Wildfires in WA State, Farms Opening for Fall and Beauties of Late Summer, AWP in Portland 28, Proactive in Poetry Publishing

Tiger swallowtail on Phlox

Beauties of Late Summer and Wildfire in my State

August has arrived, and unfortunately, with it, wildfires in my state. Spokane is in particular peril, and the smoke from many fires should arrive here tomorrow, along with hotter temperatures. Smoke and heat together are a tough thing for MS people but wildfires are much worse for the people forced to evacuate their homes.

It would be wrong to talk about the problems without some of the beauties – I walked out to my back garden one morning to see a pair of Swallowtail butterflies, and another morning to see a pair of quail calling to their brood of half-grown baby quail. The Buck Moon was particularly beautiful, too – probably due to some level of smoke in the higher atmospheres. The hummingbirds are still busy after the flowers.

Farms Opening and AWP in Portland in 28

Despite the heat and smoke, I’m happy to see some of my favorite farms opening up – Bob’s Corn and Pumpkin Farm on August 1, at McMurtrey’s Farm on August 5. As soon as the smoke lets up, I’ll be visiting. I love spring, but in the Pacific Northwest, fall might be more welcome because it signals an end to increasingly blistering summers and the mellower beauties of September and October.

It was also announced that AWP was going to be in Portland in 2028, which was very cheering to me, since I have a hard time traveling (or justifying in the expense of flying) to AWP a lot of years, but Portland is just a three-hour drive. This means I feel an increased pressure to get a book out for spring 2028.

It made me think about how much of poetry publishing is out of our control, is a waiting game, where so often, we’re punched in the face with rejection, and only meted out small amounts of success at a trickle at best. When I was younger, I believed in being proactive – not waiting for the right job or person to come to me, but trying to figure out what I wanted and going for it. Have I lost that urge or ability over the years? We wait for a publisher or a journal to say yes, we wait for the poem or book to be published, all the while spinning the dice for – what – a small amount of praise in the form of a review, a small amount of money from a grant or a prize or if we get super lucky, an advance. It’s super frustrating – and I worry that, like some of my friends recently, they run out of time before they run out of poems.

Anyway, also a heads-up that I’ll be switching servers soon as my current host server has been extra glitchy lately. So forgive any down time as I make the switch. Happy and safe and smoke-free August to you!