Elliptical Poetry Part 3

After a tragic weekend, during which I thought the elliptical machine was broken, lost to me forever, my husband Mihnea has used the magical powers of superglue, and we're back!


Yesterday I was on the elliptical machine for 52 minutes and I read two chapbooks!



1. Demon Lovers and Other Difficulties by Nicole Kornher-Stace (Goblin Fruit, 2009) I love Goblin Fruit - it's one of my favorite online journals, for its content, for the amazing layouts designed special for each issue, and for its offering of audio recordings of the work published in its virtual pages. When I heard they were making their first foray into the world of printed publications last year, I lined up to get my copy of Demon Lovers and Other Difficulties. I hadn't read much (any) of Nicole Kornher-Stace's work before, and I think this is because she is more part of the fantasy/sci-fi community of writers - one I often gaze at from afar, but have not delved into, perhaps, as much as I ought. These poems are about what happens off-stage in fairytales - the experiences of the women and men who marry otherworldly creatures, have children with them, and watch those children grow up. There are four poems in the collection titled "The Demon Lover's Child Grows Up" which form the main story arch of the collection, each one documenting the life of the son of a human and demon lover, which are quite well-done - Nicole has quite a voice. If you have any inclination whatsoever toward fantastical poetry, I would definitely recommend this chapbook.





2. Soft Foam by Juliet Cook (Blood Pudding Press, 2010) Before you even read this (tiny) review, I need you to go purchase this chapbook. Immediately. I'll wait. Okay. I am going to go ahead and assume you did as you were instructed, and now I'll tell you why. From the very first poem, Semi-Extraneous Consort (page 12 of the link), I knew I was going to adore this chapbook. I think, sometimes, that Juliet (or at least the persona Juliet writes in) and I have some of the same neurosis. I feel like she gets me and all the fucked up little things that go through my head. Much of this chapbook is a meditation on life and death - particularly that of of the speaker's husband's previous wife, who, it is revealed in the chapbook, has died. I, too, am my husband's second wife, and while his previous wife is not dead (and is a lovely person - I don't wish such things upon her in the least), when we first got together it felt different from him just having ex girlfriends. I feel like Juliet has an acute understanding of this and paints this relationship that her speaker has with her husband's dead first wife in such a painfully beautiful way that I couldn't put the chapbook down. I had some serious "goddamn! I want to write like this!" moments while reading Soft Foam. All the poems were, as I've now come to expect from Juliet, a treat to read aloud. I had some serious fun while elliptical-ing. Add in some creepy/lovely sea creatures, and you have my favorite chapbook I've read so far this year, hands down.



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I haven't done any of my own writing since my last update, though I did have my son (birthday party, Kennywood trip, and kid shopping extravaganza) all weekend, so that seriously cut into all of my "me time". Things have been in a bit of an upheaval/shift mode in my life lately. I'm attempting to re-organize pretty much everything, and it's been a rather horrendous process in some ways. In other ways it's been great for me, but the in-between time is never easy, and that whole "figuring out what you really need to be doing/want out of life" thing is hard. Go figure.

I'm also trying to dress better. I got extremely lazy with my clothing over the past few months - I think it all started over the winter, though. Then I bought a new skirt and shirt and realized how fabulous I looked for once when my friend Damien was in town a couple weekends ago. It was a big wake up call in regards to how utterly blah I had let things get. So, over the past two weeks I've also been trying to dress cute, look at my closet from a new angle, and read some fashion blogs (yes, you read that correctly - but not big scary corporate ones - the little ones by people with budgets like mine) and today I would almost venture to say I look stylish. Mihnea commented upon my elevated levels of cuteness before I left the apartment this morning. Even co-worker Phil noticed that I'm not dressing like I don't have light in my closet any more. Progress!

Pretty much an entry where I geek about the awesomeness of other editors

AWP was, of course, a fantastic time. I always worry about it and then it's always in the top ten favorite weeks out of the year. I realized while I was out there that I absolutely love other editors. Matt and Roxane of Pank are lovely, lovely people - they put so much work and time and energy and awesometude into Pank and it really, really shows. I endeavour to be more Roxane-and-Matt-ish.

