Getting Back Into Routines, Finding Joy in Writing and Talking Books, and Looking Forward to Fall (Readings?)

Three Hall Siblings in One Space/Time: Mike, Chuck, and Me (missing oldest brother Don)

Getting Back into Routines

My older brother and his family flew home Tuesday morning, and after a great visit, Glenn and I are settling back into our slower, two-person routines—watching birds and butterflies, giving our two cats and the garden attention, going to book club, and a staggering amount of laundry and grocery shopping to catch up on.

I am also catching up on e-mail and other correspondence, so if you’re missing something from me, please ping me and let me know. It is possible things have slipped through the cracks! As covid levels are ticking back up, I’m extremely grateful to have been able to visit with my parents and my older brother this year after so many years of not seeing each other. Zoom and phone calls are not the real thing, though they are better than nothing.

Tiger Swallowtail butterfly on pink verbena in my garden

Finding Joy in Just Writing and Talking Books

After book club on Wednesday where we discussed the poetry book Our Dark Academia (in case you’re following along with the book club) among other things, I remember feeling a moment thinking about taking joy in talking about books and just writing for fun, not worrying about publishing or marketing or any of that stuff.

I think I got exhausted from the first few months of my sixth book coming out, plus AWP and all that accompanies that, and it was nice to remember that appreciating poetry is kind of its own reward, and that there are simple things that give us joy: visiting with family and friends, walking through a field of lavender, watching butterflies, and writing poetry among them.  I’m not particularly good at slowing down and having moments of peace and joy, I actually had a book as a teen called When I Relax I Feel Guilty, so this week was a bit of a revelation. Then I wrote two poems (I hadn’t written in a little while) and didn’t worry about updating any spreadsheets or submitting or rejection—I just enjoyed writing them.

Looking Forward to Fall (Readings?)

Having taken a brief break from promoting the book (because summertime in Seattle—the whole Pacific Northwest is a rough time for readings unless you’re part of a conference or an MFA residency because everyone just wants to be outside), I am now planning and thinking about the fall—doing more readings for Flare, Corona, doing a “PR for Poets” talk and Q & A with Kelli Agodon over Zoom for her Two Sylvias Daily Muse subscribers. (Here is a link to subscribe—it costs money, but there are free Zoom talks included—Kelli did a poetry generating workshop last month and she’s got speakers like Maggie Smith lined up and a cool newsletter among other things.) I may even run an independent class (I’ve been asked to do it—I just need to figure out what to teach and how to do it online in the best way). It turns out I really like the human connection aspect of doing readings in person again, and I’m actually looking forward to it. Plus, autumn is my best time in terms of energy—the air’s a little colder, the long summer days shorten a little, my favorite foods are in season—and it also seems to be a time when people want to read more and buy books, maybe? Anyway, look for more information on upcoming events coming soon!

I also want to plan to celebrate some things—including Glenn’s graduation with his master’s degree, which he got entirely during the pandemic at Pepperdine University—because I’m realizing it’s important to celebrate things, to take time to feel joy, to do things that make you feel happy. It’s also important to prioritize spending time with people you love. It’s all about balance—the world may pressure us to prioritize everything but resting, catching up with friends, celebrating, wandering through proverbial lavender fields (or actual ones)—but in order to build mental and physical health, creative energy, and a semblance of happiness, we need to prioritize them. Giving yourself time to dream, or do a puzzle, or redo your bookshelves, or read a book you’ve been wanting to get to “just for fun.”  As we head into August, which can be an anxiety-provoking month, the heat, the back-to-school expectations, the knowledge that summer is almost at an end—take a day off from work, or just a weekend morning, to do whatever brings you joy—and plan something you love for September, so you have more to look forward to.

A New Review in Colorado Review for Flare, Corona, A Visit from My Older Brother and Family, and Guest Blog Post by Kelli and I at the Poetry Department Blog on Making Your Own Residency

Me with sunflowers

A New Review of Flare, Corona in Colorado Review

I talked about feeling a little discouraged by the lack of reviews of Flare, Corona recently so I was very happy to see this review during this busy week! Thank you to Colorado Review and Carrie Ann South for this wonderful new review of Flare, Corona!  

