Hello again! I’m home at last from the Pacific University 10-day MFA residency, and after just 12 hours back here my 10-day-long fit of nausea has disappeared, my hair’s falling in the right way again, a bizarre ruddiness of skin also disappears, I’m thinner, and my back’s stopped hurting. Bless the firm bed, my cat, my husband, Seattle’s slightly-gentler weather, all the comforts of home. Home home home!
I haven’t yet gotten caught up on phone messages and e-mails, and I’m still finding toothpaste tubes between socks and things like that. A good metaphor for my mental state. I met lots of wonderful new writers and am very happy with my new (and last) advisor, Pattiann Rogers – who, by the way, you might not guess knows a little something about Hayao Miyazaki, my current poetry muse. How great is that? I’m excited about this, my last “creative thesis” semester, because, finally, finally, the focus is on writing poems – not writing poems and a bunch of other stuff.
Two new poems – and mp3s of me reading them – up at 2 River View today. Check out the whole issue! I’m especially excited about these poems, because they are the first of my new series of poems about Japanese fairy tales and anime to be published.
Before the end of June, remember to send in your book manuscript to Steel Toe Books’ Open Reading period!