My Chemical Romance

It's like when you're doing chemical experiments and you mix a little of this and a little of that and nothing happens, but then suddenly you add this new element and all the other things that were just sort of stirring around suddenly start reacting and new things are formed--things that never existed before, or things that you've been trying to get to come into existence but didn't quite have the recipe right.

That's kind of how this last six months has been for me, starting with the Alice Notley reading and ending with the elusive element being added in the form of Jodi Chilson, who "stirred things up" and decided to have us make a blog. As soon as she said we had to come up with a title, everything that had been stirring around in my head sort of took shape. I knew before leaving class last Tuesday what the name of my page would be and why, what significance it has to me, and what I wanted to focus my poetry on this semester.

Then I had to submit my first poem to Jodi. I've written poetry and studied poetry, but I'm not the typical 205 to 305 student, so I've never had my poetry "workshopped." I wrote the poem easily enough, because again, the right bits of chemistry happened and the words forced their way out of me onto the page...but to let other people see it? And not only see it but ask for their critique? Well, I didn't throw up, but before I hit the send button, I seriously thought for a moment that I was going to pass out, break out in a rash, hyperventilate...and then I shut my eyes and hit send.

I'm only dreading next Tuesday a little bit.