Here’s an excerpt:
The discussion was inspirational, but make no mistake, Gailey’s work is not a saccharine survival story full of platitudes. She breaks down the false narratives we tell ourselves to get through the day in “At the End of Two Years of the Plague, You are Tired of the Word Resilience”: “…Resilience: you hear “Silence, slice, siren.”

The speaker points out the irony in companies touting “safety” during one of the most unsafe periods of our collective lives. Gaily approaches language with a tongue-in-cheek playfulness, taking an overused word like “resilience” and rearranging the letters into darker, perhaps more truthful, words. The poem argues that this kind of cheery language is meaningless, or at least filled with underlying tension…

…There’s something comforting in Gailey’s insistence that we’re powerless against forces of nature. Maps, Geiger counters, storm trackers, MRIs, and other tools intended to predict catastrophes recur throughout the collection….

At the same time, there’s an appreciation for nature’s beauty and the sheer miracle of our brief existence. The poems ask, is it better to know death is imminent or to be oblivious? “How to Survive” points out the futility of trying to prepare for death. It reads like a satirical instruction manual. The suggestions to avoid a plague (“Be alone, in the desert”) or a tsunami (“Be uphill”) reiterate the circumstantial nature of our existence. The real advice? “Sing your song, put the note in a bottle, be remembered, / because someday soon, we will all be gone.” No, this isn’t a depressing thought, it’s a truth, a relief, a peaceful acceptance. That’s the paradox in Gailey’s writing.”

Anyway, read the whole thing – it’s very well-written and I even cried a little when I read it.

Visiting with my Older Brother and His Family from Ohio

My older brother Chuck—a great older brother, who bought me my first record albums, introduced me to MST3K, and taught me how to make a cheeseburger—has not been able to come out to visit for a long time, and my health problems and then the pandemic kept me from being able to travel back to Ohio. So, a visit with him, his wife, and three children (who I’d never met) was overdue!

I took them to our lavender farm (a hit with the kids!), the Microsoft Museum (hit with the two nephews – video games!), and the Seattle Aquarium and Ivars (tried to talk them into the Ferris Wheel and various other things, but they just wanted to go back and swim at their resort pool LOL). It was a good visit—I can remember how awkward it was a kid visiting relatives who 1. had no kids and 2. had disabilities, so I tried to make it as fun as possible (within the limitations I have). And it seemed fine. It was great having time to catch up talking in person to my brother who I’m close to and miss all the time (thanks, Disney Plus, for entertaining the kids LOL).

Me with Moon Jellies at Seattle Aquarium

It was really the first time I’d spent any time at all around kids since the pandemic began—besides a short visit with my college roommate’s very well-behaved daughter at a poetry reading—so that was interesting and anxiety-provoking. Glenn’s cooking was a big hit even with the very picky children, and the cats were a hit too (although they were not excited in reciprocity—they are only used to adult visitors). I really enjoyed introducing the kids to things I loved around town—they loved feeding fries to seagulls at Ivar’s, for instance, and had unexpected enthusiasm for the lavender farm and its various flowers. (They even went back without us one morning!) They loved going to a local park. My niece loved my pink typewriter, and I taught her how to use it (though an antique, it doesn’t work flawlessly—much like myself, LOL!) This was my second big family visit in the almost-but-not-quite-post-pandemic this year—my parents came out for my birthday—and I was grateful to have the time with them.

With cocktails after a long day and night of manuscript editing

Guest Blog Post on Making Your Own Mini-Writing Residency with Kelli Russell Agodon on the Poetry Department Blog

Kelli and I have a three-part account of making your own mini-writing residency (plus takeaways from our experience) up at the Poetry Department Blog…aka The Boynton Blog. If you’re interested in the inside story in how we made a weekend retreat work for us as a way to work on our upcoming manuscripts, strengthen our friendship and increase our focus on our writing lives.

