Two to Go!

In our event parade! Lucille Clifton will be here Sunday, and Monday it's Marjane Satrapi!

Elizabeth Gilbert was amazing. The audience was mostly women! It was a great evening.

I need a new book to read. I'm between books, although I have seen books I want to read and by this time next week I should be reading something!

Laura will be a cheerleader next year! And Max is switching to the tuba.

I have to clean my office. Tonight Battlestar premieres.

It's National Poetry Month but I have yet to write a poem in April.

Gilbert and Clifton and Marjane oh my!

It's a busy next few days for me!

I'm looking forward to all our events.

We had a great time in Leavenworth, and it snowed!

I haven't been on Facebook much. The new term started. So it's a busy time but it's Spring!

Happy Birthday Debbie!

Max's baseball season starts Saturday. Tomorrow Laura has cheerleading tryouts.

Happy Easter!

Edward Hirsch will be reading here in Portland on Monday, March 24th. Please leave me a comment if you'd like to see him!

The kids are on spring break. I'll be on spring break after Tuesday.

I read last night in Salem. That was really fun, and Dad and Jane came and that made it even more fun.

It was great to hear Cecelia read.

Always very reassuring to look out in the audience and see Michael. To know that even if I totally make a complete fool of myself, he will still like me.

Mom coming up tomorrow. Happy Easter!

Holy Week

It's hard to believe Easter is a week away.

I started reading A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers last night. I like it. The narrator is learning English, so at the beginning the English is halting.

Stephen Sondheim was here last week, with Frank Rich. It was exciting to meet him. I have been listening to Sondheim tunes ever since.

Tomorrow is poetry group, and then I'm at the Multnomah Library, for the writer's resource fair. Giving out information about the fellowships and the book awards.

It's raining and I need to take a shower.

Michael is done with school!

Seven Notebooks

I am reading Seven Notebooks by Campbell McGrath. It's poems and prose and I'm really enjoying it. I'm also still reading The Theory of Clouds. Clouds and notebooks!

Laura and I saw the movie The Other Boleyn Girl today. That was fun. We shopped a little too.

Debbie sent me a scarf she made and a shawl. They are both lovely and I like to think of Debbie in her studio apartment in Manhattan knitting her niece a scarf. How sweet. I have been wearing the shawl tonight while I look at student papers. It's a nice deep burgundy.

How I Love a Three Day Weekend

What I've Done So Far This Weekend:

Went to the Spotlight dance competition in Oregon City, where Laura danced with Carlea. We left the house very early and it was very foggy on our way to Oregon City. