“She Had Unexplained Fevers” on Verse Daily today, family visits and holiday thankfulness
- At December 12, 2013
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
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Hooray! The title poem from my book, Unexplained Fevers, “She Has Unexplained Fevers” is featured on Verse Daily today! It’s the only poem I’ve ever written in the voice of a cranky dwarf (from the famous Seven Dwarfs, of course!) Thanks Verse Daily!
My parents are visiting from Ohio and instead of going crazy this holiday like I normally do I’m trying to stay thankful, centered, relaxed *at least some of the time. I’ve been wrapping presents and watching my fave holiday movies late into the night after my chores are done (so far: Christmas in Connecticut (the working girl holiday movie before there was Brigit Jones,) the original The Bishop’s Wife, Charlie Brown’s Christmas, etc), enjoying the constant smell of sugar cookies baking (we’ve been baking them to give as Christmas presents!) My friend and talented musician Matt Price sent me one of the best presents ever – he wrote and performed and recorded a song in the voice of the father character from my “Robot Scientist Daughter” poems, and I’m giving it to my Dad for Christmas (along with a little robot kit.) It’s such a funny song with a combination of disturbing humor and sentiment, that I laugh and get teary every time I hear it (I’ll share it when I get permission from the musician.) This is one of the many serendipities of working with other artists in unexpected ways, in this case, working with the Bushwick Book Club and Jack Straw. We’ve bought tickets to go see the Hobbit part II this weekend, which seems very much in keeping with the Hall family holiday traditions, such as they are. The lights and tree are up, our forty-degree-ish weather has returned after our cold snap, and plus, to brighten your holiday, this adorable leopard cub, courtesy of ZooBorns.com: http://www.zooborns.com/.a/6a010535647bf3970b019b025e8d30970c-popup.
I’m feeling blessed and lucky in other ways too – this last few years my immune system has been so insane (hives, spontaneous anaphylaxis, etc) that I was about to start monthly injections of an experimental drug that shuts down the IgE system, (which, though I’m against GMO food and farming, would make me a GMO person!) but yesterday my immunologist doc said I was doing so much better we could hold off! I really have had improvements in my health, I’m not just imagining it! I love hearing that kind of news around the holidays! My big brother, little brother, and nephew all got great new jobs recently, which I’m also celebrating, as it’s still a dang hard time to find a good job these days. So I’m just going to say, I’m thankful. And also feeling very warm and fuzzy, much like that leopard cub.
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.
