Dark Election Night, Goodreads Semifinalist Voting, Okay Ophelia, Aimee Mann and a Reading Tomorrow in Port Townsend
- At November 09, 2016
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
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Wow. Last night was rough. I cried, starting at about 8 PM Pacific. I couldn’t sleep, and when I could, I had nightmares about rape and guns and Donald Trump’s face twisted with anger. I wrote a post on Facebook describing how gutted I was at the revelation that America was so racist, misogynist, and charmed with a man who was a tax-dodger who can’t speak a coherent sentence, that so many would rather vote for an unqualified evil man that mocks and hates people different than myself, than a much more qualified, intelligent woman. I felt hated, invisible, that as a woman and rape-victim I was always going to be ignored and marginalized, and how my friends who are people of color, LGBT, disabled, or immigrants must feel what I felt times ten. I felt betrayed by Christian voters who turned out in droves to vote for someone who is the opposite of what Christ stood for, in fact, pretty much the embodiment of the seven deadly sins, plus stupidity and crudeness. I wrote about how useless I felt all my teaching and poetry work seemed to me in the face of such hatred and ignorance. (Especially the message of my first book, which was literally that our culture turns every woman with any power into a villainess. Right? Did anyone even read that?) But this morning, despite the sleepless night, I felt that poetry maybe could do something, maybe shine a light. Here are two poems I posted there that are worth reading – June Jordan’s Poem About My Rights and Lucille Clifton’s Won’t You Celebrate with Me. May their voices be heard and not forgotten.
This is much less important that yesterday’s election, but in a small victory, my newest book Field Guide to the End of the World has made it to the semifinalist level in the Goodreads Choice Awards, and I’d really appreciate your vote. This round only lasts til November 13, so go vote. May it make more difference than my last vote did!
https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-poetry-books-2016
I’m reading tomorrow with Sally Albiso in Port Townsend for the the Northwind series at 7 PM at the Northwest Arts Center. Beforehand I’m meeting up with some poet friend for what is hopefully a consoling and cheering dinner. Northwind readings are always good, too. If you’re in or around Port Townsend, please come out and say hi! I’ll be reading VERY appropriate poems from my new book, Field Guide to the End of the World, and maybe this one from my first book, that also seems appropriate for our times.
Okay, Ophelia
We’ve heard you were a victim.
Stop crouching in shadows, chewing your hair.You can be graceful, not like a ballerina,
like a hedge of coral,built up and eaten and worn down
yet alive, carving the rhythms of the seas.You can be a threshing sledge,
new and sharp with many teeth.
This song from Aimee Mann seems apropos as well. Comfort and peace and love to you, my friends. The America that spoke in that election is not my America. Donald Trump does not represent me. Racist and misogyny, hatred and ignorance may have won the election, but we are not going to accept that as the new American way. There are a LOT of us. We will not be silent.
Poems from Field Guide to the End of the World: “Martha Stewart’s Guide to the End Times” Plus Some November Cheer
- At November 05, 2016
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
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Yes, it does feel a bit like the apocalypse out there these days. My last post was a little heavy. So, to add a little levity to your political/life/strife and time-change/SAD-ness, here’s a poem from my new book, Field Guide to the End of the World.
Martha Stewart’s Guide to the End Times
Of course you know I love those little drones, so I’ve stockpiled them. Those and lemons. I’ve learned the hard way that life without lemons is barely worth living.
Animal husbandry 101: Fill your own organic pantry. Which breed of chicken will give you the best eggs under stress? Pg. 13.
Leave the fondant til later. You can always do a ganache topping for your cupcakes in a pinch. So simple!
Evacuation map for New York City, Boston, the Hamptons, with scratch-and-sniff icons: page 24.
Survival skills are just like hostess skills: a little preparation, a little spying (with the drones,) a little determined defense-driven hedging of the grounds. Razor wire goes beautifully with your holly thicket.
Guide to storing munitions in attractive wicker boxes: page 52.
If your water isn’t as clear as it should be, use up those charcoal filters first, but after, try a solid iodine tablet in your home-dug well. In these times, it’s a good thing.
Culinary tips for after the mega-store raid: mixed nuts have a long shelf life. Throw in a little rosemary and toast them over an open flame for anytime elegance. More ideas for those family-sized tubs of popcorn: page 68.
Now’s the time to get out your hurricane lamps! They create a lovely glow in these last days.
