44

It's my birthday!

Amy sent me a very funny card, so to see the birthday singers, go here! I got a Powell's gift card which I will spend very soon!

The author tour in Eugene and North Bend was really fun. I think the audiences enjoyed it as well! I'm glad I get a chance to do that; it's good to travel other places in the state with the fine Oregon Book Awards finalists!

It's my birthday and I'm going to go write now.

Now she is 13!

Laura had her 13th birthday on Friday, and Saturday there were several girls here for a slumber party!

Thursday I leave for the Oregon Book Awards Author Tour. I'll be in Eugene and North Bend.

Lee Upton will have poems in the new Caffeine Destiny, which should go online next month!

I have been reading the Best American Essays 2006. It makes me want to write one. But I would settle for writing a-sort-of-good-not-too-bad-essay.

Today in poetry we're going to talk about Richard Hugo and the triggering town!

Laura is trying out for the basketball team this week. Practices start at 6:00 a.m. at the school. I'm glad I have coffee.

Snow Day!

And who doesn't love a snow day! Well city bus drivers, perhaps.

PSU was closed today, as well as the kids' schools. There was at least two inches of snow on the ground here. We had a fun snow day. I made cookies with my hand shaped cookie cutter and then would say "do you need a hand?" or "can I give you a hand?" before I offered one to Max or Laura or Michael. How corny of me - it's the snow, I tell you!

Cole Swensen will be in the next Caffeine Destiny and I am pleased!

So Much Depends

Two posts in one day! Who knew!

But I have completed the first collage of 2007 so I just had to post it!

And class was fun today. We talked a lot about abstract and concrete language and the differences between them. We also read William Carlos Williams Red Wheelbarrow poem.

Then I passed around this small wooden box that my mother gave me at Christmas (it had a cup inside when she gave it to me, but it was empty today). And I wrote the title "Wooden Box" on the board and the lines "So much depends" and had them write a poem about the box, in the style of "Red Wheelbarrow". They came up with some really amazing stuff! And it was fun.

5 Things

Okay, well since the Toed Hen asked, I give you the "five things you might not know about me" list, although I'm not so into this I must admit, and my first response would be, who cares! Which is not a reflection on how I feel about other people's lists, I just don't have that much to say in response, and really, if they're five at all relevant things people don't know about you, isn't there a reason they don't know? Like you don't want them to? However, here gos:

1) I can make bread from scratch without a recipe.

2 I don't like ellipsis in poems although I have really tried to broaden my viewpoint on this. Yes I'm talking about ... in a poem. I just don't get them and sometimes they irritate me.

3) I wish I had a horse that lived in my backyard.

4) I am more superstitious than I would like to be.

5) I have had very vivid dreams about the following people, so vivid that I'm not entirely convinced they didn't actually take place, on some other plane of reality:

Patrick Duffy (this was in 1977 and he was the Man from Atlantis and it was totally cool)
Jesus
Alan Ginsberg

Alrighty then!

I did it for you, Z.

Moon, Get Busy!

I"m still mining last year's collages, but I hope to make more soon!

However, winter term begins next week and I'm not ready! I'll be busy with that this weekend.

However, I think I will see Amy on Sunday.

I wrote poetry today, good for me.

I like this poem by Macgregor Card from the latest issue of Fence- ordering the moon around is a good idea! I wonder if Macgregor Card is a pen name.

Maybe I will change my name to Macgregor Denning.

But first I will think about teaching next week.

I'm listening to the Weepies.

The Year is New

But this is a collage from last January.

We had fun last night. Michael and I went to the Saphhire Hotel for drinks and dinner, and then to Jake's for more drinks. We were home long before midnight, and we didn't drink our expensive bottle of champagne that we bought earlier in the day. There will be time for that!

I am cleaning my office, but as promised, here's some forthcoming titles of poetry books that I'm looking forward to:

The Glass Age by Cole Swensen

A Thief of Strings by Donald Revell

Embryos and Idiots by Larissa Szporluk

Heaven of the Moment by John Morrison, to be published in 2007 by Bedbug Press

Okay back to the sorting and tossing and dusting! Wish me luck.

Happy New Year to all of you!