Poem on Verse Daily Today – The Last Love Poem

So pleased to have some good news to announce – my poem from Field Guide to the End of the World, “The Last Love Poem,” is up on Verse Daily today!

Sylvia wanted to remind you that summer is sometimes a slow season for poetry sales, so pick up a copy of Field Guide to the End of the World now. She’s so commercial, that kitten!

In all seriousness, it’s nice to have good news to share in a month that has been challenging (besides our dental woes, I had a bout of food poisoning/stomach flu a few days ago, which was un-fun.) It’s been beautiful weather here but I’ve been too sick to do much exploring of the lovely beaches, mountains and woods. Luckily I’ve been able to watch the clouds, birds, rabbits, and our little garden around our house, which is blooming, finally, all the things I planted last fall when I was so worried and gloomy, the lavender humming with bees, strawberries and blueberries, roses and mint. Happy July! I’m hoping to get a few poems written, a few submissions, maybe even a book manuscript sent out, before the end of the month…

New Poem about Middle Age in Contrary Magazine, Things Fall Apart in July

I’m so glad Contrary Magazine decided to publish this particular poem this week: “April in Middle Age”

It was a good reminder to me about this feeling of falling apart. This is really the first day I could even think straight for the last week. During the July 4 holiday weekend, I managed to knock out part of my tooth and its filling (no pain), got an emergency dental appointment on the 5th, and then spent about six days in so much nerve pain from the temporary crown that it nearly crossed my eyes (apparently the nerve gets irritated, which can cause enormous pain. I was like, why do I try to do anything to my teeth??) Then my poor husband knocked out one of his crowns! We celebrated our 23rd anniversary – instead of picnicking by the waterfalls like we planned – by eating soft foods and with me generally trying not to complain about the pain. I got vertigo from my TMJ (a side-effect of the dental appointment and two sprained jaw injuries in my past) so bad that I nearly passed out taking a walk on Lake Washington. Nevertheless, we saw two sets of little ducklings on the water, and I got dressed up. This is part of getting older – things start falling apart, literally. Here’s a picture of us on our anniversary this year, the ducklings on Lake Washington, and the night we got engaged when I was 20.

: Anniversary by Lake Washington

: Ducklings!

: The night of our engagement – I was 20!

It’s so frustrating when your body slows you down. I was finally able to get some sleep last night after my physical therapist worked on my jaw and recommended a small dose of a muscle relaxer which I had never thought of before (I can’t take many pain drugs, due to the bleeding disorder and allergies.) Therefore my brain is a bit brighter, as is my mood, today. I am still being instructed to take it easy, but I have two packets of poems to look and a review I’m supposed to be working on. Beth Ann Fennelly’s Heating & Cooling, as displayed here by my kitten Sylvia:

I have noticed that my health usually takes a dive in July for whatever reasons – my autoimmune system doesn’t like heat or sun, or just things tend to happen when you have the time to go to doctors and dentists. Anyway, it’s a reminder that this is more of a regular than non-regular occurrence, part of getting older, part of me. I am reminded that summer takes its own toll, though it’s mostly a time for other Northwesterners to frolic outside, I’m usually stuck indoors, avoiding the sun or heat, but also forced into a closer relationship with my books. This is probably a pattern I’ve had since I was a kid in Tennessee, avoiding the midday Southern sun and storms, hiding myself in a tree in the shade or a corner of the house where I would be left alone to read. This is why spring and fall feature so strongly in my poems – and not usually summer.

July 4 Weekend – Apocalypse Poetry, Poetry and Kittens, Summer Submission Doldrums

Well, happy holiday weekend! And how better to celebrate than with a discussions of Apocalypse Poetry!

Trish Hopkinson hosted me on her blog to do a guest post where I talked about the trend towards apocalypse poetry. Books by Dana Levin, Jessie Carty, and Donna Vorreyer are discussed (I got Apocalypse Mix by Jane Satterfield too late to include, but it certainly falls into this category as well, and is a really fun read!) I discuss everything from Cold War angst to neural lesions to the current political climate and Murakami. Check it out!

https://trishhopkinson.com/2017/07/02/apocalypse-now-why-are-poets-writing-about-the-end-of-the-world-guest-blog-post-by-jeannine-hall-gailey/

I’ve started a new Twitter called @literarykittens where my cats Sylvia and Shakespeare pose with literary materials – new books, literary magazines. At some point the cats might even start doing microreviews. Hmm…Here’s Sylvia with the new American Poetry Review and Shakespeare with my new load of books from Open Books – Kirsten Kaschock’s Confessional Sci-Fi, Scorpionica by Karyna McGlynn, and Kim Yideum’s Cheer Up Femme Fatale (with translations by one of my fave writers and translators, Don Mee Choi, as well as Ji Yoon Lee and Johannes Goransson.) I made a less-television-more-reading goal for this summer, and so far, so good!

I also got to meet up with charming President of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, Bryan Thao Worra, at Open Books, where we talked all things sci-fi and poetry. It’s been so nice to get to meet up with literary friends as they travel through lovely summertime Seattle! Then some local scenes – Seattle’s Japanese Garden and some Woodinville scenes of roses and hummingbirds.

