Summertime Poetry Blues
- At July 22, 2015
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
- 8
Summertime can be a tough time to get motivated to do anything – write, submit, apply for grants – and this is particularly the case when you, like me, might be more susceptible to the blues, ironically, when it is brightest outside. That’s right, I don’t get wintertime SAD, but I do get a kind of summer SAD. My circadian rhythms are off, so I’m not sleeping well. I have to avoid bright direct sunlight and heat (tough lately with our 90-s dry streak) since I break out in hives in either. As Lana Del Rey sings, although she makes it sexier, I’ve got that summertime sadness.
This last weekend I was up past midnight every night performing at the PNWA conference, plus an hour drive home from the airport each night (drag.) Then, Monday, I had some more fun dental work sans novocaine, plus an allergic reaction after I got home; the next day, the biggest blood draw that particular phlebotomist had ever done for immune-system tests. So, it hasn’t been the most uplifting of weeks so far. We decided to postpone listing our house for yet another week, so it still feels like we are living in limbo.
On top of the physical stuff, and the bad news on television constantly and the family health crises I’m trying to manage remotely, I’m in kind of a lull in book sales here at month five of the release of The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, plus I’ve been getting a ton – a ton – of rejections in the last month. It’s like, places that have had my work for nine or ten months suddenly decide, during the month zero lit mags are taking submissions, that they want to reject my work RIGHT THEN. That can discourage even sun-lovers, I’d imagine.
It rained a little bit yesterday, so even though I was drained – literally of blood, and also of energy – I loved the cooler temps, the cleaner air when I took a little walk after. We’re supposed to get more rain this weekend. Maybe I’ll write!
I’m off to physical therapy, which should help the post-dental TMJ pain. Then when I get home, I’ll take some steps to address this poetry-blues – it’s hard to re-encourage and re-motivate yourself in the dead-zone of lit mags and contests that is July, but I’m going to try. I’m making an effort to read more books I enjoy (instead of reading books I feel I should read or that I read for book reviews) and I’m going to practice saying no a little more, especially for non-paying work, the rest of the summer. Maybe I’ll go see that Trainwreck movie with Amy Shumer. I’m going to the Barenaked Ladies/Violent Femmes concert (a weird 90’s/80’s nostalgia mashup, don’t you think? Violent Femmes was the music of my eighth grade soccer team…) this Sunday, which is, I think, the kind of thing you’re supposed to do in the summer – outdoor concerts in the park, embracing life, doing carefree fun stuff?
Does anyone else experience a summertime slump like this? I’d be interested to hear how others cope!
Kristin Berkey-Abbott
I am having a mid-summer slump–it’s hot and will continue to be hot, and we’re in a strange time of drought, since it should be our rainy season. How do I cope? I try to remember what I once loved about summer: watermelon, the light lingering, swimming, reading fun books, escaping to cool theatres. In short, I try to hang on and remember how miserable I can be in northern climes when the weather turns cold.
I predict you’ll have fun at the concert. That combo was just in South Florida and one of my spin class friends said it was the most fun she’s had at a concert in decades.
Jeannine Gailey
Thanks, Kristin! Yes, usually I skate through Seattle summers with no problem, but this one has been a real bear!
Oh, thanks for telling me that about the concert – now I’m looking forward to it even more!
Yvonne Higgins Leach
I definitely do feel less motivated to submit poems and apply for grants/residencies and so forth in the summer. I find I even go to fewer readings because more places go on a hiatus. Since it’s not a very “active” time for lit mags, etc., my coping mechanism is to tell myself it’s okay to pull back and even take a break. Might sound like I am justifying but it works for me. 🙂
Jeannine Gailey
No, I think that’s a good coping mechanism! I should try it instead of feeling guilty for not doing more! I just took a long walk in the woods – it was so nice out today and cool!!!
Mary Ellen Talley
It is so gratifying (??) to hear of your summer blues because I have been frustrated with my lack of time and energy to do what I want to/should be doing – writing, revising, submitting. There are multiple reasons: helping daughter’s family move, heat, doing part time work this summer, heat, reading a good book I can’t put down, heat, dog dander from visiting granddog while we were w/o vacuum, heat, bit of a social life, heat, baking cinnamon chip scones my grandkids love that Starbuck’s no longer sells, heat, spending time with grandkids and energy zapping heat. As someone commented, why not just accept the slowdown!
Thanks for making me be less hard on myself. I wish you time and healing energy to do the work needed to get your writing out to the masses. -ME
Jeannine Gailey
Thank you, Mary Ellen! Yes, maybe some of it is the slower-moving nature of summer…
Jessie Carty
Hope things even out for you soon 🙂 My “summer” slump was actually earlier. Might be a hold over from school mentality, but I always have a lot of trouble in late may and early June. Might also be as the weather starts to first shift. Now that I’m in the middle of the “too hot for reasonable people” weather of the South I’m just trying to suck it up.
I did find, when I was in the valley of meh, that changing my routine helped. Shakes things up 🙂
Lynn Pedersen
I am always on an academic schedule, even though I am not on a campus. As soon as the school sales hit (office supplies!) and the weather cools, I can get going. You are so far north, the heat should be ending soon. Any thoughts on the yearly cycle of book sales? Are there times when it picks up again?