Crazy weather, poetry stuff, and exhaustion... how's your weekend looking?

What a wild and woolly 24 hours, eh? Rain, gusts, bursts of weak sunlight, and then, all night, windy enough to make the house creak while slashing rain across the windows. And now, 39 degrees and dark. I'm up, of course, but I'm not hustling along just yet. That's the one great thing about most Saturdays-- I don't have to rush. I have the poetry class today in St. J, but it's not until 11:30. I'll give myself an hour or two to not "do"-- it's been a very busy week, and every week looks to be busy for the foreseeable future. 

I looked yesterday and I have something every weekend until November 21. Luckily, most all of it is chosen and I can't complain. =) 

My poetry class that I'm leading starts this week, too, at St. Rose, so I need to get that figured out. I have been copying poems to use, but until I know the folks who will be attending and how they approach reading, discussing, and responding to poetry, I'm sort of in the dark. I'll prep for well-meaning participants who might not have a lot of experience, and we'll go from there. 

And what a poetry-related week it's been! I am curious and excited about the event on Nov. 14th that will be held at the Currier Museum in Manchester-- I've been chosen to receive an award for a poem I submitted to the Racial Unity Team's challenge: "We the People: Becoming Whole Together." Regardless of the award, I have not been to the museum in years, and it'll be nice to wander around before the event starts. And I have been listed as an "honorable mention" for the Northwind Writing Award, which is probably unfamiliar to just about everyone, but again, I submitted work, and was long-listed, then found worthy enough to include in their yearly anthology. I'll take it. 

As far as the Frost Place goes, we are already working on next summer's Sundays in the Barn with Bob series, exploring which poets to invite (and one has emailed me about inclusion), and I'll be doing a Young Writers Weekend again in June. 

I also sent out my manuscript of the full-sized collection of poetry; I hope it gets accepted. That was a lot of work, putting it together. Much more so than what it took to assemble the two chapbooks I have published. What story am I trying to tell this time? 

And I'm almost out of "good" poems to send out. I've been so darn busy with school and Holly, I have not written much. And what I have started I have not finished. And I want to write another book review and send that out, too. My writing life is a bit out of balance. O hell, my entire life is out of balance, and I know this to be true and partly of my own doing. I fell asleep, soundly, in my chair by 8pm last night, and I had vivid dreams all night as well. I'm exhausted. 

So, today's class in St. J. with Betsy Sholl will be a blessing: I can't do anything else but write during that time, and I get professional recert hours. I may be super tired, but I know that if I don't schedule time for me, no one else will. 

Have a good day, friends. Keep safe. Things are turbulent out there, and we need to be alert. 

C