A New Review in Colorado Review for Flare, Corona, A Visit from My Older Brother and Family, and Guest Blog Post by Kelli and I at the Poetry Department Blog on Making Your Own Residency

Me with sunflowers

A New Review of Flare, Corona in Colorado Review

I talked about feeling a little discouraged by the lack of reviews of Flare, Corona recently so I was very happy to see this review during this busy week! Thank you to Colorado Review and Carrie Ann South for this wonderful new review of Flare, Corona!  

Here’s an excerpt:
The discussion was inspirational, but make no mistake, Gailey’s work is not a saccharine survival story full of platitudes. She breaks down the false narratives we tell ourselves to get through the day in “At the End of Two Years of the Plague, You are Tired of the Word Resilience”: “…Resilience: you hear “Silence, slice, siren.”

The speaker points out the irony in companies touting “safety” during one of the most unsafe periods of our collective lives. Gaily approaches language with a tongue-in-cheek playfulness, taking an overused word like “resilience” and rearranging the letters into darker, perhaps more truthful, words. The poem argues that this kind of cheery language is meaningless, or at least filled with underlying tension…

…There’s something comforting in Gailey’s insistence that we’re powerless against forces of nature. Maps, Geiger counters, storm trackers, MRIs, and other tools intended to predict catastrophes recur throughout the collection….

At the same time, there’s an appreciation for nature’s beauty and the sheer miracle of our brief existence. The poems ask, is it better to know death is imminent or to be oblivious? “How to Survive” points out the futility of trying to prepare for death. It reads like a satirical instruction manual. The suggestions to avoid a plague (“Be alone, in the desert”) or a tsunami (“Be uphill”) reiterate the circumstantial nature of our existence. The real advice? “Sing your song, put the note in a bottle, be remembered, / because someday soon, we will all be gone.” No, this isn’t a depressing thought, it’s a truth, a relief, a peaceful acceptance. That’s the paradox in Gailey’s writing.”

Anyway, read the whole thing – it’s very well-written and I even cried a little when I read it.

Visiting with my Older Brother and His Family from Ohio

My older brother Chuck—a great older brother, who bought me my first record albums, introduced me to MST3K, and taught me how to make a cheeseburger—has not been able to come out to visit for a long time, and my health problems and then the pandemic kept me from being able to travel back to Ohio. So, a visit with him, his wife, and three children (who I’d never met) was overdue!

I took them to our lavender farm (a hit with the kids!), the Microsoft Museum (hit with the two nephews – video games!), and the Seattle Aquarium and Ivars (tried to talk them into the Ferris Wheel and various other things, but they just wanted to go back and swim at their resort pool LOL). It was a good visit—I can remember how awkward it was a kid visiting relatives who 1. had no kids and 2. had disabilities, so I tried to make it as fun as possible (within the limitations I have). And it seemed fine. It was great having time to catch up talking in person to my brother who I’m close to and miss all the time (thanks, Disney Plus, for entertaining the kids LOL).

Me with Moon Jellies at Seattle Aquarium

It was really the first time I’d spent any time at all around kids since the pandemic began—besides a short visit with my college roommate’s very well-behaved daughter at a poetry reading—so that was interesting and anxiety-provoking. Glenn’s cooking was a big hit even with the very picky children, and the cats were a hit too (although they were not excited in reciprocity—they are only used to adult visitors). I really enjoyed introducing the kids to things I loved around town—they loved feeding fries to seagulls at Ivar’s, for instance, and had unexpected enthusiasm for the lavender farm and its various flowers. (They even went back without us one morning!) They loved going to a local park. My niece loved my pink typewriter, and I taught her how to use it (though an antique, it doesn’t work flawlessly—much like myself, LOL!) This was my second big family visit in the almost-but-not-quite-post-pandemic this year—my parents came out for my birthday—and I was grateful to have the time with them.

With cocktails after a long day and night of manuscript editing

Guest Blog Post on Making Your Own Mini-Writing Residency with Kelli Russell Agodon on the Poetry Department Blog

Kelli and I have a three-part account of making your own mini-writing residency (plus takeaways from our experience) up at the Poetry Department Blog…aka The Boynton Blog. If you’re interested in the inside story in how we made a weekend retreat work for us as a way to work on our upcoming manuscripts, strengthen our friendship and increase our focus on our writing lives.

• Making Your Own Writing Retreat, part one
• Making Your Own Writing Retreat, part two
• Making Your Own Writing Retreat, part three

Wishing you a wonderful week! How can it almost be August? This summer has flown…