Day 4 of the San Juan Island Residency: Seals, Black Foxes, Island Constraints, and Rain

The power stayed out last night til almost one in the morning. I kept myself entertained by going into the generator-powered library and working on a book review and a friend’s packet of poems til everything came back. The internet hasn’t been working since then either. It’s raining today which will probably put a stop to my sight-seeing activities.

I’m wondering how productive I really am without internet, television, telephone. I mean, I have gotten some work done, but more than I usually do? I’m not sure! I think some technology helps keep us linked in to the things that matter to us – researching a poem, submitting, or being able to check things like e-mail – and helps me do things more quickly. It’s almost like the internet has become an extension of our brains as we work! And television – having it on puts me in a meditative state that allows me to focus better on other tasks. I miss it! I know that’s not a usual poet thing to say. I feel a tad bit constrained by the silence. I feel grumpy that the one grocery store on the island doesn’t stock most of my admittedly difficult – gluten free, organic, etc – staples and has nine-day-old chicken in its meat section (now that I can eat again, I have opinions about the grocery store!) It’s not like I can run down the street and check elsewhere.

I talked to one of the fellow scholars today, a biologist studying the effects of climate change on butterfly models – though he says the Pacific Northwest is not great for butterflies, so he mostly does mathematical modeling work up here. (PS Since I have only seen yellow swallowtail butterflies and cabbage moths anywhere in the Seattle area, I have to agree! The Midwest and South – and California – all had much more diverse and healthy butterfly populations.) Anyway, that made me think of an idea of a poem about math and butterflies.

I slept in today as we were without internet until later in the afternoon, and didn’t feel very energetic anyway, plus it was drizzling outside. In the late afternoon we made another trek to Lime Kiln Point, this time empty of whales or porpoises, but we did run into our white-tipped black fox friend there again in a totally different part of the park. Then we came home and waited on the dock for our seals. Glenn got very close to this one, who, in Glenn’s opinion, was breathing heavily at him. The whole day was a bit dreary but that was fine – I think I was tired out anyway since we were up past 2 AM last night waiting for our sheets to get dry after the power outage.

The power outage also inspired a bit of an apocalypse poem about being in a library on a generator while the rest of the world was cold and dark and silent. I’m still working on Amy Uyematsu’s book review and need to start peeking at my own book manuscript and the PR book if I’m going to make any progress there. I’m frustrated that I haven’t gotten more accomplished in four days, sans cat or house-hunting or doctor’s appointments or any other time-sucking activities. Were my expectations too high? The last residency I went to – some years ago – I think all I accomplished were some bad watercolors, so this beats that!

I finally used the lavish study room, with water views no less, that they’ve assigned me in the Whiteley Center, with big desks and bookcases, after I got the energy to get dressed and bring a drink and drag my books and computer out there this evening (it’s a bit of a shlep from the cabin to the center in the rainy dark for someone with a sprained ankle, thank goodness for Glenn’s help.) I wrote one poem and started a second, finished my review, and even got to look a bit at my apocalypse MS – trying to decide whether to shrink it (it’s 69 8×12 pages now, which is a little long) and whether I’ve got the seed of a new MS there. Tonight I’m going to sleep closer to my regular time – around 1 AM instead of after 2 AM – and I realize I’m more of a night owl than most of the other scholars here. I sleep in later and work best in the evening, after 8 PM – that’s kind of how I am at home, too. The best wildlife spotting on San Juan Island – from whales to birds to deer and foxes – seems to be right at sundown (and probably sunup too, it’s just that I’m not out to see it) so we make sure we’re out and about right around sunset. Rain forecast all weekend. My left ankle looks worse than ever, so I better stay off of it tomorrow. Good thing I brought a lot of reading material!