Have you noticed...

that it's been pretty quiet in blog land lately? Even I didn't find anything to ramble about for three whole days!

Last night, I had a dream about line breaks...and how perfect mine are. I wish my consciousness had that kind of self-confidence.

It's April. National Poetry Month. I haven't written my poem for today yet, but then, I've only been up an hour.

I think I've conquered the prose poem beast. I now have two prose poems, and I think they're good. And long. Way longer than anything I write with conventional line breaks. I usually lose steam after about 20 lines. I'm excited to send them out.

Speaking of sending things out, I got a rejection from Cimmaron Review yesterday. No ink. : (

Last Thursday, Joyce Dyer came to campus for a lecture/reading. She's one of the University of Akron Press's authors, and her memoir, Gum Dipped is about growing up in Akron. She spoke about Creative Non-Fiction--what it is, how to do it, the ethics of it, etc. Got me thinking. I've always wanted to write a memoir but I didn't think I had the "right" to. So I've shoved personal experience into bad fiction and into poems (that I hope aren't bad) instead of just writing personal essays. I'm starting to think I might just let myself try that memoir thing next.

JD also talked about how to deal with revealing family secrets/depicting family members in flattering or not so flattering ways, which made me think about my family poems and the way my family is depicted. In "The Orchard," I describe one of my sisters as "lurking." When she read it (from what I heard) she was a little miffed. I wonder what she's going to think when she reads the poems that are specifically about her? I said something to my mom on Friday about this fear of mine, and she said it was too bad for "them" if "they" didn't like what I write. I wonder if she'll still be saying that when she reads the poems that are about her? (Love ya, Mom!)

I'm reading RHINO 2007 this week. I'm loving it so far, especially the Editors' Prize winner "Etudes for El Paso and Spanish Guitar" by Akron's own Thomas Dukes. Dr. Dukes is such a smart, funny person and this poem gives me goose bumps. He's reading at Mona's Open Mic this month and I cannot wait!

Speaking of readings, Northeast Ohio seems to be quite the touring spot. Joyce Dyer last week, Mary and Craig on Good Friday, Jimmy Santiago Baca on the 10th. I'm sure there's more that I'm not thinking of off the top of my head. Oh, duh! Upstart Crows Open Mic on Thursday and my own reading on the 13th with several other local "emerging" poets (I have emerging in quotes because it feels really pretentious to call myself one). It's a good thing I don't have a social life, otherwise there might be some conflicts with all these readings.

Well, now that I've been blogging for 30 minutes, I am going to go find something to eat and finish re-reading Becoming the Villainess for class next Saturday.