Taking a quick break from the last of my packing to give you this reading report:
Back from the Cranky reading, which was surprisingly well-attended considering our competition (Ted Kooser was in town, along with another reading by the lovely and talented duo of Peter P. and Kathleen Flenniken.) I was actually pleasantly surprised by most of the readers (especially this guy Maged Zaher and Sierra Nelson, who reminded me a little of Kristy Bowen, who, coincidentally, appears in the same issue – 9 as the rest of us!) Valzhyna Mort opened with a poem in Belarussian. She’s like a tiny, 90-pound female Ilya Kaminsky but, um, lighter in tone and she actually infuses her work with Belarussian pop culture references. We’d probably get along. I had fun reading a couple of new poems, and thought they got a good reaction from the crowd, which is always a pleasant surprise. Then I skedaddled home to get back to cleaning and packing.
I also noticed that this particular issue was full of bloggers – Kristy, as mentioned above, Matthew Thorburn, Timothy Green. And me.
I may be out of commission blog-wise as I may not have internet in the transition between old rental and new rental. And the phone number is changing too, the new one won’t be up til Monday. So, if you want to get ahold of me over the holiday weekend, you’ll have to use skywriting. Or smoke signals. Have a good long weekend, eat some barbeque for me!
And I’m having my stress echocardiogram test on Tuesday. So think good thoughts…
In case any of you ever wonder why I’m always writing about violence against women in my poetry…
um, because it’s still happening?
http://whedonesque.com/comments/13271
Thanks to Mary Agner for pointing out this particular rant by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
On another, lighter note, Kore Press posts a comic in which Wonder Woman meets a feminist theory grad student:
http://www.korepress.org/WonderWoman.htm
Never underestimate the restorative power of getting together with good friends. I swear, I feel more like a human being today than I have in weeks! The girls, besides workshopping poems, also threw me a little suprise birthday party, complete with fancy chocolate cake and presents. Very sweet. Also Kelli brought fortune cookies and we all read our fortunes, and mine said: “You will solve difficult problems.” So thanks Kelli, Annette, Jenifer, Janet, Ronda: You guys reminded me that life is more than packing and problems.
Today, my review of Ivy Alvarez’ Mortal and a new review of Becoming the Villainess up at the new issue of Galatea Resurrects. God bless outlets for poetry reviews.
Boxes surround, and I am planning the layout of my new home office. Comcast’s cable has been acting up, and I’m hoping to catch the last episode of Heroes – because we can’t record it with the current conditions, and the cable’s been blanking out at various random intervals. Like me, Comcast apparently stops working when I get stressed out.
C. Dale Young will be in town to read at Open Books, the world’s best poetry-only bookstore, tomorrow night. I’m hoping to make it – you should too!
All righty, all you who missed Rebecca Loudon (it’s pronounced Low-don, not Loo-don, as I am continually mispronouncing it. I blame all the french R is always speaking) on Thursday night at SoulFood Books missed a wonderful rendition of the poems from Navigate – Amelia Earhart’s Letters Home, read in such as a way as to think Ms. Loudon might be Amelia herself reincarnated. And her friend and co-reader, Susan Butler, read a ravishing series of poems that made me seriously reconsider Richard Burton. A good time and I was so happy I was able to host.
I got to send out a couple of e-mails accepting poems for Crab Creek, which was fun.
I am now in that state where all of my important things are in bins and boxes, which makes it very hard to respond to any correspondance or send out poems or manuscripts. In the upcoming week before M-Day (moving day,) I will a. visit the cardiologist to get my heart checked out, which is good because you know, irregularities of the heart can be nothing, but it’s comforting to know that for sure, b. have a job interview, c. meet with the Crab Creek editors, d. read with a great group at the Cranky 9th issue celebration reading, e. have our final walkthrough and exchange checks for keys, and f. miss my brother-in-law’s wedding in Ohio (which was originally going to be in October but then was rescheduled to the day of our move because his fiancee’s mother is sick and dying with a brain tumor. Terrible stuff, right? So we knew we would miss it – but it’s still sad for us.) Anyway, it’s one of those weeks with too many things in it. I get a nice break tomorrow going over to my Kingston-Bainbridge poetry group, where I get to hang out with friends and talk poetry for a few hours away from the chaos of stacked cardboard that my little townhouse has become.
