Moving Some More…and poetry and stuff…
Okay, now that I’ve gotten the keys and stocked the fridge and made sure the cable and phone worked (they didn’t, but we had the guy come out to fix them) I’m thinking, yay, small town Americana by the sea! Sure I’ll miss those big glitzy (and also, teensy cool) bookstores and big glossy grocery stores, but the ocean will make up for it. Unfortunately, no view of the water from the little slightly dingey side street we live on, but it’s less than a five-minute drive in any direction.
Snuck out of packing for an hour yesterday to see Matthea Harvey at Open Books, who was great, but sadly, had not heard of Astro Boy (a 60’s anime cult figure who has made a comeback on Adult Swim.) I had this theory abour her Robo-Boy poems and their connection to Astro Boy…well, maybe the connection still works, but more in a collective unconscious kind of way. Anyway, she was great and the room was packed, and Oliver was there (hi Oliver!) I did manage to get away without buying any new poetry.
On the way down to small-town-by-the-sea to the new house today, husband G and I listened to Margaret Atwood’s CD of her reading her new book, The Door. She’s a fun, if slightly flat-toned, reader. It helped to hear them as well as see them.
I’ll be delivering a paper at AWP on Pedagogy, it seems. Yay! Now to get those airline tickets and hotel reservations (all the conference hotels are sold out, of ourse, even the new Doubletree one…) At this AWP, I swear I will be neither disabled by back injury (like last year) or sick (like the two years before that.) It’s health all the way for me! And dancing and fun til all hours! I hope 🙂
The Thyroid and two Poetry Books Everyone Will Love…
So, got back from a thyroid specialist yesterday who told me I’ve had a weird thyroid problem for some time (manifested by odd lab results and by the big old swollen thyroid I’ve had for years) where it switches from hypo-to-hyper, and has to do with the immune system. So I’m starting a new med, this time a synthetic t4 thyroid hormone. Oh, the excitement of me and my new medications…(PS some problems that can be symptoms of thyroid problems – constant sleepiness or sleeplessness, blood pressure fluctuations, joint problems that mimic arthritis, and of course, the weight fluctuations that come out of nowhere. and puffy eyes. It’s really the puffy eyes that got me. Puffy eyes? I’m such a girl…)
On to Poetry!
Dorianne Laux’s first book, the truly great Awake, is soon going to be re-issued by Eastern Washington University Press, and good for them! This book has long been one of my favorites of hers, a little rawer but certainly as powerful as anything in the later books, including a certain poem called the “Tooth Fairy” which may be Dorianne’s best poem EVER! (Buy it from the Press here: http://ewupress.ewu.edu/poetry/awake.htm) It makes a great holiday gift!) I hate it when good books go out of print too early, and Awake was definitely one of those books. Kudos to EWU Press!
I have to admit that, though I loved Matthea Harvey’s poetry in journals like A Public Space, when I bought her first two books I liked, but not loved, the work – certainly you could tell Harvey was a clever and funny writer, but the whole books seemed a little intimidating, or opaque. Her newest book, Modern Life, I have fallen in love with the entire thing. It’s not just the references to robots (of course, I’m always game for those) or Japanese anime classics (her “Robo-Boy” being a clear reference to “Astro Boy”) because even the standalone poems in the book are outstanding, as are the poems in the series “Terror of the Future/The Future of Terror” that was based on a dictionary list of words between “Future” and “Terror” and manage to evoke our post 9/11 anxiety in a new and chilling way.
Here’s a link to buy it at Amazon:
Modern Life at Amazon
And, Matthea Harvey is coming to Seattle to read at Open Books on November 14!
