Arsenic Lobster (and a bit about teaching and technology)

I've got four poems in the new issue of Arsenic Lobster. Lovely, lovely stuff in there. I've just barely had a chance to nose around. Can't wait to read the rest.

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I'm quite fascinated with Digital Ethnography and am wondering how I might incorporate some of Wesch's ideas into my comp classes (or even poetry, perhaps) the next time I teach (I'll be doing all my hours in the office this coming semester, no teaching until the fall). I think this video would be a great conversation starter in a classroom:

Since I've got five minutes

Here's what's happening:

Joshua Corey is reading at the Jane Addams Hull House @ UIC tonight. Yours truly will be introducing him. Odd, introducing someone you've never met.

Gary and I are challenging each other to a Poem-a-Day in September. So far, 2 decent drafts, 1 silly/sleepy draft. (By the way--I think Gary should update his blog, don't you?) Maybe over the weekend I'll post the drafts.

Italian class is not un disastro anymore, but I'm not enjoying having class 4 days a week.

My Intro to Poetry class has its ups and downs, though I think these are directly related to the amount of sleep I got the night before. I'm still not used to teaching at 9.

And my five minutes are up. Have a nice weekend, folks.

A much needed ego boost

After Hours has accepted my poem "Advice from a Hotel Maid" for their next issue. That's two journals/five poems in less than a week.

Thanks, universe, I needed this.

My regular readers will know that my confidence as a poet/academic/person has taken a hit this last year, what with my rather uninspired transition to city living and PhD work. It's good to be reminded, even in this small, largely subjective way, that some folks (besides the ones that love me already) appreciate my work.

Two of the poems were written during my MFA, one was written while I was still in Akron playing the adjunct game, and two were written during my first semester in Chicago. I think that's a pretty good spread.

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I got sucked into the abyss that is cable (err--satellite) television for the last couple of days and have not met my goal, which was to write ten pages in less than a week (okay, originally it was to write ten pages in 3 days, then five, then in less than a week). My friend Kristina is coming to the farm to talk poetry on Wednesday, so the new goal is to have ten pages by the time she gets here. I do have 2 new pages, so that's 8 that I still need. I'm channeling Maggie Anderson here, and her 10-pages-in-a-weekend assignment that kicked my ass/provided a much needed break-through in my writing the summer that I was working on my thesis.

Speaking of Maggie Anderson and the post-Bisbee writing assignment, I should give a shout-out to this year's Wick Fellows, including my friend Frank. I think they're starting their workshop tomorrow and will be heading out to Arizona next week, but I could be wrong. At any rate, I wish them much joy and artistic inspiration and camaraderie.

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And before I go, one more picture of my idyllic home in the country. I'm so wishing I could stay forever.

New Work...

at Anti-!

Many thanks to Steve for giving my poem a home!

Six Pack

You have to go watch the video at Oliver's! I'm not huge on political satire, but this Joe Six Pack guy is, I think, actually a guy I dated in college. I admit, not one of my best decisions. But if you've read many of my poems (esp. Barberton), you'll get a perfect visual.

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I was going to give a link to Barberton or another poem ispired by my real life Joe Six Pack, but it seems most of my links to lit mags are defunct. Hopefully its just my links that are bad, and not the lit mags themselves. Going to have to do a little searching...

A Song (and a poem) for Sunday

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Christina Pugh, UIC prof, is featured on Poetry Daily today.

Irritating Poem Syndrome

Do you ever have a poem that just won't let itself be written? Maybe it just means it's not a good idea, but when CP wants 2 new poems and a revision every week, sometimes I run out of good ideas. I've been working on this particular one since February, and the first draft was basically: Good god, I'm so freaking sick of this snow and this cold weather. Then, I met/created this persona who works on a road crew and realized all that snow and cold weather could be a poem about him. So I changed the I to he and went from there. I think there are about 3 lines left from the original draft, and I am still not happy with it. Class starts in 6.5 hours. Hopefully something will come to me before then.

Count Down

15.5 hours of work until I'm back on summer vacation!

3 weeks til I fly to Arizona!

2 months until fall semester begins...egads!

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This has been a good poem week. Reworked 2 that have been sitting around not working for a while. I think they're good now, but we'll see how it goes in workshop.

Thesis meeting last night was good. (Thanks Mary!) I can't believe my MFA is almost over, though. This is starting to make me feel very uneasy.

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July 3 is my mom's 2 year lung-transplant anniversary. She calls it Independence Day. We don't need to talk about how stupid I am for smoking considering this little tid-bit of family history, but you have no idea how amazing it is to see my mom walking around, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry (doesn't sound like an exciting list, but believe me, my mother wasn't herself when she couldn't care for the family). Between say, 96 and 05, my mom got progressively worse until just before the transplant when she was in a wheel chair and using oxygen 24/7. Sometimes I'm still surprised to see her walking without her little air tank strapped to her back. Sometimes I'm just surprised to see her walking. Aaah, science.
Happy Lung Day, Ma.

another one!

Another draft--that's two in a week! And guess what...this one is more than a page also! I am on a roll.

