Cabin Fever

At January 19, 2012
By Jeannine Gailey
In cabin fever, grant applications, Seattle snowpocalypse
3

Yes, I haven’t left my apartment in three days due to Seattle’s Snowpocalypse 2012. I also had a light fixture shatter on top of my head and a giant computer crash that ate four days of writing work. Then it snowed again, then it iced up. I watched three different pickup trucks today try to drag a car out of a ditch beside a stop sign outside my apartment, and then only succeed in banging the car hard sideways against the stop sign, with the driver inside. Ouch. This was not, as you may understand, much encouragement for me to try to send myself out into the world. Did I mention a foot of snow with a layer of ice outside?

So, I also started working on two grant applications, which is probably the least life-affirming thing an artist can do with themselves. I have a stack of magazines, library books, bad television on the DVR, gluten-free blueberry muffins…but what I wish I was doing with all this spare time trapped in my apartment was writing up a storm. Creative energy has been lost in a net of trying to describe my last three years of writing projects in an intelligent and cogent way and learning about the difference between escrow and earnest money and corian versus concrete countertops. See why I haven’t been blogging?

Has January given you cabin fever yet? Any recommended cures? Tomorrow I’m hoping to actually leave the apartment complex, for real. I’ve got chains on my car tires and everything, so no matter what the weather throws at me, I’ll be ready. The fresh air will knock my brains back in order. And I got a look at Matthea Harvey’s fantastic new Lamb, which I promise to review here soon!

Eye to the Telescope, Indiana Review, burned out cars

I’m happy to announce the new Persona Poetry Issue of the SFPA’s online poetry journal, which I had the honor of guest-editing, Eye to the Telescope.
From my editor’s note: “The two most common complaints I hear about contemporary poetry are that 1. it is boring, and 2. it is too difficult to understand. I’m hoping that you, dear reader, find that these poems will challenge both of those assumptions. We have a Barbie doll speaking from Mars here, Alice from Wonderland going on a date with Frankenstein’s monster. These escapades are accessible, entertaining, dramatic—in short, they make poetry fun.”
So go check it out! Poets include Oliver de la Paz, Kelli Russell Agodon, Celia Lisset Alvarez, Lana H. Ayers, Mary Agner, Kristin Berkey-Abbott – just a host of fabulous poets, some already known to me, some brand new!

In other news of new issues of literary journals, Indiana Review’s new issue is out, called Winter 2011 (although it is already 2012…) which has one of my favorite “Robot Scientist’s Daughter” poems, “The Robot Scientist’s Daughter [in films.]” Possibly because it has killer shrews in it. It’s such a consistently fun journal to read, I’m proud to be a part of it!

I had a dream last night that involved driving a car that was “burned out” from the inside-out. Is this a metaphor for my current state of mind? I would like the metaphor of my life to not be a burned-out car. I think sometimes I get so revved up, only to get let down – I need to learn to use a bit of cruise control in terms of my energy and workloads.

New review for She Returns to the Floating World, New Poems, New Vistas…

I woke up to a new review of my second book of poetry, She Returns to the Floating World up at Web Del Sol Review of Books. Thanks Web Del Sol and Gina Barnard!

With this latest bug I’ve had, I’ve been running high fevers, especially in the evenings, and waking up every night at 3 and 4 in the morning. Now I’ve got Murakami’s IQ84 audio book on my CD player in the bedroom, so I can listen to it when I wake up and can’t get back to sleep. Last night, I actually had an idea about feral princesses and prophets for a poem at 4 AM – I’m so happy I wrote it down because when I woke up for real this morning, I had a new poem I was actually pretty happy with (especially since I wrote it in a daze in the middle of the night.)

I have a confession, though I know it’s not confession Tuesday: this last week with the flu, I’ve started watching the Home and Garden network shows, like “Property Virgins” and “House Hunters.” I’m trying to remember the language of floor plan, square footage, and closing costs. It’s been too many years, and the processes have changed a lot, since the last time I did this. I watched a single girl in Seattle buy a $275K one bedroom, one bath condo in Ballard. (Where I grew up, $150K bought you a two-story four-bedroom home – and probably still does today. So.)

I’ve also been trying to write a little creative non-fiction. What I struggle with is setting a scene, slowly, building suspense, extending scenes with dialogue and description. So many years of poetry has taught me to condense, to capture a moment in as few words as possible. It’s like retraining muscles. Got to learn to create new vistas for my readers, for myself.

January Recovery – No, not the economy! Me!

At January 10, 2012
By Jeannine Gailey
In poetry versus prose, recovery time, rent versus own
2

Yes, so, it’s not all the glamorous life chez Jeannine. After the wonderful reading last week, I ended up with a brand new illness, this time with fevers so high I actually don’t remember a whole day/night interval. I am now (I think) on the other side of it, chock full of antibiotics of various sorts, with strict instructions to continue to rest. But there’s so much to do! And being sick for even a few days puts me so far behind!
On the plus side, I discovered what everyone else already had: Glenn brought me home the DVD of season 1 of “Downton Abbey,” which I am now addicted to.

I will confess I am looking for permanent places to live. After a dozen years as a footloose renter. It’s frightening – but thrilling. I’m straightening up errors on my credit report, saving money, getting pre-approved. All that kind of business. Next step: actually visiting houses we can afford. Which could be dis-spiriting. I hope not. The reality of home ownership is so much scarier than just picking an apartment to live in for a year or two. Half of the places the realtor sent us were awful, and the other half were in retirement condo communities. (Is she trying to tell us something?)

And I’m working. Revising my third (and fourth) poetry manuscripts. Writing new poems. Laboring on my prose projects. Trying to envision bigger and better things for my work life. (Paying work. Yes. More of that. See: house.) Trying to aim higher. Trying to expect more, to resist discouragement and cowardice. In the next couple of months, two big grant applications. I’m trying to say yes to the universe, to allow my world to expand a little bit, to include more people, more books, more projects. And reading reading reading.
It’s recovery time, 2012. Time for us all to recover from the buffeting of the last few years, to let the year of the dragon bring us wonder and luck.

Thanks MLA! A Reading Report: Beth Ann Fennelly, Erika Meitner, and Nicole Cooley

At January 06, 2012
By Jeannine Gailey
In Beth Ann Fennelly, Erika Meitner, MLA conference, Nicole Cooley, Open Books, reading reports, Seattle readings
4

Yes, sometimes I interrupt my busy schedule of doctor’s appointments to go to other people’s poetry readings! 🙂

This weekend, the MLA conference is here in Seattle, and because of this, there were a plethora of wonderful readings all over the place. The one that took top billing in my head was this wonderful threesome of readers at local poetry bookstore Open Books, including Beth Ann Fennelly, who has been one of poetry heroes for a long time, and the very sweet and funny Erika Meitner, who read from her latest book, Makeshift Instructions for Vigilant Girls (which I reviewed not too long ago for Barn Owl Review.) The third reader, Nicole Cooley, whose work I wasn’t as familiar with, was lovely and funny as well, with a final poem about the metaphorical life of dollhouses that was haunting and disturbing. (I picked up a copy of her Milkmaids, which is just my kind of book!)
Just hearing the bios of these three poets was daunting – they are all so accomplished. I think, “How could I do a third of what they do?” But in person they were all so down to earth and friendly. It was one of those readings I wish could have gone on longer. Their use of language, their reading styles, just made the whole experience deeee-lightful!