: Bryan Thao Worra and me at Open Books

: Japanese Garden, iris and water lilies

: Japanese Garden, iris and water lilies with heron

: close-up of bathing blue heron

: Glenn and I in the roses

: a local hummingbird gets curious

Are any of you experiencing summer poetry doldrums? I always, always have a hard time getting motivated during Seattle’s three summer months. Maybe the sunshine that lasts til almost 10 PM is part of the problem – it throws off my biorhythms so I’m sleeping in and staying up later. I have been reading more and writing at least a little but sending out? I’ve been seriously slacking off. Here is a wonderful list of places to send in July: https://entropymag.org/where-to-submit-june-july-3/ It’s not an endless list, which makes summertime submitting harder, too – so many lit mags take the summer off! What are your tricks and tips? Ooh, if you’re around and not out barbecuing, come share them as the Twitter #poetparty is on tonight at 6 PM!

First Day of Summer and Summer Reading Resolutions, Poems in the lovely F(r)iction and Redactions

Welcome! It’s the first day of summer (it hasn’t felt much like summer here – while the rest of the country has been pelted with high heat, we’ve been putting on sweaters for 60 degree grey days here in Seattle) and the beginning of my summer reading resolutions. One of the goals I have for the summer is to watch television less and read more books. I’ve already started doubling up on books by the bed and audiobooks in the car, on my phone, and everywhere else it would be convenient to grab a book. When the weather’s nice here, you have to take advantage of it, hence my cancelling of Netflix and avoiding the temptation to keep the television on at random. Seattle’s summers are usually splendid – lots of wildlife, finally clear views of mountains, green trees unshrouded with mist. Just this week, we’ve seen deer in the backyard, baby bunnies on the street, eagles and herons in the air and an otter in Sammamish river, along with plenty of ducklings. You sort of have to grab the ability to walk outside without heavy clothing while you can.

Anyway, in keeping with my reading goals, I took several bookstore buying sprees, including one at local poetry store Open Books, and another at University of Washington’s bookstore, which really has wonderful poetry and fiction and local non-fiction sections. This is a picture of visiting writer Julie Brooks Barbour with me in the poetry section of the UW bookstore! (She also really liked the manga section!) And then after we dropped Julie off, we discovered the beautiful Renton Gene Coulon Memorial park – right by Boeing’s R&D building, hence the plane in the background! And a picture of my kitten Sylvia with other cat Shakespeare with my Open Books purchases. (Hothouse by Karyna McGlynn, There are More Beautiful Things than Beyonce by Morgan Parker, and Jane Satterifeld’s Apocalypse Mix.)

And it also seems to be the season for contributor copies! This last week I got a copy of the beautifully designed F(r)iction, as well as the Gambling/Surrealism issue of Redactions. Here’s the kitten Sylvia modeling both, and a page from my own illustrated work in F(r)iction. (Did I mention Sylvia has started a literary Twitter feed – @literarykittens? She welcomes pictures of other literary kittens and promises to retweet and like!)

I also finished up most copyedits of my PR for Poets book, almost ready to turn in to my editors at Two Sylvias! Now I’ve got two book reviews in front of me, Beth Ann Fennelly and Victoria Chang’s new books. So, do you have any summer reading/writing/submitting goals you’d like to share?

Port Townsend and Poet Trips, Rain Taxi review

Just home from a several-day trip, I woke today to see that there was a wonderful review of my latest book, Field Guide to the End of the World, in the very esteemed journal of reviews, Rain Taxi! The Summer issue, which just came out, contains a review by Sarah Liu of the new book. “In Gailey’s field guide, the language of the body is subsumed in that of the apocalyptic and vice versa. The speaker-as-guide of her poems provides a dialectic of tension and comfort…” Thanks Sarah and Rain Taxi! There’s also a great interview with Denise Duhamel in the issue. Here’s a picture of the kitten, Sylvia, posing with the summer issue. Check it out!

Kitten Sylvia with her copy of Rain Taxi

Just got back from a trip out to visit my poet friend Kelli Russell Agodon in her beautiful sea-view home over the water, then on to a couple of days in Port Townsend. It was wonderful to spend some time out with a poet friend and then in nature, enjoying the ocean, watching the heron, seals, deer, eagles, goldfinches, and observing everything in bloom along the journey – from roses to rhododendron to red hot pokers and cherry blossoms. Travel is a little more difficult for us these days than it used to be, but it’s good to sometimes have a change of scenery. We used to live in Port Townsend – now it’s been about ten years – but the town still feels like a former home, with all the nostalgia. Of course, since we got caught in a ferry backup on the way out, and a Hood Canal Bridge closure on the way back, the irritating realities and isolation – and the fact that I seem to be allergic to everything in town, from the picturesque historic old buildings to the local paper mill – it also helped us remember why we moved away. Coming home to the much less exciting scenery of Woodinville, I felt peaceful – happy that we had made the trip, and that we were home again, where we belonged. But if you want to see what makes the Northwest beautiful, Port Townsend isn’t a bad place to start. Also, the shops – including the Imprint Bookstore – are a bonus in an area where you could spend your entire time outdoors. There are colorful umbrellas, great book selections (I think I came home with about ten more books!) and more to browse through if it turns grey and rainy.
I also re-read The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald, about the trials of chicken farming in the thirties in the Port Townsend area. Betty MacDonald was a rarity in her day – a woman writer who was fairly financially successful – she also wrote children’s books and even sold movie rights and created the characters “Ma and Pa Kettle” – and was also sued several times. It was 1. way more racist than I remembered and 2. while I delighted in the descriptions of the towns and the gardening and the seasons, the book became much more for me the sad portrait of failed marriage and failed farm than the lighthearted humor book I had remembered. I had bought the local book “Looking for Betty MacDonald” for my mom, which had rekindled my interest in the subject.