Here are some more cheerful thoughts – we had two straight days of November sunlight, so we went out, did some gardening (very Martha Stewart-ish,) baked cranberry-apple muffins, checked out the Bellevue Botanical Gardens where I captured some still-blooming white fushcias and Glenn snapped a pic of me with the leaves still turning. Plus, our cats Shakespeare and Sylvia decide the weekend is for sleeping in on – not reading – magazines! It’s a struggle not to smile when ragdolls decide it’s time for you to pay attention to them!
- White fuschias at Bellevue Botanical Gardens, November
- Glenn and I sharing some rare November sunshine at Bellevue Botanical Garden
- Ragdolls on magazines! Mom, you didn’t want to read these, did you?
- Me in Bellevue Botanical Garden
New review of Robot Scientist’s Daughter, new poem in Interfictions, Lucia Perillo, and Dark Days
- At November 01, 2016
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
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First, the good stuff!
Happy to have a new poem up at Interfictions called “Serendipity” (and yes, it references the sort of mediocre romantic comedy of the same name, and also has a line from the show “Community” and a reference to The Last Unicorn. Points if you can find them all!)
Thanks to Jannell McConnell Parsons and CrossTalk CellPress for this lovely – and science-minded – review of my fourth book, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, along with Natasha K. Moni’s The Cardiologist’s Daughter – here: http://crosstalk.cell.com/blog/the-poetry-of-nuclear-physics-and-cardiology
Dark Days
It’s the beginning of November, when the bright leaves of Seattle’s extremely brief fall have been blown away and the dark pretty non-metaphorically begins taking over. It’s dark when you wake, dark when you go to sleep, and often dark in between. The rain, which becomes ever-present this time of year, is cold – not midwest or northeastern cold, just cold enough to make you feel a little miserable, to make your face hurt and your lungs work harder to keep up.
After the death of Brigit Pegeen Kelly last month, Lucia Perillo, local (and terrific) poet, essayist and novelist – who started out as a wildlife biologist and became a writer after being diagnosed with MS at midlife – has passed away. She was tough, and funny. Her work – not just her poems, but her essays, and when I saw her speak – was breathtaking in its intelligence and bravery. She was a true inspiration as a writer and a person. Go read her work! “The body tells a story/ mostly about loss.” (From “Rotator Cuff Vortex.”) She has great things to say about responding to the question: “How are you doing” and not saying “fine,” about having a body – and then losing a body, slowly – that allowed her to paddle across lakes and climb mountains. She talked about disability in a way that helped me when I was stuck in a wheelchair and unable to process what was happening to me.
And it’s not just the loss of these two poets. I also lost a family member this week. This is on top of dealing with the unknowns of a metastasized cancer diagnosis that highly paid specialists cannot agree on how to treat, having a new neurologist tell me that my neural-lesion-related motor skill loss, difficulty with proprioception, and foot and hand numbness were permanent but it was obvious I was “working hard’ at physical therapy to help these problems (yeah, no doubt, I’ve been going once a week for six years, so hooray, finally some minor improvement!) and of course the terror that is modern politics. (I’ve already voted, and I can’t tell you the feeling of sheer relief I felt when I got that voting ballot in the mail.)
I’ve found myself unmotivated to write or send out work in a way that’s unfamiliar to me. Maybe this year’s unfortunate surprises have started to wear on me. I actually bought a magazine yesterday because it had an article on planning “end of life” stuff. I read Max Ritvo’s pretty amazing Four Reincarnations – which is beautiful, but maybe not the best thing to read when you’re pretty sure you’re dying of cancer – the author died of cancer at 25 right before his first book was published by Milkweed. I don’t know if I’ve been processing the bad news enough, or maybe trying to ignore it a lot. I have a life-long survival skill of focusing on the good stuff whenever possible, but there are times when you kind of have to face the bad stuff, too. I don’t know what to do next, because I feel unable to plan for the first time in a long time. I’m the kind of person who plans things out in advance, who likes to be prepared. And now I have to prepare for…what? The unknown, mystery. I’ve never been very comfortable with the unknown, even though I’m a poet and love Jung and the subconscious and folk tales that celebrate that dark forest path. I hope, I hope, I get a little light for the path.
Open Books Reading, Halloween-y Poem up at Women’s Voices for Change, Wonder Woman Poetry Videos, and More
- At October 30, 2016
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
0
Today one of the poems from the new book, “Introduction to the Body in Fairy Tales,” is featured on Women’s Voices for Change. It’s a very Halloween-appropriate poem – it was even included in The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Six!
