Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Empathy, Poetry, Summer Plans

Hey everyone! Since we went on our big weekend last week (San Fran – Fourteen Hills reading/launch party, the de Young art museum’s Impressionism show, many galleries, a teensy bit of shopping, and the Ferry Building Market) we’re just relaxing this weekend – well, I’m mostly grading the chapbooks and papers of my class and two thesis papers and aesthetic statements, but besides that, relaxing. California’s been shaking and storming this spring – we barely got a sunny day last week – but this weekend the sun is supposed to make its appearance anew.

Speaking of students, a study just came out showing that today’s students are more self-centered and less empathetic than students of thirty years ago. Do you think that’s true? This was, after all, a generation raised on “self-esteem” being the name of the game, which let’s face it, is self-esteem more important than caring about other people? If so, it is a shame, because reading poetry itself requires some degree of empathy – of caring what another person is thinking or feeling. To step into another person’s “I” or “You” is to take a leap of imaginative, and yes, empathetic, faith. When I do my persona poetry exercises, I explain to classes about what empathy is, and how persona poetry can help students step into another person’s shoes. It’s also why I purposefully teach books of poetry from many different perspectives in terms of gender, sexuality, race, and class.

I’m looking forward to summer, because now I can focus on writing and sending things out for a bit instead of student work, and maybe setting up some more readings (I had so much fun at the last one it’s made me more enthusiastic – and let me take a moment for a shout out to Seattle poets Michael Schmeltzer and Johnny Horton, who both rocked the house!) and sending out a few manuscripts. I’m still working heavily on revising my latest book manuscript, too – deleting poems, changing lines, updating cover sheets and acknowledgements. Some people take a poetry vacation over the summer, but for me, it’s one of my most productive times in terms of both writing and getting things out into the world. I’ve also volunteered for not one, not two, but three book review assignments in the next month or so. Yikes! A lot of work, but I felt the last year or so with all the health challenges I hadn’t been able to do as much reviewing, and I feel like it’s important for women to get out there and get in the critical conversation, right?

And I’m planning a trip up to Seattle – with maybe a stopover in Portland for my MFA reunion reception – in a couple of weeks, and trying to get things in line for that. Figuring out gluten-free eating is much easier in Seattle than San Francisco, surprisingly enough. Although San Fran did just open up an all grilled-cheese-sandwich restaurant with the option for house-made, gluten-free bread, so points for that. Of course, here in Napa, I have Pica Pica, my gracious fallback in Venezualan gluten-free food.