So today I turn 32, officially entering the dreaded zone of “the mid-thirties.” On the last day of Poetry Month, which I think is very appropriate. “April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs,” etc etc. I got my contributor copy of The Iowa Review yesterday (along with a record four(!!) rejections) that I saw also had poems from fellow blogger Laurel Snyder. And as an unexpected gift, the girl from the reading sent me her paper – on me! Thanks! How many times does that happen in life?
Glenn is taking me out for a nice dinner at Earth & Ocean tonight, for which I might actually get dressed up and everything.
Anyway, enjoy the last day of poetry month! Tomorrow I’ll attend the Seattle Poetry Festival, and Kate Gale’s reading at Elliot Bay, but today is an all-relaxation day.

Had to blog briefly about the poetry mail today –
New 32 Poems (has poems by me, Jeffery Bahr, and new poetry blogger Steven D. Schroeder)
New Poetry Magazine (no poems by me, sadly, but still enjoyable)
Steve Mueske’s chapbook (have to blog about that soon!)
Birthday present box from older brother consisting of: New Camille Paglia, Break Burn Blow, The DVD of Rikki Tikki Tavi (don’t ask, I just love those old animated shows), the Radio Sunnydale Buffy Soundtrack, British version, and Thisbe Neissen (who is a very cool person in real life)’s novel, Osprey Island (which I had checked out from the library but wanted to own.)
How can I complain about my little Alaska rejection (Please try again, they say!) on top of all that goodness?
Also, today wrote to my MFA program director and said I would like to take this upcoming semester off. My mentor/advisors have both been terrific, but until my health gets better, I can’t focus enough on all the school work enough to make it worthwhile. It may take a little longer to get my degree, but hey, six months off to just relax and get some health answers/treatments that work will also help ward off that poetry-burnout feeling I’ve been having. The only sad part is, this means I won’t see my friends from the program in June. Hey, I love you guys! Enjoy sunny Forest Grove without me! Hopefully I’ll see you all in January.

Another perfect warm sunny spring day in Seattle. Took a walk around a local river and saw a pair of canadian geese with goslings, a kingfisher, some goldfinches, a hummingbird, and had a close encounter with a bald eagle. Definitely a good place for birdwatching. And this is just in the suburbs, not a remote park of any sort.
I have a poetry reading tonight at the Hugo House in downtown Seattle, with another writer and an artist, under the title, “Mad, Bad, Super Women.” With a title like that I feel like I should dress up in a costume. Maybe a tiara and a sword. Too bad I don’t have any of those props lying around. I’m looking forward to doing a reading in conjunction with a visual artist – I like readings that have visual art or music aspects. I’ll update this post after the reading…
…The best parts of the reading…well, the other poet was Belle Randall, a really interesting poet who just won an NEA grant, and I just have to say, I hope I’m that good looking and funny at her age. I have one of her chapbooks now, and I’ll blog about that later. The artist, Molly Norris Curtis, was kind of a walking example of pop-culture obsession morphing into art, which was cool. The other best part was this really smart high school girl who was writing a paper for her English class and had actually looked me up on the internet pre-reading and asked intelligent questions and tape-recorded my answers. It was much more fun than if NPR had been interviewing me. I actually had to articulate something meaningful about my poetry – why am I obsessed with good girls turning evil, comic books, women action figures, etc. Hey, if you read this blog, send me your paper, and I’ll send you a free copy of my chapbook! Another good thing – afterwards, Glenn and I went out to hang at this new restaurant called Frites, where all they serve is belgian fries with a wide variety of sauces. Excellent stuff, though I still prefer thin-cut frites. Chipotle ketchup mixed with roasted red pepper mayo is my recommendation for sauces. It ain’t health food, but lately I’ve been having so much fun checking out new restaurants after readings. I don’t know about you, but I can’t really eat before a reading, so by 9 PM or so I’m just starving, and then you find the new trendy place everyone’s been talking about, order whatever (lately there was a cool barbeque joint in Columbia city, a chic bar in Kirkland, and of course Frites) and enjoy the post-reading glow.

A beautiful sunny day today in Seattle. I took a walk and stole lilacs from a parking lot hedge. I just decided to decline the opportunity to be editor-in-chief of my MFA program’s new journal. It was a really hard decision because if you know me that is exactly the kind of work I like to be doing and I already told the school I would do it back in January. But my health problems since the surgery have slowed me down way more than I expected. I am still going to the doctor twice a week into the foreseeable future, taking lots of medicine and supplements and letting people take blood over and over again (we thought you had this, but no – now we think you have this other thing, which requires a different specialist and a different lab. and et cetera). It’s been a discouraging process, and I like to be busy, like the kind of “normal” life – you know, where long car rides and stairs aren’t things that make you cancel an outing. Sorry to be so grumpy. I keep checking in with my doctor, angry I’m not better, angry that I had to have surgery at all, angry the surgery didn’t go right, angry angry angry. Fix it! I want to yell at her. Fix me!
So, thusly, I figured I am not in the best place to nurture, organize, bring to life a new magazine right now. I do want still want to start my own down the road. Right now I barely have the energy to write and send out work. Doing my homework is a huge effort right now. The one thing I am good at is reading. I’m reading everything – lit mags, books (just finished David Lehman’s newest, which I’m reviewing for Small Spiral Notebook, my friends poems (which always cheer me up.) I’m also surpringly adequate at the kind of writing I do for $$ – marketing and techie stuff, which apparently I could write now in my sleep. Thank goodness for that work, at least it makes me feel useful during this phase. I’m hoping by summer to have recovered enough to be able to do most of the things I was taking for granted back in January. Then grumpy Jeannine will make space for regular, sort-of-cheerful-and-upbeat Jeannine – ie more superhero, less supervillain.

You’re Watership Down!

by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you’re
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You’d
be recognized as such if you weren’t always talking about talking rabbits.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.