Thanks to The University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Review who featured my poem “Wonder Woman Dreams of the Amazon” – from my first book, Becoming the Villainess, as a video they made from one of my readings and images they put together in their first foray into video poems! Here it is. A lot of fun!
So, last night was the Seattle debut of the new book, Field Guide to the End of the World, at Open Books. We did a little reception, a little book signing, a little reading – it was really cool. Thanks to everyone who came out! Here are a few pics that Glenn snapped. It was a wonderful way to celebrate the book during a very difficult year!
- Pre-reading – the sun came out!
- Girls at the Open Books reading!
- Open Books Reading
- book signing
I’m hosting the Twitter #poetparty tonight at 6 PM Pacific/9 PM Eastern to talk spooky and speculative poetry. Come in and join the hashtagging!
Wishing you all a happy and safe Halloween!
Brigit Pegeen Kelly, a New Review of Field Guide, Internet Attacks and Poems of the Apocalypse
- At October 21, 2016
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
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First: I was so sorry to hear of the passing of the truly great poet Brigit Pegeen Kelly. I never met her in person (though reports of her kindness and generosity are widespread) but her poetry was an important discovery for me years ago and definitely an influence on my own work. Her combination of darkness, morality, and surrealism – especially in Song – are unsurpassed. If you have never read her work, see the title poem from that book, Song, here.
I meant to post this morning but the internet had been shut down by a hacker attack. It reminds me of the limits and vulnerability of online communities, our writing, and our communication. Security on the web – especially in web services – is still mostly pretty easy to hack, and it’s difficult to defend against all types of hacks (DDoS attacks are simple to perform, hard to stop.)
Kathleen Kirk compares and contrasts a poem of mine from Field Guide to the End of the World with a poem from Donna Vorreyer’s Every Love Story is an Apocalypse here, “The Bounce and the Chaos” . An interesting and thoughtful discussion of two poems whose subjects – human relationships and electromagnetism – are very similar.
As I’m also currently working on a review of Dana Levin’s Banana Palace, another apocalyptic collection, and recently read Render: An Apocalypse by Nick Flynn and Rebecca Gayle Howell, I was thinking of our current obsession with apocalypse in the news, in pop culture, in weather reporting. The last time I saw so much apocalypse in the poetry zeitgeist was back in the 1920’s, what with Eliot’s “The Waste Land” and Yeats’ “The Second Coming.” I even noticed the theme in children’s movies – not the teen dystopias like Maze Runner/The Giver/Hunger Games/Divergent stuff, but the children’s stuff, like, every “Ice Age” movie is another version of the characters facing an apocalypse, the latest caused by asteroids. Think of what people were about to face in the twenties – a huge stock market crash, the second World War, arguably more horrifying than the first, the Great Depression. A decimation. They could not have known what was coming, but perhaps they sensed this. What do you think accounts for our current obsession – the movies, the television shows (the latest – “No Tomorrow” – has another asteroid destroys the earth plot), the novels and poems of imagining beyond the end of the world. I know that my own personal medical crises – first of the brain, in the discovery of brain lesions a few years ago and their effects, like memory and motor skill problems, and this year, being diagnosed – not once, but twice, in six months, with metastasized cancer in my liver – definitely spurs thoughts of afterlife, survival, luck, the spirit versus the body. With Brigit Pegeen Kelly’s death, my thoughts drift to how a poet survives beyond reach of her physical person, her short lifespan. Her three books continue to be taught and loved, and that is a kind of immortality and grace.
Thank you to Melanie at the Teabird book blog for this kind review of Field Guide to the End of the World. http://teabird17.blogspot.com/2016/10/field-guide-to-end-of-world-by-jeannine.html
I’m also hoping for a friendly crowd at tomorrow night’s Hugo House event at the Pine Box, where I’m participating in a crazy-scary contest-reading sort of thing – you can read more about it here.
And please put October 29th on your calendar for my updated reading/reception at Open Books for Field Guide to the End of the World. Apocalypse-related costumes welcomes. Cupcakes and sparkling drinks provided! Put on your poetry-apocalypse shoes and come party!
