I write to you from here
The Animal Eats is a monthly newsletter, sometimes more, started in December 2020 from the hills of Cerrillos, New Mexico, where I now live on 1.7 acres shared with one man, one dog (for now), ravens, thrashers, mockingbirds and bluebirds and hummingbirds and doves, sparrows too, three or four different finch types, globemallow, sage brush, jackrabbits, cottontails, sometimes a stray pig I guess, two apple trees, locust everywhere and elm, lilac, at least one snake, sometimes a turkey vulture, a million(?) spiders, crickets, centipedes of unusal size (COUSs), chollas, prickly pear, hedgehog cactus, paintbrush, unfortunately puncturevine, russian sage, jupiter's beard, mexican sunflowers, yarrow, soon enough chickens and at least a hundred living things whose name I don't yet know.
I write to you from here to tell you what I see. You'll hear from me usually Sunday mornings. These are letters I send to the world I love, even when it seems the world does not love us back. (It does).
Every letter wants a poem. I include one, or two, or sometimes three poems by poets I love. Sometimes I read them aloud for you. Sometimes I include one or two of my own works in progress or recent publications or experiments I don’t know what else to do with. You can find more of my published work here.
Here is what I want to offer: a moment of peace. A second to breathe, to catch your breath and ride a wave.
I greet you here with long open arms.
My arms are just so long, and open.
I hope you find something that feeds you.
everything is free
If any of these words are what you want and need, have them. I am grateful.
I am grateful too for financial support. Paid subscribers help make this project sustainable. What I give you in return I give to you joyfully—
credit where it’s due
My beloved friend and esteemed colleague, Ariel Rudolph, drew the drawing that is the logo. It is wonderful.
author bio
Kristin Lueke is a Chicana poet, essayist, and creative strategist.
She is the author of the chapbooks here i show you a human heart (2025) and (in)different math (Dancing Girl Press, 2013). Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, as well as Best New Poets and Best of the Net, and appears in Sixth Finch, Wildness, HAD, Variant Lit, Poetry Society of New York, Frozen Sea, Maudlin House, and Heavy Feather Review, among others. She was a finalist for the 2024 Porter House Review Poetry Prize, and received the Morris W. Kroll Poetry Prize from Princeton University, where she earned an AB in English. She also holds an MA from the University of Chicago.
Kristin is also the co-founder and Strategic Director of Field of Practice, an award-winning, women-owned design studio focused on social change and equitable futures. The studio’s work has been honored by the Webbys, Communication Arts, and the STA 100, and featured in Faculty Magazine. She lives in New Mexico with her husband, novelist Kyle Beachy.