Big Poetry Giveaway Winner, Jack Straw this Friday, Worries among May flowers

The winner of the Big Poetry Giveaway of Unexplained Fevers and a copy of Rattle is Renee Emerson of Hyacinths & Biscuits. Congrats Renee! Hope you enjoy them! I’m also sending off a copy of my book to British Columbia for the Goodreads Giveaway.

I’ve just about recovered from Sunday’s reading and party, had a day after of being really sick, just got my voice back today, and started thinking about planning the next reading. This one will be for the Jack Straw Writers Program, this Friday, May 3rd, in downtown Seattle at 7 PM. I’m reading with three other Jack Straw writers, which should be fun.

Then, on May 11th, the final Poet Laureate event of the season at VALA art center, called “Once Upon a Time” – it’ll be a reading with a bunch of talented local poets and an art show by the lovely and talented Michaela Eaves. Plus a champagne reception! Read more about it here:

http://www.valaeastside.org/once-upon-a-time-a-poetry-reading-art-display-and-reception

In more personal news, my biggest worry the last week hasn’t been about poetry at all – it’s been about my mom, who seems to have had a transient ischemic mini-stroke last week. Her stress test and other tests have come back clean in the last few days, which is great, but I just wish I lived a little closer to her so I could check in on her in person. She’s otherwise pretty healthy, so I’m hoping this was just a strange aberration, but it was an unwelcome surprise – I guess that’s what happens when you turn 40, you don’t just realize your own mortality but also the mortality of your loved ones.

Meanwhile, outside spring is blooming with extra frills – cherry and apple blossoms all over town, a layer of planted-last-fall double-pink tulips in front of our little townhouse, sun and red-winged blackbirds chirpings. It’s supposed to get up to 80 this weekend, a little glimpse of early summer in our usually gloomy Northwest corner. It seems contrary to focus on worries in these surroundings, but I’m finding it hard to concentrate on anything else. I’m feeling grateful for phone calls from friends and family far and near the last few days, the distractions of writing and reading, and a husband who has been working hard to cheer me up this last week. Even my cats have been extra friendly. So I will resolutely keep my mind on good things, on hope and peace and lean against anxiety, discouragement, fatigue, fear.

Reading Report from Open Books, Poems in Pirene’s Fountain, Jack Straw Reading this Friday!

I’m happy to report that yesterday’s reading – my first for the new book – with Kelly Davio at Open Books went really well. And Glenn, my wonder-husband, set up a surprise 40th birthday for me afterwards at a nearby restaurant with 20 of my nearest and dearest. It was really wonderful but now I have completely lost my voice! Ha! The crowd for the reading was not only healthy in size but included some old friends I rarely get to see and some new faces, and was really warm and supportive, and Kelly was a great reader – full of energy and combustion. The interesting thing about this first reading from the new book was how the characters in the poems sort of possessed me – I was angry when I read one character’s poems, sad when I read another’s, etc. It occurred to me that some of my persona poems might be taking on their own life, which I am just channeling when I read. I don’t remember that happening with my other books, but maybe it did!
My friends – based on their Facebook posts – may have better pictures from the reading than I do, but here are a few with my reading partner Kelly Davio, poets Kelli Russell Agodon, Kathleen Flenniken, and Raul Sanchez, who were among the warm and wonderful aforementioned crowd members.

Thanks to Pirene’s Fountain, where I have a few new poems up (including two from Unexplained Fevers:)

http://pirenesfountain.com/poetry/gailey.html

It’s a wonderful issue so if you have time read the whole thing.

And, I have another reading on Friday May 3rd at 7 PM with the Jack Straw Writers – which you can read more about here.

It’s a great group to read with and if you haven’t been out to the Jack Straw building downtown, it’s fascinating – a recording/studio space and a reading space and rooms where they teach artists, writers, and other creative types how to record and perform on the radio. Pretty cool!

An online interview with Joanne Merriam, Tomorrow’s Reading, and Advice from the Pages of Grimm’s

Hope you are all planning to come out to Open Books tomorrow to me and Kelly Davio read at 3 PM. It should be some fun! Kelly is a terrific reader and I promise to be extra fun.

A new interview with me by Joanne Merriam is up at her web site here:
http://www.joannemerriam.com/2013/04/26/intermittent-visitors-jeannine-hall-gailey/

She asks about some of the inspirations for Unexplained Fevers, and I included this tidbit about how some of the poems came about:

“It’s not hard to imagine Sleeping Beauty as a drug addict, or Snow White as someone with chronic fatigue syndrome, when you’re spending a lot of time in hospitals.”

Here’s a poem from Unexplained Fevers called “Advice From the Pages of Grimms’:”

Advice Left Between the Pages of Grimms’ Fairy Tales

Life is not a fairy tale, and this isn’t your pumpkin coach.
You’re not lost in some magic wood,
and that blood on your hands isn’t from an innocent stag
at all. Princess, remember to fill your pockets
with more than bread crumbs, and
if you can’t sleep don’t blame the legumes
beneath the sheets. One look at that glass coffin
they’ve set up for you should tell you
everything you need to know about their intentions.
Remember a lot of girls end up dismembered, and
every briar rose has its thorn.
Forget the sword and magic stone,
forget enchantments and focus on the profit margin,
the hard line. Read the subtext.

Tulip Therapy After a Tough Week and Upcoming First Reading for Unexplained Fevers

Dear Readers,

Now that my passwords are all reset and my mother is safely out of the hospital and recovering, I am able to relax a bit and get back to concentrating on things like poetry, books, etc. Yesterday my husband snuck me out of town and took me up the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, where we had glorious warm sunny weather (for April, a 70 degree sunny day is fairly unusual here, so we had to take advantage of it) and got to see a lot of flowers. Want to see a picture? Here are three!

See? Isn’t that better that staying home worrying? This was one of the biggest spring-birthday-month rituals – driving out to see the tulips, stopping in our favorite gluten-free bakery and farmer’s market and little bookshops and stores – I missed when I lived in California, so I try to go every year now. Besides, this Windmill picture will probably be the closest I get to Holland!

Now, all you Seattle friends, notice that this Sunday is my first Seattle reading for my third book, Unexplained Fevers, just out from New Binary Press! I’m reading with the esteemed and talented Kelly Davio (pictured below – I’m standing with her book next to the bear) at Open Books, Seattle’s Wallingford-located all-poetry bookstore, at 3 PM. Don’t be late! It’s the end of poetry month and I think we should all embrace fun and springtime and all that is good in the world…

Hacked and Mom in the hospital

Dear friends,

I apologize if you got any strange e-mails from me in the last 24 hours – one of my e-mails was compromised – the password was changed but should be fixed now – and I probably didn’t get your e-mails if you sent them in the last days. Of course, if you got anything suspicious from me yesterday, do not click on any of the links. And again, I know I missed some e-mails from people, so if you sent me anything in the last 24 hours or so, you might want to re-send.

I’d also like to ask for your thoughts for my mom who is normally pretty healthy and spunky, who is currently in the hospital with possibly serious heart problems and also possible pneumonia. I can’t go out to see her in Ohio because I’ve been running a high fever for a week and it wouldn’t be good to expose mom to more germs…but I’m awfully worried. So far this April has not been shaping up to be stellar, would be my understatement.