Yet another reason to go back and get your MFA…
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/health/03aging.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5059&en=55b8bb4109973f3c&ex=1168491600&partner=AOL
Want a longer life? Go back to school!

Only four days to go until my last residency at Pacific University and my graduation as a full-fledged MFA holder. At the last minute, today, my thesis advisor, Pattiann Rogers, let us know that since her house has been damaged in the blizzards of Colorado, she would not be able to come out to the residency, so we had to arrange a new last-minute thesis review chair, which is going to be Marvin Bell. Which, I mean, come on, I can’t really complain. There were really no bad choices, since I liked all my advisors really well. One thing that Pacific’s MFA has going for it is a terrific faculty. It was just the flurry of sending my thesis around for one more round of reviewing – at the last minute – that made me a little nervous. But I think it will go fine. And Marvin will probably have lots of terrific, helpful things to say. He always does 🙂
So, still have to do the errands, pack, and get everything together (practice the class I’m giving, organize poems for the reading, etc.) And then graduation. Everyone keeps asking, what are you doing after graduation? I’d love a little part-time teaching job, I think, or something in publishing. But probably I’ll just keep freelancing until something hits me on the head out of the blue. Keep fiddling with my second book manuscript. Keep hitting myself on the head for not writing fiction instead of poetry.
Warning: Below you will find the meanderings of a mind on a serious dose of cold medicine.
Last night I re-watched some episodes of Heroes (you probably know I’m fascinated with this show, the X-Men-like premise of “average” people finding out they have bizarre abilities.) I was reminded once again how much the narratives of comic books are like the narratives of major religions – how the “chosen” must struggle to live up to their potential, deciding to use their powers for good rather than evil or selfish gain, performing miracles for the “unchosen.” What makes a person a hero in real life? There are many people who have had tremendous impact on history, but most of them aren’t heroic – rather, the villains steal most of the limelight. How can we impact the world for the better? I guess I would label myself a realistic optimist – Despite the obvious evil around us, I still stubbornly believe that we can help each other, if we could only figure out how. I have this feeling that poetry is a power for good because it helps us practice empathy – the art of getting inside someone else’s head, which may help us have compassion for each other. Okay, I bet you’re tired of my hokey philosophizing now. But I do feel hopeful about 2007. May it be a better year for me, for you, a more heroic year for our country, for the world, for more demonstrations of the impact of compassion, of love, of courage and not fear, hate, or bitterness. In the words of David & David (obscure 80’s band – bear with me:)
“Past the punks and the drunks and the bad guitar players and the dewy-eyed, teenage dragon slayers, you come to this place…And you can say I just want to walk with you, as we do the things that we know we have to do, ever hopeful and ever true…And though we both know deep down in our hearts that one day this will all fall apart, oh for right now, let’s just be heroes.”

Happy New Year, to all a happy and healthy 2007!
(I almost wrote 2006. See how behind the times I am?)

A quick note for those interested in contemporary Japanese fiction – the non-autobiographical works of WW I and II era writer, Osamu Dazai, are tremendously underrated and underread here in America. He wrote a book of fairy tales – all, of course, with the satirical and dark twists that are the marks of his writing – that is not even completely available in English. Two of them, “Crackling Mountain” and and “Taking the Wen Away” appear in his Crackling Mountain and Other stories collection, but the best story in that book is “Undine,” a curiously familiar story of a girl who is transformed into a fish after her father attempts to rape her – reminded me of AS Byatt’s stories of female water spirits. His other book, Blue Bamboo, is a must-read. Dazai is very famous in Japan as a sort of Japanese-male-version of Sylvia Plath – he died of suicide at the age of 39 at the end of WW II, born from a rich family that disinherited him because of his radical leftist politics and tendency to sleep with – and have suicide-pacts with -“lower-class geisha.” But Blue Bamboo is a curious, lyrical collection, stories with the wit and irony of JD Salinger and the attitude of a writer who you might imagine living and writing today, not in the 1930s. One of the most arresting pieces of that book is when a family of siblings re-tells the story of Rapunzel with curious flourishes during a winter holiday, as their grandfather drinks Jack Daniels in the back room. I think Dazai got passed over here because American critics were not paying much attention to Japanese fiction during the 1930s and 40s, but this tremendously gifted author deserves as much literary attention as Hemingway and Fitzgerald, and manages to out-do both of them in his unsparing sense of humor towards himself and his lifelong despair. Much is being made these days of Japanses surreal novelist Haruki Murikami, but without Dazai, Murikami would not have existed. His flip inclusions of pop cultural references and humorous, dreary evocations of modern Japanese youth recall quite strongly the best in Dazai’s work.
This is one thing I’m grateful for in 2006 – in doing research for my second book, “The Anime Version of My Life,” I have discovered a magnitude of amazing Japanese writers I would never have encountered otherwise. It’s like having a splendid blind date who whisks you off to Paris – better than you could have imagined.

