A New Poem in MAR, A Rough Week, More Pumpkin Farms, and How to Cheer Yourself Up

A Rough Week and More Pumpkin Farms

It’s been a rough week for me, not going to lie. Drove across town in different directions on different days (three-hour round trips) to meet with endodontists who, surprise, said on the phone they could work with me on my root canal, but after charging me a $250 exam fee, decided they couldn’t. (Also had a day with three different doctor appointments, which always is hard on me.) The physical and emotional drain of doctor appointments for chronically ill people is real.

The winners were announced for the WA state book awards (congrats to all the winners, esp. friends Rena Priest and Jane Wong!) I hate to admit this, because yes, I am very grateful to have been nominated, but Flare, Corona (a finalist for the WA state book award) failing to win hit me a bit harder than I thought it would. I tried not to get my hopes up, telling myself I was lucky just to be nominated, but there it is—my emotions said otherwise. My MS symptoms were also acting up as I was running a small fever all week with a cold, so I had to reschedule my covid antibody infusion (which might have been too much this week anyway, with all the tooth stuff). Unexpected expenses, wasting time on not-useful appointments, and just feeling like “why do I even write poetry?”—all capped by a terrible hurricane that hit areas where I had family harder than we expected (luckily, they are all fine, but a lot of people aren’t) and more war in the news. Let’s not even talk about how close this election is. I am not usually a depressed person, but I certainly struggled with getting anything done this week, or even feeling like it was worthwhile getting anything done.

Flowers at McMurtrey’s u-pic garden

Cheering Yourself Up in Hard Times

I tried to do some things to cheer myself up, including getting out in nature and visiting a newly opened local pumpkin farm, McMurtrey’s, which also had beautiful u-pick flowers like dahlias, zinnias, and sunflowers. I tried to write but had more success reading—especially interesting articles in, of all places, the New Yorker—an article on Ina Garten’s success (for instance, she gave her first cookbook’s publisher $85,000 for half the print run, and then spent $200K more on PR and photography) now she makes millions on her cookbook contracts. So that’s how to be a successful book writer, LOL! $285K!) plus an article on AI and antibiotics which was fascinating. And I got my contributor’s copy of Mid-American Review, in which I had a new poem. And I had a lovely book club meeting discussing Yoko Ogawa’s Mina’s Matchbox, which was great. We’re reading St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves for October, spooky season. I ate kettle corn from two different pumpkin farms. And I have a writing retreat to look forward to. So, maybe this stuff didn’t fix everything, but it did help.

Sylvia with new issue of Mid-American Review

New Poem in MAR, “Crows Splinter the Rain”

In other news, I was very excited to have a very spooky-season appropriate poem, “Crows Splinter the Rain,” in the new issue of Mid-American Review. (My issue came a little late as the first issue was lost at an old address, but better late than never.) It is a great issue, order yourselves a copy, and here’s a sneak peek at my poem:

Double rainbow visible from my window yesterday

Wishing Everyone Out There a Happy, Safe Turn to October

I am hoping everyone affected by hurricane Helene is safe and recovering. I know many mountain communities in Appalachia have been absolutely devastated. I lived and traveled throughout those areas for many years, and never had a hurricane affect us, so this is definitely a shock for those of us who used to live there and those that live there now.

As the days grow shorter and colder as we turn to October, I wish you all a good book, good friends, and as much hope as you can hang on to. And those of you who are already voting? Please keep in mind exactly what’s at stake.