November Doldrums

I’ve been reading around the blogosphere about people being a little down, and I think it’s been getting to me too: the November doldrums. The days are getting shorter, the little bit of sunshine we get is really cold, job applications and poetry submissions seem harder and heavier, somehow…

I don’t know if this will cheer anyone up, but if you’re a speculative poetry writer who loves persona poetry, you probably want to submit to the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s poetry journal Eye To the Telescope, in the next month, because…guess what? The guest editor is me!
http://eyetothetelescope.com/submit.html

And, if you’re a member of Goodreads, I’d be honored if you wrote in She Returns to the Floating World as your choice for Best Poetry Book of the year! (Write-in votes are by “Your Choice” at the bottom of the page) as your favorite poetry read:
http://www.goodreads.com/award/choice/#56024-Best-Poetry
Of course, my lovely friends Dorianne Laux and Aimee Nezhukumatathil are also very good choices. It’s a tough year for poetry competitions!

So what are you doing to battle the doldrums this November? I’m baking, staying in denial about the ever-shortening days, and I’m getting ready to read with a bunch of friends at a reading celebration for Day of the Dead:

Saturday, November 5 @ 4-5:45 pm
Day of the Dead reading with Judith Roche, Carolyne Wright, Jeannine Hall Gaily, Chris Jarmick, John Burgess, Scott Galasso, & Raul Sanchez at Lake City Library.

Spoooooky Halloween Poems…Zombie Girls, Monsters, Witches…Oh My!

At October 30, 2011
By Jeannine Gailey
In Halloween poetry, Introduction to Witchcraft, spooky poems, The Monster Speaks, They Are Not Regenerating, zombie poems
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Yes, it’s almost Halloween again, and though the East Coast got blasted with ice and snow, the weather in Seattle is predictably cold and grey. We are carving pumpkins and putting together our Snow White/Woodsman costumes for tomorrow. (With all the fairy tale television on lately…I couldn’t resist!)

And I’m posting a few poems to get you in the spooky spirit! Zombies, Monsters, Witches…And be sure to check out the “Poems that Scare You” at Escape into Life for a Halloween feature with a new poem from me and two other talented poets…

They Are Not Regenerating
by Jeannine Hall Gailey

We are not zombies, thrown into a pool
of dubious origin and coming back beautiful
but decaying
unsure of how to live – pretending to swim,
eat yogurt like regular girls.

We are not clones, despite being drawn to specifications
(36-26-36) and bearing bouffants and bikinis
we might hack each other to pieces
but we are not confused about our identities

(living or not living) we continue
in this shape we were given
our cells cannot regenerate and the scientist
names us “Dead”
we are not regenerating we cannot reproduce ourselves we cannot be anything
but the fulfillment of your fantasy, flesh-eating or not.

The Monster Speaks: It’s Not So Bad

By Jeannine Hall Gailey (from Becoming the Villainess and based on the legend of Melusine, a French queen who, they say, turned into a dragon…)

Being a monster, really. It slows down traffic
from neighbors and I’m finally getting the respect
I deserve. For years they snickered behind curtains
when I passed by, but now they cross themselves

(I think in reverence.) They clutch babies
to their chests and wail. They lay their hands
over the eyes of the dead. I can peek
in their windows, raid the pantries, curl

up in their attics for a night. I found a picture
they carved of me in black slate.
It wasn’t a very good likeness, but they meant
well. Children dream of me.

I am no longer lonely, I enjoy the dark,
the click-click of my claws against glass,
the way my tail sparkles in moonlight. Even
this new voice bewitches me. If you put

your ear on my chest, you can hear
the new, unfamiliar thumps of four hearts,
each stronger than the last. Touch the skin
between wing-bones, the delicate eyelids.

In this body I’ve become myself again.
As I circle the castle, the song that scrapes
my throat agitates the stars themselves.
The flames of my voice burn the acrid air of night.

Introduction to Witchcraft

by Jeannine Hall Gailey (This poem is new and unpublished, so it may go *poof* after All Hallow’s Eve…)

*Poof*

Strange Horizons, Surviving Poetry, Whiting Awards…

At October 26, 2011
By Jeannine Gailey
In Eduardo C. Corral Whiting Award, Strange Horions, teen workshops, Tickling the Dragon
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So, I escaped from the teen workshop without any major injuries, though I woke up this morning feeling flu-y again. Guess the cure is just…rest!

If you’re in the mood for science-based poetry, my poem “Tickling the Dragon” about the death of Louis Slotin – who inspired the creation of “Dr. Manhattan” of “The Watchmen” fame – was featured a day or so ago at Strange Horizons:
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2011/20111024/gailey-p.shtml

I think I have a psychic link of some sort with the mysterious group that hands the Whiting Awards, because all the writers I thought I’d discovered were then given the award – Ilya Kaminsky, Jericho Brown, Dana Levin, and now…Eduardo Corral. I liked them all before they were famous, as we protest about our favorite indy bands…

Redmond Teen Poetry Workshop on Mythology and Superheroes

Here’s what I’ll be doing tomorrow:
http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/east_king/red/community/132343343.html
So if you are – or have – a high school kid who loves comic books or mythology and might be interested in writing a poem or two, bring them out! 6-8 PM.

Watched the new fairy-tale series, “Once Upon a Time,” last night – it wasn’t bad at all! I loved the creepy actor playing Rumplestiltskin, and I thought the lighting and colors and imagery of the show were all really beautiful. Too bad I’m not writing for it! PS Hollywood makers of fairy-tale shows – I am available for work!

Reading Report from an Artist’s Reception and a Wonderful New Review

Thanks very much to The Pedestal Magazine and critic Michael Adams for a wonderful new review of She Returns to the Floating World
http://www.thepedestalmagazine.com/gallery.php?item=20261

You want a copy? Get one here or here or order a signed copy from me here!

So, I want to come out and say it: artists and art-lovers make for great poetry audiences! Deborah Scott’s wonderful paintings from her show “Waiting for Prince Charming” were in a lovely setting at Georgetown’s All City Coffee (I had seen them in a studio setting, but they were all the more impressive hung together thematically and with good lighting.) I read poems inspired by similar fairy tales – Snow White, Princess and the Pea, Alice in Wonderland – and the crowd, most of whom had never been to a poetry reading before, were kind and attentive (and bought books!) It was probably the most fun I’d had at a poetry reading in a while. Here is a picture of the curator, artist Deborah Scott (with the tiara, appropriately) and me, and other photo of one of the paintings from her Snow White series…