Hope is a Thing with Feathers
In these kinds of times, when the news blares about violence, riots in cities like Vancouver and London famed for their kind and gentle citizens, about ski trips up and down the Dow, about real people having their jobs and houses taken away from them…
This is when we cling to a foolish hope. A thing with feathers.
As writers, we already cling to foolish hopes. Hopes that someone, somewhere will read our words, that they will connect with them, that our words will go out into the world and do something bigger and better than we can do ourselves with our physical bodies. Poets, especially, are considered foolish. (Erasmus had a book, In Praise of Folly, that I just love, which talks about foolishness of various kinds.) We cling to the hope that our poems might earn us enough to buy us a pair of shoes, a dinner out, or at least cover our postage costs and various fees.
We hope that the people we love find happiness, that our jobs might lead to better things for ourselves and our families, that our bodies will not betray us. We strive every day when we wake up to enter the day with hope. And that is good work.
Hope keeps us aware that kindness is what holds humanity together; selfishness tears us apart. In times like these, we must hope more than the situation might seem to warrant. We must write with hope, and love with hope, we must have hope for our world, and the people in it. We must push ourselves to have hope. Let us glue the feathers on if we must.
Happy for You: A Few Pieces of Good News for Friends
I have said in the past that when friends of mine get good news, it is almost as good as getting it myself. These writers are both very talented and so I am proud to announce:
–Karen J. Weyant just won the Main Street Rag Chapbook Contest with her collection, Wearing Heels in the Rust Belt. (http://thescrapperpoet.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/wearing-heels-in-the-rust-belt/) Go congratulate her!
–Rachel Dacus has just signed on with Kitsune Books (whom you may know from such books as, I don’t know, She Returns to the Floating World) to publish her third full-length poetry collection, Gods of Water and Air. I’m so pleased to have Rachel as a fellow Kitsune! And look for an upcoming short interview with her here on the subject! For now, go congratulate her at her blog: http://dacusrocket.blogspot.com/2011/08/big-news.html
And a quick shout out to Justin Evans for his kind words here (http://justinevanspoetry.blogspot.com/2011/07/out-on-limb.html) about She Returns to the Floating World, here. Have you gotten your copy yet?
And Oliver de la Paz is featured today on Poetry Daily, here.
A good week for my friends. If you have more good news, please leave some info about it in the comments! Giant hugs and cupcakes to all!
Summer arrives in Seattle at Last, In-Laws, and The Journal issue 35.1
Cautiously, I announce: as of today, August 1, summer has finally arrived in Seattle! The sun is shining, the mountains (Rainier and Baker) are out, and the flowers (roses, lavender, sunflowers) are blooming. Happy Monday, the weather shouts, and in accord, I apply for a job and send in a poetry submission. I’ve started two new books (The Imperfectionists and The Pale King
) in hope that they will inspire me into some long-form writing.
I am in that frenzied cleaning mode that happens right before a visit from the in-laws, and they arrive early tomorrow morning. Glenn is making a chocolate ricotta cheesecake for them in advance. It’s tougher with my ankle trouble to do stuff like laundry and anything that requires balancing on one foot, but I think we’ve got our little apartment looking respectable.
I am also sneaking in a quick coffee meeting with haiku-expert Deborah P Kolodji, in town for the haiku conference, probably at Espresso Vivace, my coffee-snob husband’s downtown coffee shop of choice, in case you were wondering where to go for the best espresso downtown.
I had to make a quick mention of the beautiful issue of The Journal Spring/Summer 2011, which arrived in the mail, with a gorgeous and appropriately cheerful painting on the cover of a bluebird, which contains some wonderful poems. You can sneak a peek at the TOC and some of the contents (including my poem, “The Robot Scientist’s Daughter [one of us]“) are available online here. C.J. Sage and Martha Collins also have some fantastic work in the issue.
The first two official reviews of She Returns to the Floating World, a Podcast, and Feeling Grateful
Yesterday, I was so excited to see The California Journal of Poetics had a review of She Returns to the Floating World. It was written by a poet whose work I admire very much, Gina Barnard, and she’s obviously an intelligent and thoughtful reviewer as well. (And I know how hard it is to write those reviews! So I doubly appreciate it!) It was my first official review!
Then this morning, I looked at The Rumpus and saw the second official review, this time written by Jessie Carty. I am feeling overwhelmed and grateful!
And J.P. Dancing Bear has posted the podcast of our radio interview from Wednesday night. Here it is:
http://outofourminds.posterous.com/out-of-our-minds-wjp-dancing-bear-guest-jeann
I am also brimming with happy poetry news for a few of my friends, who have not been able to post up their good news on blogs yet, but I’m looking forward to helping them celebrate soon!
So, the economy may be going to hell, the apocalyptic weather may be keeping us in a rainy netherworld while the rest of the country bakes in 100+ heat, but still these little good things give us hope, keep us going, remind us someone is listening, someone is reading, despite, despite.
Radio Shows, Rain, and Renumeration
Back in Seattle, the sky cloudy and the temps hovering in the sixties, you might imagine that our 80+ degree drive home from Port Townsend on Sunday had all been hallucination. But to prove that the sun does actually shine here once in a while, here’s a picture from the Sequim lavender fields (about a 45 minute drive from Port Townsend, FYI, for you future tourists.)
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I’ll be on the radio tonight in California (so those of you near Cupertino, be sure to tune in.) I posted a link to the podcast as the interview will be up later for the rest of you!
Jeannine Hall Gailey will be interviewed (and do a reading from her new book, She Returns to the Floating World
) on JP Dancing Bear’s radio show Out of Our Minds on 91.5 in Cupertino, CA, from 8-9 PM Pacific time on Wednesday, July 27th. Podcast will be available afterwards at http://outofourminds.posterous.com/.
By the way, if you go to that site now, check out Dana Levin’s interview on Sky Burial from two weeks ago. Pretty great! JP Dancing Bear asks great questions. I hope I can come up with coherent answers!
I was thinking a little bit about our economy, on our drive home, seeing so many shuttered storefronts in Port Townsend, Sequim, and the surrounding small towns. This is the worst economic time I have ever lived through. Trying to make a living as any kind of writer in this era of closed bookstores and publishing revolution is tenuous at best, especially with academic jobs being cut left and right and states and the Federal government slashing arts funding.
On the other hand, I have been celebrating the good news of writer friends (a book taken here, a chapbook contest there) and have been so grateful for everyone who has bought a copy of my new book. I won’t stop writing because I am worried about paying student loans and balancing my checkbook. I won’t stop enjoying the occasional sunny day just because we’re having a frigid rain-filled summer.
Jeannine Hall Gailey served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and the author of Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and SFPA’s Elgin Award, Field Guide to the End of the World. Her latest, Flare, Corona from BOA Editions, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She’s also the author of PR for Poets, a Guidebook to Publicity and Marketing. Her work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, and JAMA.