Strep throat. Who knew adults even got this? On the road to recovery now. One side effect of not being able to talk on the phone (and spending nearly three hours in the doctor’s office the day after Christmas) was being able to get a whole novel read – Special Topics in Calamity Physics. Kind of a prep-school-expose/murder mystery, narrated by a brainy outcast/cool kid with lots of footnotes and little sketches by the author called “visual aids.” A little dark, a lot of fun. Amazing for a first-time novelist. The plot even reminds me a little of Atwood’s Blind Assassin. Also re-watched the original, un-retouched Star Wars: A New Hope, which was better than I remembered.
Christmas Day was miraculous here – nearly fifty degrees and sunny, followed by two days of bitter cold rain. Today is another sunny one – nearly tempting me and my antibiotic-ed-to-the-gills body outside again.
Got a copy of The Cincinnati Review with my review of Louise Gluck’s Averno in it the day before Christmas. I’m kind of proud of the review, since Gluck’s been one of my poetry heroines since I was about twenty. I wanted to write something un-gushy, even-handed.
Also looking forward to acquiring my contributor’s copy of The Pebble Lake Review, which will also feature poems by friends like Wendy Wisner, Shanna Compton, Anne Haines, Steve Schroeder, JP Dancing Bear and a review of Steve Mueske’s book. From what I’ve read of The Pebble Lake Review, I have very similar taste to the editor’s. I love when that happens.
Oh, and here’s a link to the review in the Winter 2006 issue of Rattle (I believe that’s issue 26) of Becoming the Villainess by Natasha K. Moni.
One of my little brother’s friends from high school, who signed up for the Navy after getting his engineering degree from Carnegie Mellon, is going to Iraq this year. I know he’s not a kid anymore, in fact he’s turned 30, but I still think of him as a kid and I don’t want him to be in danger. Good luck Will!

Christmas Time is Here…
I am feeling wonderfully warm and calm now for no reason. The power is finally back on in the neighborhoods around me. Our kitten is sleeping under the decorated tree (only breaking one or two ornaments.) It is back to regular Seattle Christmas weather, after the fitful flooding and snowstorms in November, and the horrible windstorms of last week, (normal i.e. forties and rain.) I am thankful for the good things in 2006. I am thankful for the good news that a friend had today, for the couple of people who wanted copies of my book this week, for the book being published, for cards from friends and family, for my husband of twelve years who still cooks wonderful dinners for me (I think I fell in love with him when he cooked Christmas Eve dinner for me when I was 19 and he was 21.) Today we went out and explored a neighborhood we are thinking of renting in next year, one closer to downtown Seattle. We ate cupcakes and ginger tea at one place, grocery shopped at the friendly, independently-owned store, checked out the poetry section at the used bookstore, and wandered through shops playing with children’s stuffed animals, empire penguins and hedgehods and even a stuffed peacock puppet! It’s fun to imagine ourselves in a new place. We went through our yearly finances yesterday and though we’re leaving 2006 somewhat empty-pocketed, we’re feeling hopeful, not anxious. Good things will happen. Welcome, 2007.
Happy holidays Everyone!