The The Poetry Interview and a Busy Week!

Still experiencing repercussions from the bad news of last week, but pulling myself together, especially since I’m up against a super busy week! Check out all this cool stuff:

Check out this surreal interview Saeed Jones did…with my poems! In The The Poetry:
http://www.thethepoetry.com/2012/07/in-a-dark-room-jeannine-gailey/
Saeed is a gifted writer with a really interesting imagination, as you can see from the interview. I just tried to keep up!

Tomorrow I’m finally allowed to make the official announcement about my new job. I’m about to go to a meeting with the Arts Coordinator to finalize some plans. Lots of meetings involved with this job, at least so far…

Later this week I’m going up to the Port Townsend Writers Conference to do two afternoon classes, one on haiku and haibun and another on how to put together a poetry manuscript. I hope to see you there! I’m working on the handouts as we speak. I’m a handout addict!

So that’s today’s news. Tune in tomorrow for our super-secret special official announcement!

Special Appearance by Redmond’s Poet Laureate at Derby Days and thanks

If you come by the Redmond Arts booth at Derby Days today from 2-4 PM you can meet and greet the new official Redmond Poet Laureate. I wonder who she is?

Thanks to all of you who have sent me notes re: the last post. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.

In Which Obstables Appear and the dichotomies of being a writer

So, of course, after a post about realizing that we might be already living our perfect life, how we can reach out and improve our communities, being grateful, etc…I’ve had a couple of days of sad news, setbacks, rejections and unexpected problems. Terrible surprises. A little bit of a health scare on top of it. Right now it’s hard to see the upside, the benefits, the possible blessings that will come out of the many slaps in the face, “no” messages from the universe, and just plain bad news.

One of the weird things about being a writer is the dual expectations – we have to be at least somewhat inward-facing, shy, introspective, and focused on art to be writers at all, much less good writers – but we also have to be aware of audience, focused on messages and marketing, extroverted enough to connect to others, someone who can not only write poetry well but get out and read it and sell it and teach it. Hard work. Some weeks, harder than others.When your own dreams get knocked over, can you turn around and inspire others to pursue those dreams themselves?

I am wishing good thoughts to my friends who are going through hard times. I am wishing for myself for faith and more courage and I’m wishing for unexpected solutions to problems that seem hopeless to me right now. I am hoping for better outcomes for all of us than we might expect.

Maybe You Are Already Living Your Perfect Life

I was talking to a friend last night who is embarking on a new adventure in her thirties (medical school!) just as I am starting a new job, and how we had both just moved, and how what we envisioned for ourselves at this age when we were younger didn’t exactly resemble what was happening to us. We talked about all the things we wished we had done differently, how we wished we had arrived at our current states earlier.

And I thought, sure, we’re doing all these crazy things (like starting medical school and being poets,) and our lives didn’t turn out as we had expected – but that doesn’t mean we’re not exactly where need to be. Though we have frustrations and money worries and pressure, though the camera-ready families we envisioned might never have materialized, maybe we are already living our perfect lives. After all, we’re following our dreams, everything that we’ve experienced along the way has taught us what we need and what we do not really need. Though we’re both nervous and stressed, though rejection slips still come in and we might be frustrated with daily obstacles, the objects in the mirror might be brighter than they appear.

Yesterday I was in for my yearly exam and in the waiting room there was a young woman crying into the chest of her boyfriend/husband. I thought, ten years ago, that would have been me (although I’m not really the cry-in-public type, these waiting rooms are an odd kind of purgatorial space, where people are waiting for good and bad news, waiting for their hopes and dreams to be answered. They raise a lot of anxieties…) Across the room, a middle-aged woman played, unselfconsciously, with her two toddlers while this young woman sobbed about losing her ability to have babies. And I wanted to tell the young woman, it will all be okay, later, you won’t feel like everything is such a tragedy, that not having kids doesn’t ruin your life. It is not the only way a woman defines herself. I wish we heard that message more often. Sometimes, happily-ever-after just looks different than you planned.

I have a wonderful husband, a new home to worry over, a new job to stress out about, a wonderful set of friends, plenty to eat and read, I have four books of poetry written and a fifth one in process. My health has been better lately, enough so I can focus on doing the things I love. I live in a city I love, though I might hate its weather nine months of the year, I love its libraries and bookstores, its coffee and farmer’s markets, its art and literary communities, the snow-capped mountains that peek out just when you’ve forgotten they were there.  It’s really not such a bad life at all.

Caution: You may already be living your perfect life, but you may not recognize it. Look around. You might already be exactly where you need to be.

Recommendations for Geek-Flavored Poetry Books and Useful Links

Have been in a whirlwind of work for my can’t-yet-announce-it-officially new job! It’s a good thing with had such grey cold drizzly weather, it helps me stay inside and organize and submit work and write e-mails.

One thing I’m looking at is a project for a community reading the same book of poetry together. My idea is to have the book appeal to the folks in my community – namely, a huge number of techies – so I’m looking for recommendations for recent “Geek-flavored” poetry books – leaning to the “accessible” side of the scale, something non-poets would enjoy as well as poets – with connections to science, math, comic books, sci-fi, etc…I’ve already decided on Kathleen Flenniken’s Plume and Tracy K. Smith’s Life on Mars, but want more!
Post your suggestions in the comments, please!

I’ve also got some useful links today.

For those stressing about sending out or marketing their poetry books, here are interviews with poets about the journey to publishing their first books:
http://www.kickingwind.com/interviews.html

Presses with open readings instead of contests:
http://thelinebreak.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/presses-with-open-readings-for-full-length-poetry-manuscripts/

A wonderful post from Marisa Crawford on the importance of creating a creative writing community for teen girls:
http://herkind.org/articles/on-my-mind/girl-talk-on-valuing-teen-girl-voices-creating-community

Kelli Agodon gives poets some marketing advice:
http://ofkells.blogspot.com/2011/06/marketing-for-poets-writers-who-prefer.html

A new poem from me up at the new Blue Lyra Review (with bonus childhood photo:)
http://bluelyrareview.com/category/current-issue/

Happy 4th of July! Go and try my grilled watermelon salsa out for tomorrow’s cookout, too! We are going to try out the house’s new grill for the first time, as long as we have some sunshine…