In other news, I’m looking forward to the season finales of Heroes and Lost, and to the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Escapism = good!
Hey ya’ll. Sorry I’ve been a bit out of commission lately. We finally did sign a six-month lease on a place out a bit farther in the country than our current place, for more $$ than we wanted to spend, but hey, at least it’s a nice place and the person we’re renting from seems great. That’s always important to me.
I’ve been a bit under the weather. They’re checking me for some heart stuff, including infections of the heart, especially since I had some dental work before the symptoms, so if you want to think good thoughts for my health, go for it, you powerful positive thinkers! I’m going to a cardiologist and they’re also testing me for other fun stuff too, including Lupus (again.) I actually feel okay, but the tests always make me nervous. (Did I mention the doc who told me when I was nineteen before some blood work on a Friday: “Well, we think it’s either AIDS, Lupus, or cancer. Have a good weekend!” Hilarious in recollection, but not hilarious at the time. Did I mention at the time I was a lab tech in an infectious disease blood testing lab? Good times. )
Seriously, though, mostly I feel fine, just tired. I’m even going to MC for the lovely Rebecca Loudon on Thursday Night at the Soul Food Books reading. So I’m still going out and about, just taking it a little easier than usual and making more stops at the labs. I should get a frequent buyers card from those guys or something. At least a lollipop.
Loved the new issue of Rhino, especially Steve Mueske’s “My Life as a Kung Fu Movie,” and work by several friends including Lana Ayers, Kelli Agodon, and Martha Silano (way to work it, Seattle girls!) A little more dark and “experimental” (I know, everyone hates that word, I’m sorry!) than I’m used to from Rhino, but I really enjoyed a ton of the work. And did get a chance to read and admire Jessica Smith’s Organic Furniture Cellar. Production values are off the charts. Jessica’s definitely a visual-poetry person, and I love the way she uses the page, and the phrases she uses to tie the poems together. I admit it’s challening work, but interesting and a worth a little effort. I wish I was more of a visual-art type. Seriously, I think I failed my arts-and-crafts classes in elementary school. And maps. Nobody ask me to make anyone else a map of anything.
Feeling a little sad after a rejection from A Public Space, one of my favorite magazines. Usually I don’t take these things too personally, I hate it when you love a magazine and they don’t love you back. It makes you feel like one of those eighties teen movie characters, the ones that always end up “best friends” with the guy.
Note: first writing cartoons for the Poetry Foundation, and now this? Sellout! Now I wish I could make maps and draw cartoons!
Other Note: Nice work, Peter! And now I know why I get along so well with Peter – he’s one of those Cancer men!
- At May 12, 2007
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In 32 Poems, Juliana Gray, top five songs
1
Lest you think all I do is complain, a new post, in which I talk about other people and things:
As I was asked multiple times for the five songs meme (I did answer on Deb Ager’s blog) I came up with some more songs, these a bit more off the beaten track, perhaps:
–“Dark Angel” by essence
–“Blue” by Angie Hart
–“I Think I Can” by j-pop band The Pillowz
–“Honey Don’t Think” by Grant Lee Buffalo
–“Innocent One” by Michael Penn
Check out Shanna Compton’s “best essay ever written on poetry blogs” up at the Poetry Foundation.
I am looking at the new 32 Poems, guest-edited by Carrie Jerrell. I really liked a lot of the work in this one, no real surprise there as I usually like 32 Poems. I saw a poem by an old friend from my MA workshop days at U of Cinci, Juliana Gray, who took on a pop culture theme with a twist in “Psycho.” In our workshops, Juliana had this great poem about Lois Lane hanging off a cliff that I’ve never forgotten. Anyway, check this one out – here are a few lines from the end of “Psycho:”
“…The nervous boy
lets for the breath he’s held and chews
another piece of the candy corn
he keeps in his pocket. Like a child,
our Norman: so dutiful, so sweet.”
Good stuff, right?
I also really enjoyed Dan Nester’s “Queries” and Stephen Priest’s “After Jacob.”