Also, shout out of Aaron Burch of Hobart (who I may or may not have creeped out by declaring "oh my god, be my new best friend!" mid-panel). I certainly hope that he is able to make it out to Pittsburgh and read his amazing work at a TypewriterGirls show in the future. I was gunning for his presence at TypwriterGirls Gone Furry, but we shall see.

Bill and Lisa of Slack Buddha are also on my The AWP Would Have Been Significantly Less Awesome Without You list. They made the TypwriterGirls show at the Mercury a fun time. Lisa is one sexy whiskey runner. Also, good at quieting down a drunk and rowdy audience.

Also! Ohmygoodness! I got to meet Yusef Komunyakaa, who has been my favorite poet for about ten years. He was gracious and very kind and he signed my book happily and was touched when I told him that reading his poetry about the Vietnam War has made me feel closer to my father and he's going to be in Pittsburgh this year!!!! I'm really hoping that, if nothing else, they will need volunteers to help out with that reading. 'Cause I'll be first in line.

Also also! I got to meet Anne Waldman (who is lovely and sweet, too) and Gary freakin' Snyder! Gary Snyder. For reals. More book signing occurred. More rambling by me. More gracious and kind reactions from totally awesome famous poets who are probably used to fangirls like me at this point.

At some point I'll make a more substantial post wherein I talk about Deep Things regarding writing and poetry - but for now, people are awesome. Editors are awesome. I love Yusef Komunyakaa, Anne Waldman, and Gary Snyder. Yay, AWP.

Snow

It's snowing here in Pittsburgh again. If I look to my right and crane my neck a bit I can watch it fall against the backdrop of the red brick office building across the street from my red brick office building.

I want it to snow and snow and snow and snow and never stop.

Radio Silence

I've been a bit non-present again, I realize.

I was working pretty hard on an entry on mentorship that's gotten completely off track as I've been unable to get ahold of one of the subjects of the entry. It has made me a bit glum to look at an entry which is primarily about someone who hasn't emailed me back in two months.

I'm not dead, really. Weave issue 03 is ready to ship from the printer, the TypewriterGirls are heading to the Bowery Poetry Club in January and I wrote a draft of a new poem recently.

Mihnea and I will be heading out to Cook's Forest for three days after Christmas for some relaxation time in a cabin. Though, I wonder if it still counts as a cabin since it has a whirlpool tub. Tiny hotel, maybe? I've joked that it's our honeymoon/Christmas/Valentine's Day. We opted for no TV in the cabin. There will be lots of writing. Lots of snuggling. I'm using that whirlpool.

I have a bunch of submissions floating around out there right now. For some reason I'm on the edge of my seat about them over the past couple of days. I have one submission that's been out there for four months. I used to get upset about these things. Now I'm an editor.

The Manuscript (again) and submissions

Still working on poems for the second manuscript. However, the more I work on it, the more poems I want to write for it, so in spite of having written two poems and drafted one over the past week or so for this project, I'm still standing at 5 that need to be written. I wonder if I will ever be done. The main character has also shifted from one character to another, completely unintentionally. I'd be a little upset (I liked the original main character a lot) if it were not for the direction that this gets to take the writing itself.

I don't have any outstanding submissions right now and that is a very strange feeling. I'm the kind of writer who always has work out at one journal or another. I feel like I must be slacking or something. I'm hesitant to send out these new poems because I want to work on publishing this manuscript once I'm done with it (but who knows when that will be, really) and I'm hesitant to break from work on this manuscript to work on poems on a different theme (and what's the point of writing something just so you can send it out? That may be one of the stupider thoughts that has come to my head in a very long while - writing something not for my current project just so I can have something to send out. I've had a couple of requests for work, but seriously. Bad idea.). Still, it's a very strange feeling. It makes me antsy.

I've been making some new writing friends, which is also a very good feeling. I've been having lunches with some lovely people and I can't wait to spend more time with them. It's always wonderful to find new, fantastically creative and talented people you can connect with.

