Mission Accomplished

I am so relieved that the whole reading poetry experience is over, but I have to admit that not only did I thoroughly enjoy making a complete fool of myself last night but I also woke up this morning feeling a huge sense of accomplishment. For those of you who have your own bands or do poetry readings or other public speaking on a regular basis, you probably cannot begin to understand (or remember) the level of intimidation that can occur in a situtation like this if you are a novice.

Two things: thanks for all of the constructive help throughout the semester in improving my poetry. I feel like I was very lucky to be with the group of extraordinarily talented, funny, and amusing souls who shared 305 this semester.

Good luck in all of your endeavors. I've decided to keep this blog going, though the contents may shift more to creative endeavors in general and not just poetic ones. Feel free to keep in touch.

Jodi--thanks again for a great semester.

As We Approach THE END

So I am waking up in the middle of the night wondering just how nightmarish reading my poetry in a coffee shop is going to be, and hoping that it is something I enjoy so much that it inspires me to write GOOD poetry and do it again. I wish I was taking poetry again next semester, but I'll have to live vicariously through my husband, the newly-published poet whose poem appears in the 2007 edition of In Other Words. Yeah! Someday I hope to be the wife of the poet laureate...and I don't mean that in a sexist, I-want-to-remain-in-shadows-and-support-my-man Thayne version of myself. I mean Dave has the serious minded-ness to fill the role in a deserving manner. Everything I do is just a little less than completely serious...and sometimes a little less than completely sane. But I do love life...unfortunately, I have discovered that happy-go-lucky touchy feely is the downfall of a poet who needs to be able to tap into some raw-er emotions like depression, despair, moroseness, anger...and I've spent a great deal of my life (not that this is a good thing) learning how to pretend those emotions don't exist. BUT, my solution is clear. They've legalized absinthe, and it sounds not only delicious and fun but also mind altering. When you can have mind altering AND legal, well that's a combination I can live with. I can't wait to see whether or not it does for me what it inspired in Picasso and so many others. Either way, it's the weekend and since I have a lot of work to do, it's a good idea to escape from reality.