Also still need to blog about the 2007 Rhino and Jessica Smith’s Organic Furniture Cellar. Quickly, before everything I own disappears into boxes…
Note: Real Life Taking Over Other, More Interesting Lives
Not writing. Not really reading. End of current rental: May 30. Just driving from one bland rental space to another, every day, until they are all a blur, climbing across stairways and walkways, yards and driveways, trying to find a place 1. that allows cats, 2. that doesn’t have holes in the floor, 3. Doens’t smell like something died in it, 4. Is within our price range. Note to self if self ever gets time-travelling ability: don’t move to Seattle seven years ago. You’ll never be able to afford it!
My asthma’s been acting up, etc. Not sleeping well. Also, freelance work has overwhelmed me, just when I’m in the midst of everything else.
So, don’t expect anything witty or bright or interesting from me until after I’ve moved. I’m in guarded survival mode. Tauruses like stability and routine. So, expect me to be mean as a wet cat til I’m entrenched anew.
Sorry for the complaints. I will be back to being happy poet girl at some future time. Or I’ll be one of those crazy homeless people eating grass. One or the other.
- At May 03, 2007
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Poetry Heroes
- 4
Tagged! By Mary B! And there’s no way out!
Say someone asked, “I kind of like poetry, but I don’t know anything about contemporary poetry. Who should I read?”
No blog friends. No real-life friends. No real-life mentors. Alive as of this writing.
1. Louise Gluck
2. Margaret Atwood
3. Denise Duhamel
4. Dorianne Laux (yup, breaking a rule, I don’t care, she would have been there had I not worked with her, etc.)
5. Rita Dove
6. Lucille Clifton
7. Carol Ann Duffy
8. Dana Levin
9. Beth Ann Fennelly
10. Marie Howe
11. James Tate
12. Brigit Pegeen Kelly
13. Ilya Kaminsky (another slight rule break, but I had to fit another guy on my list!)
If you haven’t been tagged yet, go write up your list and be quick about it!
After some exciting dental work today (two new fillings for cavities underneath old fillings) I have no energy to do any of the work I’m supposed to be doing – an interview, a freelance assignment, Crab Creek stuff. I’m barely up to television! Yet here I am on the blog…
I rarely write autobiographical poetry, and when I do, I probably won’t admit that it is. That’s just how I roll. However, now, I can say, I have an autobiographical poem up on Wicked Alice right now in the Spring 2007 issue. Don’t just read it for the possibilities of emotional pornography, though – the issue is a great collection of edgy poems! (Full disclosure: I was never in med school, only pre-med, but we did get to sit in on the dissection of cadavers the day they got into the heart. Practically autobiographical.)
On the night of my birthday, I went to see Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn and A Fine and Private Place, among other books. He read a long story about sinister wine and then played the guitar and sang two songs he had written. He’s about my Dad’s age. He also dropped a Buffy reference casually during his Q&A, which will make me love him even more forever. I heart Peter S. Beagle.
This sunny morning I turn 34. This weekend I:
–visited open houses in the hope of finding a place to live (disappointing, ugly, and expensive. Sigh.)
–visited the zoo to see the new Sumatran tiger cub (cute!) (and also saw adorable foxes – blue and Artic, as well as fennec – and the red panda.)
–started packing up books
–discovered a beautiful park with a sandy beach in Ballard called Golden Gardens, it was packed because it was sunny and beautiful. I also had a red velvet cupcake at the Ballard cupcake shop. Love Ballard, cannot afford anything remotely livable there. Unless someone donates me a place to live? Anyone?
–scanned newspaper listings for jobs and places to live – some more
–avoided doing anything poetry-related
Tonight I’m going to see Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn, give a talk on dialogue and read. Should be fun!
My husband has ordered a small ice cream cake (chocolate, with black cherries and whipped cream) for my birthday. I haven’t had one of those since I was eight. I hope it tastes as good as I remember!
Also: to celebrate the last day of poetry month: The World’s Tiniest Dog, Dancer – click on the first video pic link to see him hopping around in the grass (kawaii! as they say at my local anime shop)
Jeannine Hall Gailey served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and the author of Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and SFPA’s Elgin Award, Field Guide to the End of the World. Her latest, Flare, Corona from BOA Editions, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She’s also the author of PR for Poets, a Guidebook to Publicity and Marketing. Her work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, and JAMA.