• Making Your Own Writing Retreat, part one
• Making Your Own Writing Retreat, part two
• Making Your Own Writing Retreat, part three

Wishing you a wonderful week! How can it almost be August? This summer has flown…

Anniversaries, Birthdays, Heatwaves, and Thoughts on Asteroid City and the Poetry World

Glenn and I at the lavender farm on our anniversary

Anniversaries, Birthdays, Heatwaves, and Asteroid City

Since my last blog post, I’ve celebrated my 29th wedding anniversary, my husband’s birthday, there’s been a crazy heatwave, I had my doubts about poetry, caught a summer virus (not covid, no worries, just a regular childhood virus my immune system isn’t strong enough to fight off), and watched Wes Anderson’s newest movie, Asteroid City.

For our anniversary, we accidentally stopped in for a Lady A (formerly Lady Antebellum) mini-concert at Chateau Ste Michelle, stayed out late with the first sunflowers in Woodinville at the Lavender Farm, and Glenn made a wonderful dinner of duck with cherry sauce and black forest cake for dessert. (We looked at reservations, but the menus weren’t very allergy friendly, and the prices have gone way up since we last went out—pandemic inflation maybe?) I was a little under the weather on Glenn’s actual birthday, so my little brother Mike took him out axe-throwing (yes, it’s a thing) and then out to dinner, which they really enjoyed. (Glenn said I’d enjoy the axe throwing, but my MS and joint problems said probably not, LOL.)

First Sunflowers in Woodinville

First Sunflowers, Heat Waves, and Asteroid City (Thoughts on Film and Poetry)

My weird summer virus coincides, weirdly, with a huge heat wave—temps of 90 (and humidity levels at 30) meant an almost desert-like feeling to Seattle in the last couple of days. We were watering the hummingbirds, two bird baths and fountains, our poor flowers and baby trees – and ourselves. We have air conditioning, but it struggles to catch up with temps over 80. A common Seattleite’s summer retreat to a cooler area, Cannon Beach on the Oregon Coast, had to close today because a mountain lion went to the beach to cool down!

Thirsty goldfinch at our bird fountain

On my sick days, I had a chance to catch up on movies—and I watched Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret (which was cute, and very true to the book, except for I remember the mother worked in the book?) and Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, which felt like a mashup of many of my own poetic obsessions—apocalypse, the Cold War era’s paranoia, mistrust of the government, aliens, nuclear testing anxiety, quarantine and its reverberations, and of course, death, Shakespeare, and witches. Some of my friends really did not like this movie, which highlights artificiality in a sort of odd black and white narrated Rod Serling juxtaposed with a tableau of the American West in color and admittedly does not have a linear plot. But I loved it—and more than that, it was the first movie I’ve seen that made me want to make a movie. (I have a friend with a fancy Ivy League degree in film and I suddenly had the urge to ask to borrow all her books from the program.) This film almost felt like a visual poem—a pastiche of Wasteland-like fragments. The other thing I noticed was influences from my generation—from Futurama episodes (I recommend watching “The Series Has Landed” and “Roswell That Ends Well” for shot-to-shot comparisons) and MST3K fifties apocalypse anxiety films. Wes is four years older than me, so we probably watched and read a lot of the same things growing up. I loved Moonlight Kingdom, but I strongly identified with this film—it’s practically set in my childhood home of Oak Ridge with its massive government buildings and kooky genius children in nearby schools, called “Atomic City.”