After the Storm, New Review of Field Guide and a poem in the Fall 2016 of North American Review
- At October 18, 2016
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
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There were three days of storms from a typhoon in the Pacific that came through over the weekend. They caused water spouts/tornadoes in coastal Oregon, some downed trees and power outages, but we were not hit as hard as they had predicted. So Thursday night, we watched the weather and bought water and found our flashlights; there was a mild storm, no big deal. Friday was windier and wetter, we waited anxiously for updates on the historic Saturday storm – when it would start, where it would hit the hardest. Saturday was the day we were supposed to get the “historic” storm, so dangerous we were told not to go out of our houses. There was a bit of heavy rain at 6:30 PM, but not much else. (I was supposed to have an artist date with a friend, a poetry group, and have my reading/reception at Open Books on Saturday – none of which happened. We rescheduled the Open Books reading/reception til October 29th due to this weather event. Oh well – hope to see some of you at 4 PM on October 29th – it’ll be more spooky as it’ll be Halloween weekend!) So we took a trip to downtown Seattle during a rainless, wind-less lull on Saturday and took this picture of the ferry boat and ferris wheel, checked out the work at SAM’s newly relocated gallery of local artist’s work (right behind the gift shop – so cool!), checked out Pike Place market (still plenty of tourists there) and we visited Open Books and bought some books! And here are my books on their shelf! Always cheering!
- Liz Tran piece at SAL gallery
- Seattle storm lull with ferris wheel and ferry
- books on the shelf at Open Books
So that is how I spent my weekend. I felt so tired and frustrated and stressed out from the over-reaction to possible – but not actual – disaster that the weather people made me feel. (Just like the first poem in Field Guide to the End of the World, “Introduction to Disaster Preparedness” – ironic!) It reminded me of how I’ve been buffeted by medical news this year; in February, a random hospital stay resulted in the news that I had metastasized cancer in my liver. Many tests and doctors later, a group of liver specialists told me that the tumors were benign adenomas. A month later, I was told I definitely had a rare terminal cancer called carcinoid. Now my endocrinologists think that might wrong and are arguing with the liver oncologist about it. The stress and anxiety have been worse than any symptoms I’ve had. I’m tired of the ups and downs of both weather and medical reports. (Plus, I’m having nightmares about Trump every night.) I just want to sleep all the time as a result. Or maybe that’s just a beginning of fall thing?
On the plus side, I’m thankful for a few pieces of good news. Here’s a new review of Field Guide to the End of the World from Everything Distills into Reading (thank you!!🙂
http://readbookswritepoetry.blogspot.com/2016/10/poetic-book-tours-field-guide-to-end-of.html
And I have a poem in the new issue of North American Review called “Repeton in Winter.” I was very excited because I love North American Review!
Here’s the first poem from Field Guide to the End of the World. So apropos!
Introduction to Disaster Preparedness
While you told me about the bee colony collapse
caused by cell phones or maybe Monsanto and their magic poisons
I was thinking about a friend who said they found a lump
and another friend finishing chemo and waiting for a scan
and a third who said my hair is a disaster and she meant the layers
would take forever to grow out. My house is a disaster, she says, my yard, my outfit.
When you told me my son is autistic I thought of his bright eyes
and beautiful tears. It’s not the life you planned. How our minds
and bodies spin apart, like hives of bees confused about whom to follow,
flying further and further out to discover – what? That they’d flown
too far and now are frozen, flightless. How many hives abandoned.
We cannot sleep too far from disaster zones. I saw a tornado once
in my own front yard, and slept through hurricanes, knelt during earthquakes.
Did I pray, did I ask for something then? I only held my breath.
When later asked, Are you okay? I said, Everything is temporary.
Apocalyptic Storms and Rescheduling my Open Books Reading, Seattle Review of Books review of Field Guide, and More!
- At October 14, 2016
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
0
Every weather report has been crying apocalypse as a series of storms brought on by a waning Pacific typhoon has hit the Pacific Northwest. We’ve been lucky in our new home – no power outages, merely a few flickers, no downed trees. I haven’t watched this much weather news in a while.
In the intersection of apocalyptic poetry and apocalyptic weather, my poetry reading/reception for Field Guide to the End of the World – the last one I’m doing in Seattle – was supposed to be this Saturday afternoon at Open Books. It’s now been rescheduled to October 29th at the same time, 4-6 PM. Hope to see you there! It will be spooky appropriate fun for Halloween weekend!
A big thank you to Seattle Review of Books and Paul Constant, who were kind enough to do a review of Field Guide to the End of the World – local press is always an unexpected happy thing. I was excited that the book’s cover was briefly on the home page of Seattle Weekly! You can read it here at Seattle Review of Books!