I have been having trouble getting anything else done, though, which is not good. I'm still not totally out of the old apartment and I've only got 6 days left to finish it. I guess it's easier to get motivated when the turn-in-my-keys deadline is looming.

Still no job. Must start eating a lot of ramen and quit drinking soon.

and then they went home

Quote of the week: "You do realize you're dancing to a song that says, 'Bitch, get out the way,' don't you?" --Simone Muench

So, that was AWP. Interesting.

I got to meet some wonderful people and pick up some pretty cool-looking journals/chapbooks in the bookfair, but I didn't make it to nearly enough readings or panels. I was just so overwhelmed with information, sensory stimulation, etc., that I spent most of the week disoriented or trying to let my brain catch up. Also, I've learned that while there is strength in numbers, traveling in a large group is probably not a great idea. Five girls in one hotel room = at least 3 hours of prepping each morning. Those five girls trying to coordinate things with four guys staying on the other side of town = just plain stupid. Remind me about this next year.

On the upside, some highlights:

1. Meeting Simone, Kristy O, Jackie from RHINO, Kristy B, Brandi, and Jeannine (plus Leilani Hall and being in the same room as Kim Addonizio) and getting most of them to sign their books for me. Oh, how I love signed books.
2. The Frock You! reading (which, by the way, just happens to feature all the women I was so happy to meet) and staying at Djangos after it turned from quiet poetry space into packed-like-sardines hip-hop club.
3. Sitting outside (on the second day of March) and having to roll up my jeans because it was too warm, then going inside and realizing that my nose was just a little bit sun burned.
4. Reading Brandi's chapbook and losing my breath on poem after poem. I read it cover to cover in less than a half hour (while sitting outside on the 2nd day of March)

Alas, I am back in cold, snowy Ohio and my pockets are empty (holy crap! it should be illegal to charge that much for a drink!) and I have been neglecting my studies and students for the last two weeks, so I have to go. There is a bag full of books and journals taunting me, but I have to wait to read them.

Hope everyone got home safely.

Like a Virgin

Every week, I rush to get my reading, grading, and class plans done so that I can focus on my poems for a day or two. I carry around a folder marked "THESIS" in big black letters. I keep an excel spreadsheet full of poem titles, revision dates, submission dates, rejections, editors, publications, themes, where they're saved on my computer...and I update this on an almost daily basis. I have become neurotic about poems. neurotic about my thesis, a chapbook, a manuscript...which is which? where do the poems belong? does everything I put in my thesis have to end up in a book? where are the rest of the poems going to come from, and when?

I don't know if it is because I am consumed by this idea of being "A Poet" or if it is an actual problem, but things are just not moving fast enough for me. Strange thing is, I've written two or three poems in the last couple weeks that I really like and think are ready to send out--which doesn't usually happen so quickly--yet I'm frustrated, tired of waiting for inspiration to strike, tired of waiting for ideas to come to me. Aren't I poet enough to make the poems come at will?

I sent out a bunch of poems at the end of winter break, and most of them have come back to me already (which is what I wanted), rejected. That's okay. I know I'm just starting out and I know that rejections are part of the gig. I'm not complaining. But, now that I'm in the business of collecting rejection letters, I also need to be in the business of sending things back out. And I'm having a terrible time deciding which poems to put together and which journals to submit to. I was just reading Kristy's thoughts on on-line vs. print journals (a debate which I was only vaguely aware of) and I'm realizing there are journals that I "should" want to get into more than others. I don't really have any heirarchy in mind--except whether or not I like the stuff I see in them. Maybe I'm not paying enough attention to what is going on around me. Maybe I should know that journal A has a better reputation that journal B. But I don't. And I kinda want to keep it that way. Maybe it's altruistic, but I think if my work has merit, it will be appreciated regardless of where it is published (or where my degree is from--which is important since I'm getting my MFA from a relatively unheard of program).

I guess what I'm saying is that I'm having a little "coming of age" moment as a poet. I'm still excited, more excited than I can explain, to be writing and trying to get published and feeling proud when I tell people that I write because finally I can say yes when they ask if I'm published. However, I'm also becoming aware for the first time of the politics involved, of the strategy behind submissions, and that no matter how much I want it to be, it's not just about the work. I've always been good at working the system, learning the rules and making them work for me, so I'm not worried. But I am a little sad. Just like when I was 18 and realized that my first "true love" wasn't going to last forever. It opens up a world of opportunity, but leaves behind an innocence and naivete that I'm going to miss.

Well, I think that's enough pontification before breakfast.

Room with a view

Folks, that is a lot of snow. I woke up last night to a party in the hallway of my apartment building...people were celebrating that the U of A had closed. I went back to sleep, but this morning, I had a baileys and coffee for breakfast to celebrate.

I have all my homework done for the week already, so I'm going to try to get some poems written/revised today. I think I also have to spend some time planning out my class for the next two weeks. I was going to show Dead Poets' Society this week, but now that we don't have class today, I think I might wait til next week. If I do, that means I have to plan something to do tomorrow and Friday. Decisions, decisions.

I need to go to the store...I'm out of almost everything. I hope the snow stops soon.

I cannot stop talking about this poem and the awesome anthology that I found it in. Kim Addonizio is my idol of the month.