It’s weird because this week I had a little bit of poetry-life anxiety (ie I applied to jobs that pay money again and felt my book wasn’t getting enough reviews and I wasn’t sure what else to do to promote it and that made me feel like a failure, tbh) so it was good to focus on another art form—especially since I’ve also been reading Tom Hanks’ book on movie making magic (Tom Hanks was also terrific in Asteroid City, and he should keep the silver hair from the movie.) And of course, the writer strike and actor strike are very much in mind. What would it be like to be a writer and director in the Hollywood world right now? I’m looking forward to two new movies coming out too—Barbie and Oppenheimer (which as you probably know, in my mind I combined as “Barbie as Nuclear Scientist: I am Become Death.” It’s hard to break new ground and be unique in the world of movies—it’s an art form that’s been around for about 100 years, but it feels like so many movies are sequels or remakes of earlier, better things, as if people have run out of ideas in that amount of time—and all these movies are sort of the opposite of that (Barbie could be a corporate movie, but with Greta Gertwig in charge, I doubt it). And poetry can be the same—it sometimes feels like the same ten people get all the awards and attention and just get rotated, and they come from the same neighborhoods and fancy colleges and sometimes all their poetry can feel the same. It’s hard to stand out in the poetry world! It’s hard to be unique. My favorite poetry books are quirky and off-the-wall and very much reflect the poet’s personalities—and I guess if my book finds its audience eventually, that’s the most important thing, not if it gets reviewed in the “cool” places or wins the “cool” prizes (though of course those things would be nice). With Flare, Corona, in particular, the experiences of being diagnosed (wrongly) with terminal liver cancer and then (correctly) with multiple sclerosis, with the science and comic book and humor and solar weather spins that I brought, I hope sharing it helps people going through some of the same things, even though that sounds corny! Anyway, I’ll be positively distracted this week because my older brother, his wife and kids are coming out to visit – the first time I’ve seen him in over six years, and I’ll be meeting the kids for the first time. So that’s exciting.

Stay cool as the whole country seems to be encountering a heat wave this upcoming week, and take advantage of any summer lulls to see movies you have been wanting to see or read books on your to-be-read stacks. You never know where inspiration might hit.

Academy of American Poets Puts Flare Corona on Their Summer Reading List, Writing Retreats with Friends and Working on a New Manuscript (with Supermoon)

Academy of American Poets Puts Flare, Corona on Their Summer Reading List!

Got a little bit of good news after the holiday week. Very grateful to have Flare, Corona appear on the Poets.Org 2023 Summer Books Reading List—some people received it in their Academy of American Poets mailing, but you can read the whole list here:

https://poets.org/2023-summer-books-list

Every little bit of PR really helps with poetry books. I also got my print copy of Foreword Reviews in the mail today, so it was a good poetry book day. If you haven’t gotten a copy of Flare, Corona yet, remember you can order a signed copy direct from me here or order from BOA. And if you want a review copy, you can send your review copy request directly to Kathryn Bratt-Pfotenhauer, Director of Development & Publicity, at bratt@boaeditions.org.  I’ve been a poetry book reviewer for 20 years, so no one more appreciates a good poetry book review than me!

Kelli took this picture of me with my new manuscript all over my hotel bed

Writing Retreats with Friends and Working on a New Manuscript (with Supermoon)

So, over the holiday weekend, my friend writer editor and publisher Kelli Russell Agodon and I snuck away for a few days at a local lodge to work on our manuscripts, talk poetry, goof around a little bit but mostly try to make some dents in our work on both of our next books. And I think it was very productive! In just a few days, Kelli and I both had updated versions of our manuscripts (mine hadn’t been touched for about eighteen months) and we got cocktails, went out for sweet potato fries, visited Woodinville’s awesome lavender garden, visited the Lodge’s resident pot-bellied pigs, stayed up late/got up early, and talked poetry. I did that thing where I spread out all the poems on my bed to see how they went together. I think I talked Kelli into putting mermaids in her book (you’ll have to see when it comes out!), and she talked me into putting less plague in my book and more spells.

July’s Thunder Supermoon at Moonrise, no filter

This also made me feel empowered as a disabled person, because I was able to pull off a trip with a friend without any major illness/disability crises. Sometimes people like me with chronic illnesses and disabilities can feel shut out of the traditional residencies because they’re not particularly handicapped-friendly or they’re someplace far from doctors or the difficulties can just be overwhelming, so I want to suggest this kind of alternative.

I felt so motivated, got so much done, and had such a good time. Grab a friend, find a place to stay for a couple of days (hopefully you’ve scouted out its ADA appropriateness and it has some local attractions around to visit and a good fireside lounge)—you don’t need two weeks or anyone’s permission—try it!

Happy Disability Pride Month!

