Writing from Poetry Seminar-- it's like being at camp/school from my desk...

UP and rolling... still stuffy/itchy from the wildfire particulates, but hey, so is everyone. I scheduled a physical therapy appointment for 8am, so I'm bleary but caffeinating. 

The Poetry Seminar is good so far; great lecture on melodrama yesterday morning, and a very useful workshop in the afternoon. And that is the general pattern of things for the week: lecture/discussion, lunch break, then working on our drafts in small groups. Readings in the evening. Last night's reading was delightful-- I always love hearing a poet read from her own work, and we had two really skilled readers with just the right balance of sad/delight in their poems. I'm looking forward to tonight's, too-- one of the two readers is the nice poet I heard back at the start of July, this year's poet in residence. I really admire his work, so it'll be good to hear him read again. I don't know the work of the other poet, so that will be fun. 

So, it's not a generative writing week, but it's a learning week, and my brain is buzzing and tired. I'm grateful for the lunch hour-- I can sit outside and let things settle. I'm learning at this late a date that I need to take breaks. I'm enjoying the process. =) I wish in a lot of ways that the seminar was in person and not online-- I like to get to know people, especially those who understand what I do/like. The APSI folks were nice enough, but I didn't make a single friend. That felt odd, to be honest. I guess I am not test-driven and nerdy enough. Poets are more likely to be open to friendships, I've found. Maybe because as individuals, we've been the odd ones all of our lives? We are so damned excited to find people who are like-minded-- our tribe, as it were-- that we cling to new friends with all of our hearts when we find them. I miss mine that I made over the years at the teaching/poetry conference-- I'm glad for email and Facebook. It's not the same, but it's something.

That all said, I'm getting closer and closer to wanting to work on my full collection project. I'm not going to rush it at all; I have that second chapbook in the pipeline-- finally got all the pieces sent to the publisher (photo, blurbs, etc.), so that process should be ramping up this fall-- yay! With a book coming out in May, I don't need to push hard to get a new one ready to go. I just feel...curious...about what my project will morph into. 

After this week, I have to buckle down and do school stuff. So I will just enjoy this week, day by day, and see where it goes. 

I wish I could slow the summer down a little. I feel so rushed. 

C