" They grew themselves some wings and they took to soaring."
The Shared Spaces/Shared Voices poems have hit the street! Er, I mean buses. This is a new public art project in my city, possibly the first of its kind, that I'm lucky to be a part of. Many thanks to badland and down_city for their help and encouragement. My poem is on page 53 of the catalog. I have extra copies, if anybody wants one.
A Chaos of Angels, formerly known as the "Pill Blues" anthology, is now out. I could not make it to the reading because it's a bit of a drive to Pacific Palisades, California, so they're going to mail me my contributor's copy. I love the new name. The cover is interesting too. But the message is an important one for our society, so I'm proud to be involved in this project.
In other poetry news, the new class is going well. Our professor is enthusiastic, the exercises fun and challenging (we played "The First Line Gong Show" with rattles in one session!) and the class small, so there's also enough of a comfort level that I'm participating more in class conversations than I normally do. Not to the extent that some do, thanks to my inborn stage fright and internal critic monster (I am NOT a very eloquent speaker; I tend to lose my thoughts and ramble), but I feel like I'm contributing, at least. We start full class workshopping next week. I have to write three letters for three classmates' poems, plus I'm the first reader for one student which means I have to start the discussion of her poem and also bring a snack. In addition to that, we have the usual image journals and poem. This week we're studying M.S. Merwin, so our image journal and poem need to be in conversation with him. I turned in my first poetry review about last week's Gerald Stern reading (he was cool! I wish he were my grandpa, HAHA) and also chose a poem to memorize, "In a Dark Time" by Theodore Roethke. We don't perform the memorized poems until November, but I figured I'd better start early due to my memory problems. Yep, I'm still having problems with short-term memory, but I'm hopeful that learning a poem will fit into the long-term category. *crosses fingers* I will also have to lead a discussion about the poem "Ornithology at the Caribe Hilton" by Martin Espada, and even meet with the professor about my lesson plan. We really get to do a lot in this class, and our professor is awesome about giving feedback on our work.
On the family front, Tree is on her three-week intersession break from school. We're still deciding what her punishment will be for her bad grades, which will begin upon her return to school. The good news is that the teachers for her classes that she got Ds in put comments on the report such as "improving" and "pleasure to have in class," and she did go up a grade in at least one class, so that shows us she's trying. What's weird is she did better in math than her best subjects, grammar and reading. But I know it all boils down to organization skills and a sense of responsibility. According to one teacher, she's a daydreamer who always seems to be someplace else in her mind. Sounds like a little girl I used to know. *sigh* But I know she'll work through it. Stormie has recovered well from the car accident. He was only sore for a few days, then last week we got a new car, a Toyota Avalon, since the old one, a Toyota Corolla, was totaled. It took forever to get our paperwork done because the dealership was so busy. Then Tree and I went to the Indy Irish Fest. We had a blast again this year. Our favorite part was hanging out, singing and dancing with the 35th Infantry/1st Irish living history group. Theresa made a shield at the craft booth, played some games and petted the Border Collie pups at the sheep herding demonstration. We ran into Stormie's friend at the Utilikits booth and did a little shopping. Tree found herself a wooden box with a Celtic cross on it, then found me a tiny wooden "secret box" with a Celtic cat! We ate American food (shortest lines, heh), and I drank one Guinness (they had run out of Killian's!). We enjoyed a really nice day together. Here are some pics. I have videos too but am having trouble downloading them into YouTube. It keeps locking up the computer and booting me out. Oh well.
Theresa's shield
Lady from the Scottish society with a very big sword (they had a few taller than me!). I may have Scottish blood. My birthmother's married name was Harrison. This lady looked up Harrison, found its county (Angus) on the map, then showed me the tartan for Angus. Cool!
The 35th Infantry/1st Irish! We spent over two hours with these folks. They sang lots of old tunes, even "The Unicorn Song"! But they didn't cry like Marc of the Bards does. We sang along and Tree danced her heart out. We were pooped by the time we returned home.
Due to class and family errands, I missed Masterpiece in a Day for the first time in three years. A couple of people in my class had friends sign them up for the writing contest, so maybe one of them will win! The top prize was $1,000. It's a cool event that grows bigger every year. I just had too much to do yesterday after class, Stormie was gone for a juvenile diabetes fundraising poker tournament (which he won! he got $75 and an electric scooter) and my heart wasn't really in it this year anyway. Ever since vacation, I've been in a funk, eating too much crap, not exercising (other than the commute walks) and not staying on top of things. I need to get out of this before I drown. It really sucks. I know I will. Been there, done that.