Hummingbird hovering over bird fountain

The next two weeks are going to be challenging so I’m glad I had a little break! Sunday is Glenn and my 29th (!!) Wedding Anniversary, then his birthday is Thursday, then my older brother, his wife and three kids are coming out for their first visit to see us out here in Seattle, so I will be busy busy busy the rest of the month! There is usually something hectic about Seattle (and Seattleites) in the summertime, which is so gorgeous and short-lived—the need to get outdoors and appreciate the ocean, the mountains, the flowers and all outdoor venues becomes almost impossible to resist! Of course, with the wildfire smoke and MS flares being more common in the heat, I have to force myself to take it a little easier than most. Here’s wishing you a wonderful and productive July!

Happy Almost-4th with Birds on Display! Foreword Reviews Flare, Corona, Writing with Friends and Other Ways to Nurture Your Inner Writer, and Disability Pride Month

Happy Almost-July 4 with Birds on Display! And New Reviews, a Disability Pride Month Reading List, and Writing with Friends

Happy holiday weekend! I know most of the country is wreathed in wildfire smoke, so stay safe out there. I myself have been struggling with bad asthma this week – though no wildfire smoke is here yet – and have been breathing my nebulizer and relying on eucalyptus steam and steroids to keep my lungs clear.

While I’ve been resting, the birds have been putting on a wonderful display – especially a family of goldfinches and migratory Rufous Hummingbirds and their babies.

Flare, Corona Reviews and Reading Lists

Me with red hair for the 4th in lavender fields with Glenn

I was also lucky enough to have my first official print review of Flare, Corona in Foreword Reviews! Thanks, people at Foreword!  Here’s a sneak peek at the review, which also included a poem.

And did you know July is Disability Pride Month? I did not until CLMP posted a reading list for it, including wonderful books by friends like Ilya Kaminsky, my own new book and a poem of mine. I feel honored to be in good company, and ordered a couple of books off the list immediately. Here’s the list! Feel free to support disabled writers in July!

Writing with Friends and Other Ways to Nurture Your Inner Writer

I’ve also been working on my next book in preparation for a weekend writing retreat with my friend Kelli Russell Agodon. We are going to exchange books, talk shop, bring some books to read and maybe take some outings for fancy tacos, ice cream, or a lavender farm or winery. I also attended a wonderful online talk by Orion on fairy tales and climate crisis, which was really interesting (and I re-subscribed to Orion,) and had our book club where we discussed Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, and our next book up, the poetry book Our Dark Academia by Adrienne Raphel, who I’d never heard of before I picked her book at Open Books, Seattle’s all-poetry bookstore (where I’m heading today as well, along with a stop at the Frye Museum to see this exhibit by Kelly Akashi.)

Kelli and I pre-gaming for our writing retreat

As you might be able to tell, after six months of doing promotion work for Flare, Corona, readings, radio interviews, social media, etc, I felt my inner writer and creativity needed a little bit of a boost, a refill, if you will. I hadn’t been writing much new work or sending out much work, and some of that is the energy bank of a chronically ill/disabled person – hey, if you’re promoting your book, you don’t also have energy to write reviews, write new work, experiment in the way necessary, or think about where to send new work (much less get your nerve back up for rejection!) I don’t think it’s discouragement as a sort of estrangement, so I think that being around my writer friend and being around new books and art and the overall energy of working on a new book rather than trying to generate excitement about your previous work, which let’s face, you had to turn in edits way back at the beginning of the pandemic and who can even remember that far back?

In the meantime, my nine-month-old kitten Charlotte demonstrates a wise lesson: we really should stop to smell the literal roses (or lavender, or peonies, or sweet peas.)

Something about this time of returning to work/life/travel after a long period of absence with the pandemic makes everything a little strange, so it’s important to literally stop where you are, evaluate your surroundings, and make sure you are still enjoying the little things around you that might have gotten blotted out by all the busyness of the last few months. Part of being a poet, I think, is remembering those little moments – I mean, not all fluffy kittens and flowers, but all the moments worth remembering – time with your family, time creating, and time spending nurturing your creative inner self.