AM Journal
It's morning and I'm gathering my thoughts. I'm a routine lass, raisin bran for breakfast, a cup of coffee in my red holiday Starbucks mug I was given for Christmas. Take shower. Check email. Check to make sure no one has destroyed a city or the world overnight. Go on with life.
Have Laptop, Will Travel
Today is one of my "office" days. At 9-ish, I will pack up the Vaio and off we'll go to the coffeeshop (C.C) that is always rearranging their tables. There Emily from my yoga class will make me a non-fat chai tea and I will unpack my poems onto the table. A man who looks like someone from Jimmy Buffett's band will arrive and talk about the gas mileage of his Prius. People will wander in and out and I will not notice them, only their shadows across my table. At around 10, the chair has become a little uncomfortable and I'll want to work faster so I can return home for lunch. At 10:45, I'll be amazed how much I've done and still have at least 45 minutes to go. Today is about poems at the CC. Afterwards, I'll go to the post office to send off a fellowship I'm applying for. The postal worker will tell me his daughter writes poems too and I will smile.
CHIPS
This is the sign my neighbor has painted in blue and put at the end of her driveway. "CHIPS" --I have no idea what she is selling or giving away.
Dream of the Returning Poets--
Last night I had a dream that Bob Hicok and Li-Young Lee were at my reunion. And of course, I didn't talk to them. I'm even a coward in my dreams.
Optimistically Speaking--
I'm feeling good about poetry and where poetry is in this culture. I know, so many want to write the "Poetry is Dead" article. What year is it anyway? Haven't we gone over that? "Poetry is dead and Paris Hilton killed her." Honestly, no one died. Poetry has not vanished. In fact, on the women's poetry listserve I'm on, we started talking about the various ways to connect poetry with the public and create a greater readership and I realized how much poetry was around me. For the next month, I'm going to make a note every time I stumble upon poetry and see what I find. Stay tuned, poetry people, stay tuned.