Pumpkins, Politics, New Reviews of Field Guide, Dark Reading Recs, and Rainy Day Reception at Open Books
- At October 11, 2016
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
0
Welcome to October 2016, pumpkin and politics season! The politics is giving me a stomach ache, so I’m going to focus on the pumpkins. We raced out in any small blip in the rainy weather to look for pumpkins, local squash, and other seasonal beauty. I kind of love pumpkin patches, even when they’re not that sincere. And here is a hummingbird on my back tree for good measure.
- Woodinville pumpkins
- Scolding Hummingbird, October
- Me at a local farmer’s market
- Glenn and I at Serres Farm Pumpkin patch
A new review of Field Guide to the End of the World appeared today at the 5 Minutes for Books blog – one of the nice things said about the book was it was “the best book I have read in a long time in any genre.” So kind!
And Serena of Savvy Verse and Wit recommends dark reads for October at Book Bloggers International – including The Robot Scientist’s Daughter and Field Guide to the End of the World! Check in out! Thanks Serena!
Today we have some sun, but the upcoming weather report says we have a week of rain, storms, and wind ahead. I have an online class visit tomorrow, then a writer friend coming over Thursday, and the Open Books reception for Field Guide to the End of the World on Saturday afternoon (starting at 4 PM!) I’d say on a cold, rainy day, there’s nothing like going into a bookshop like Open Books, seeing friends, maybe eating a few gluten-free cupcakes – so if you’re looking for something to do this Saturday, I hope to see you there! There will be a short reading of appropriately spooky poems, a book signing, but mostly celebrating!
Review of Field Guide to the End of the World up at Entropy, Ada Limon SAL Reading, Upcoming Readings, Hurricanes, and Feeling Grateful
- At October 06, 2016
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
0
Thanks to Donna Vorreyer and Entropy Magazine for this amazingly thought-provoking review of Field Guide to the End of the World. I confess I got a little tear-y reading it. I know how much energy it takes to write a review like that, and I appreciate it!
Spent a wonderful night listening to Ada Limon read at SAL’s poetry series last night, and then Rebecca Hoogs interviewed her after the reading, which was great. My favorite quote from Ada was something I’d often told students “Embrace your weirdness. It’s what will make your poetry special.” She talked about working with Phil Levine and Sharon Olds at NYU, living in Kentucky due to dating someone in the racehorse business (!!), not seeing whales at Provincetown, her first time witnessing fireflies as an adult, and even her theater degree at UW. Ada was not only super talented and a great reader, she also radiates beauty and light. I was so glad I got to see her in person! I had really liked Bright Dead Things when I read it last year, but now I can connect to the book even more. Isn’t that why we go to readings?
Tonight, I’ll be trying to connect to readers myself when I do a class visit for a class down in California. How great is our technology lets us do that? We’ll be talking about genre, robots, class, and The Robot Scientist’s Daughter. Should be fun!
In the meantime, I’ve been worrying about my friends and family on the Southern East Coast and that crazy hurricane. Nothing I can do anything about, of course, but worry and watch the weather reports.
I got a rejection today, after sending out two subs – isn’t that always the way, some poems come back, then they go out again. I had some random (?) mail like “sign up for cancer insurance!” (What up, HIPAA?) Despite all this, I was feeling extraordinarily grateful – I don’t know, for everything, for my friends, for a wonderful poetry community both in person and online, for the good things in our lives. I do get discouraged and depressed, like anyone, as you could probably tell from my last post – but for some reason, the last day or so, I’ve just had this odd feeling of hopefulness and well-being. I know some of this is from the good wishes and sweetness of my family and friends.
I got to talk to Billie at the SAL reading about our celebration/reception/reading October 15 at Open Books. I think we’re going to bring gluten-free cupcakes, sparkling drinks, cheese and fruit. I’m going to pick a few poems to read (nothing too long, as we want to have time to actually celebrate with friends!) and then sign books and socialize. I’m really looking forward to it! I’m so grateful to have a second opportunity to celebrate the book with friends at one of my very favorite all-time bookstores!
Stay safe, everyone in the path of Hurricane Matthew. And thank you to everyone who has sent me supportive messages and good thoughts and prayers, people who have bought, read and reviewed Field Guide to the End of the World and my other books (just had a new review pop up on Amazon for Unexplained Fevers – how cool is that?) and my family and friends who have tried to keep me cheerful during this challenging year.