When working towards a firing in our wood kiln, I choose to be confined to my studio world. I am happy working in soft clay with delicate touches in the winter light. I often make mistakes. When working large and thick I edit down. Sometimes, I refer back to the journals and images from my travels to far away cities or the books in our library which can take me to endless kiln sites in the history of ceramics. But ultimately, I end up recognizing my own inherent ways of working, looking, and touching.

New Soul

We begin confined to a world
soft and small and delicate.
If we’re lucky,
we end in the same half-light.

My children ask why I make
so many mistakes
and I don’t have the heart to tell them
this is my first rodeo
just as much as it is theirs.

I had to go to every city
just to find out how
we take ourselves
everywhere we go.

—Kate Baer, in How About Now: Poems, HarperCollins, 2025.