Yes, I’ve put the ad in the paper for the dreaded moving/garage sale for next Saturday. Getting rid of our stuff will put us a little step closer to being ready to move! We’ve moved a lot while we’ve lived in the Northwest (six times in eight years) but this is our first cross country move since 2000, and that was a corporate move (paid for by my company.) So we are crossing our fingers that everything goes well. I do hope that the positive parts of the move (better health for me, lower cost of living) outweigh the negatives (leaving all the people! And my otters!)
And, to finally do some poetry chapbook reviews, as I have promised. First up, Rita Maria Martinez’ chapbook from March Street Press, “Jane-in-the-Box.” A series of poems that catapults Jane Eyre and other characters into the present, I knew I was going to enjoy this, especially (sorry C. Dale – here’s that blurb thing) when I read the blurbs by two favorite writers, Denise Duhamel and Nin Andrews. The sensual “In the British Museum” and “The Jane and Bertha in Me” were two poems that really stood out. From “The Jane and Bertha in Me:”
“The Bertha in me believes leathery hands barnacled
with gypsy rings are an omen of fertility…
while the Jane in me wants to extract Rochester’s teeth
with her Tweezerman, stow them in a jar…
so she can feel his presence, so she can lay
that satchel on her pillow and wake each morning
to the prayer of his teeth marks on her pale cheek.”
A teensy bit of news…
http://www.winningwriters.com/new/wn_new.php
Check out August 2nd’s news! I totally missed it until today. Thanks Winning Writers!
Parents went home today. We had a great visit, including my first ever whale watching tour. There were lots of orcas, and a minke whale, and then they took us to an island covered with seals and baby seals, and nine bald eagles. When the boat drifted, the seals started swimming towards us. I just wanted to jump out of the boat and swim with the seals back to their little island and stay there, a la “The Secret of Roan Inish.” I know, not practical. Pictures to come!
Well, it’s August first and I still don’t have anywhere to live come end of September. We’re planning a trip out to Phoenix soon to take a look at possible places. But it’s all very nerve-wracking. Especially for a person like me who likes to be all settled. But the docs are saying it’s the best thing I could do for my allergies and asthma problems, so it’s a health-motivated thing. The allergies out here are pretty brutal. I’d like to feel healthy again! Soon! Anyone with a nice house to rent in say, the North Scottsdale area should contact me right away 🙂
Speaking of nerves and doctors…I’ve been feeling sickly for the last month or so…fatigue, sore throat, etc. I also had a numb hand (which I mistakenly attributed to carpal tunnel.) Well, went to the doc, and after some blood tests it turns out I have a serious vitamin B-12 deficiency that was causing a lot of my fatigue/sore throat/numb hand stuff, as well as a generally crappy immune system. Huh. Apparently, when you don’t have enough b-12 it can cause numbness and tingling. Yikes! And some common drugs leach b-12 from the system. So, if you’re feeling tired and numb, go out and get yourself some b-12 stat! I’m taking 1000mcgs lozenges under the tongue each day (apparently we don’t absorb b-vitamins in the stomach very well, hence the shots and lozenges and other delivery systems.) This has been Jeannine’s monthly public health announcement.
Also, a little good news: my interview with Matthea Harvey for the Poetry Foundation (Post-apocalypse, Poetry, and Robots) a little while ago will be sent by the PF into syndication this fall. So it may pop up in a newspaper near you!
And I promise to get back to doing mini-reviews and poetry-talk soon…This week I’m entertaining my parents in this small town by the sea. We’re taking a four-hour whale-watching tour (I’ve never done anything like it, but I have seen whales twice while living here – once on a ferry, and once while vacationing on San Juan Island.) Should be fun! And windy.
- At July 28, 2008
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In art updates, baby otter, Laurie McClave
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Yes, I know, what you really wanted after that last post was some visual aid: what exactly do those baby otters look like?
But first, I have to tell you about my new artist discovery. What would you do without me to tell you about cool hip women artists who do surreal art about fairy tales and such? So, I went into a little shop, and was all excited to buy a cute coffee cup with a work by Chiho Aoshima on it. (See the “Drop Dead Cute” collections for more of her work; she’s super cool.) Anyway, the owner of the little shop told me about an art exhibition across the street, in, of all places, a sub shop! So I checked it out and it was edgy, disturbing, very Villainess-y. I loved it! The artist is local; here’s some of her work if you want to take a look:
http://lauriemcclave.com/McClave.aspx
Plus, she put poems next to her art! I love that stuff! Collaboration between artists and poets!
Okay, on to the baby otter – this is one of a mother baby and otter taking a sand bath! Click to enlarge and see their scrunched up faces…
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.
