be clear: we are not powerless. 

We are not hopeless. 

Of course we have hope!
And we will find each other.
We will gather,
we will keep moving.

We must raise our voices 
to acknowledge, 
now is not okay.
ICE’s ongoing occupation is fascism.
We are afraid, we are angry, we are exhausted.
And we will continue to show up
and to fill the streets with love.

This is not about choosing sides,
this is about choosing love.

On Friday, January 23, 2026, there is a call for a general strike against ICE: ICE OUT MN. No work, no class, no shopping. As of 22 jan 2026, more than 500 local businesses are participating. 

Many of them have declared their show of solidarity through social media posts. For the past few days, I’ve been gathering their words and turning them into new poems. 

In today’s (1/22) practice, I typed up 3 pages of the words, printed them out, then sat at my desk and read and reread them. I wrote down words and phrases that I noticed on another blank sheet of paper with a jumbo pencil. Then I shifted those around and turned them into new lines. I don’t think it is finished, but I’ll post it here anyway.