And on that fuzzy note, it's time I went back to work.

Manuscript the second

So I'm working on manuscript #2 and I actually wrote two new poems for it in one day. I'm pretty excited about working on this second one now. I'd like to write maybe 2-5 more poems for it. I feel like there's a bit in the middle that needs some work. The end is lovely -- it's everything I wanted from this manuscript. The manuscript itself is a sort of a story of one character who has evolved and changed names in my poetry over time. She used to be a replacement for me but now she has a whole life of her own and this set of poems tells her story. Now that I have some distance from the poems that started the whole thing I've really been able to edit them and sculpt them into what I've wanted them to be all along.

A couple of these poems are up at Thirteen Myna Birds. However, I think only two of them remain up as of right now, so check them out before the next flight formation makes them fly away!

I never thought I'd actually be working on two manuscripts at once. Though perhaps it's just a way to avoid having to write every day -- instead of getting the writing together I organize and re-organize the manuscript, add poems, delete poems, love poems and hate them in the same 24 hour span of time, try to decide if that poem from my junior year of college is awful or awesome, you know. It's all very engaging and fun for me, especially this group of poems. The first chapbook was more laborious -- I knew what was going in the manuscript but didn't quite know where or when. This one has just been fun - tossing poems in and out, shuffling them around, writing new ones to fill in the blanks and steer my girl where she needs to inevitably go. The poems aren't playful -- they're actually much darker on the outset than my other set (check out the first poem of mine over at Thirteen Myna Birds if you wish for an example), but I love working on it nonetheless. My husband was worried that working on these poems was going to make me all dark and dreary, but instead of a dark and dreary wife he's got a poetry-obsessed wife right now. (Well, all the time, really)

SPF went very well. We at Weave met some really awesome people, sold a good number of copies, and generally had a lot of fun. Adam and the others over at Open Thread did some amazing work and I really appreciate everything they've done for the literary community in Pittsburgh with this festival. It was also lovely to hang out with some of my favorite writing people for a couple of days.

There are a lot of lovely things on the horizon.

Busy busy busy

I finished up two drafts of poems this weekend, which is quite a lot for me. I usually don't work on more than one poem at a time, either, so this is sort of a breakthrough in a moderately pathetic kind of way.

I know I don't write nearly as much as I should and this has been proven by the fact that I am literally out of poems that I am happy enough with to send out the door in hopes of publication. I have five poems that are in varying stages of completeness, but none that are truly submission-worthy right now. And of course there is the glut of poems that will never see the light of day.

I was looking forward to doing a round of submissions to a number of literary journals I really like that are open during the summer months, but, barring a miracle, this will clearly not happen. My writing hasn't been able to keep up with my submitting.

Submitting is so easy, so, so much easier to do on my lunch break when my mind is still half auditing. It's quicker, it gives me an instant sense of accomplishment, and it doesn't involve switching from that part of my brain that deals with numbers and the rules of hospital accounting to the part of my brain that works creatively. I also get a weird sort of high from having five to ten submissions out at a time, even when they come back as rejections. I can't quite explain it, but I definitely get some kind of rush from it.

Lately I've been feeling pressure (from myself alone) to produce more, as though I am not busy enough already between the TypewriterGirls, Weave, being a mother, working for 8 hours a day, the Pittsburgh Small Press Festival (SPF), and the writing that I do do. Clearly I need to put more pressure on myself.

There is just so much that I want to do, so much that I want to write. I don't have enough time each weekend to get it in and still relax a little bit, and I certainly don't have time during the week.

This is all very frustrating. And let's not even get in to my chapbook angst.

In other new altogether holy crap Gary Snyder is going to be at next year's AWP. I must shamefully admit that I have only recently begun reading Gary Snyder's work, and in part because I saw him in a documentary on Buddhism, but really The Call of the Wild is just as lovely a poem as my dear friend Crystal assured me it would be.

I'm in a panel proposal for the 2010 AWP, so there's a decent likelihood that I will have to be there (oh, the tragedy). Crystal and I are already looking into plane tickets. Hah.

I feel like something is about to happen.