A Chaos of Angels, formerly known as the "Pill Blues" anthology, is now out. I could not make it to the reading because it's a bit of a drive to Pacific Palisades, California, so they're going to mail me my contributor's copy. I love the new name. The cover is interesting too. But the message is an important one for our society, so I'm proud to be involved in this project.
In other poetry news, the new class is going well. Our professor is enthusiastic, the exercises fun and challenging (we played "The First Line Gong Show" with rattles in one session!) and the class small, so there's also enough of a comfort level that I'm participating more in class conversations than I normally do. Not to the extent that some do, thanks to my inborn stage fright and internal critic monster (I am NOT a very eloquent speaker; I tend to lose my thoughts and ramble), but I feel like I'm contributing, at least. We start full class workshopping next week. I have to write three letters for three classmates' poems, plus I'm the first reader for one student which means I have to start the discussion of her poem and also bring a snack. In addition to that, we have the usual image journals and poem. This week we're studying M.S. Merwin, so our image journal and poem need to be in conversation with him. I turned in my first poetry review about last week's Gerald Stern reading (he was cool! I wish he were my grandpa, HAHA) and also chose a poem to memorize, "In a Dark Time" by Theodore Roethke. We don't perform the memorized poems until November, but I figured I'd better start early due to my memory problems. Yep, I'm still having problems with short-term memory, but I'm hopeful that learning a poem will fit into the long-term category. *crosses fingers* I will also have to lead a discussion about the poem "Ornithology at the Caribe Hilton" by Martin Espada, and even meet with the professor about my lesson plan. We really get to do a lot in this class, and our professor is awesome about giving feedback on our work.
On the family front, Tree is on her three-week intersession break from school. We're still deciding what her punishment will be for her bad grades, which will begin upon her return to school. The good news is that the teachers for her classes that she got Ds in put comments on the report such as "improving" and "pleasure to have in class," and she did go up a grade in at least one class, so that shows us she's trying. What's weird is she did better in math than her best subjects, grammar and reading. But I know it all boils down to organization skills and a sense of responsibility. According to one teacher, she's a daydreamer who always seems to be someplace else in her mind. Sounds like a little girl I used to know. *sigh* But I know she'll work through it. Stormie has recovered well from the car accident. He was only sore for a few days, then last week we got a new car, a Toyota Avalon, since the old one, a Toyota Corolla, was totaled. It took forever to get our paperwork done because the dealership was so busy. Then Tree and I went to the Indy Irish Fest. We had a blast again this year. Our favorite part was hanging out, singing and dancing with the 35th Infantry/1st Irish living history group. Theresa made a shield at the craft booth, played some games and petted the Border Collie pups at the sheep herding demonstration. We ran into Stormie's friend at the Utilikits booth and did a little shopping. Tree found herself a wooden box with a Celtic cross on it, then found me a tiny wooden "secret box" with a Celtic cat! We ate American food (shortest lines, heh), and I drank one Guinness (they had run out of Killian's!). We enjoyed a really nice day together. Here are some pics. I have videos too but am having trouble downloading them into YouTube. It keeps locking up the computer and booting me out. Oh well.
Theresa's shield
Lady from the Scottish society with a very big sword (they had a few taller than me!). I may have Scottish blood. My birthmother's married name was Harrison. This lady looked up Harrison, found its county (Angus) on the map, then showed me the tartan for Angus. Cool!
The 35th Infantry/1st Irish! We spent over two hours with these folks. They sang lots of old tunes, even "The Unicorn Song"! But they didn't cry like Marc of the Bards does. We sang along and Tree danced her heart out. We were pooped by the time we returned home.
Due to class and family errands, I missed Masterpiece in a Day for the first time in three years. A couple of people in my class had friends sign them up for the writing contest, so maybe one of them will win! The top prize was $1,000. It's a cool event that grows bigger every year. I just had too much to do yesterday after class, Stormie was gone for a juvenile diabetes fundraising poker tournament (which he won! he got $75 and an electric scooter) and my heart wasn't really in it this year anyway. Ever since vacation, I've been in a funk, eating too much crap, not exercising (other than the commute walks) and not staying on top of things. I need to get out of this before I drown. It really sucks. I know I will. Been there, done that.