Things have been going a little slower on the “walking” front that I had hoped. I’d hoped I’d be easily walking about by now (it’s been almost seven weeks!) but I’m still barely hobbling around, still in the cast and still mostly via wheelchair. At least my hand cast is off – but the right hand still isn’t strong enough to use a crutch. My immune system went bonkers this month and I’m really anemic (just had a bunch of new blood tests) so that may be why the healing is a little slower than normal. And to that I say, Meh!
On a happier note, I found out I was nominated for two different poems for the Rhysling Award, and the poems will appear in the Rhysling anthology for 2008. Next year, I’m going for three! For those of you who haven’t heard about it, it’s an award for science fiction and speculative poetry; previous winners include Margaret Atwood, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Jane Yolen, and Ursula Le Guin. Thanks to Poemeleon and Mythic Delirium for the nominations…in the words of academy award starlets, I’m honored just to be nominated.
We’re doing our taxes, always exciting. This year (2009) isn’t shaping up to be as financially helpful as last year, at least so far. That’s probably a common story – the downturn affects everyone, even poets! Speaking of which, buy my book (here – signed book and free broadside included! – or here,) buy a book from your favorite small press, go to a reading – keep the poetry economy (such as it is) going! I am thankful for the organizations that donate to poets, to the universities that pay poets to give readings and classes, to literary magazines that pay the small amounts they can and the publishers who pay our small royalty checks, to the individuals who buy poetry on a regular basis. The little things really do add up.
Some quick notes:
I’ll be reading poems (along with Neil Aiken and fellow Pacific alum Michelle Bitting) on the radio show the Moe Green Poetry Hour (I believe the podcast should be available here:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/onword)
at 6 PM Pacific time on March 16.
I’ve got a featured poem up (“Aware for the Woman Who Disappears in Silence”) at the Mythic Delirium web site, and you can hear me read the poem out loud there, plus there’s a cool piece of art illustrating the Bush-Warbler Japanese folk tale that the poem talks about!
http://www.mythicdelirium.com/
And I just received my copies of Many Mountains Moving, which features a bunch of really good poetry, and two reviews I wrote (of Dorianne Laux’s Facts About the Moon and Margaret Atwood’s The Door.)
A big thank you to everyone for their kind comments about the Poetry Foundation interview with Matthea Harvey.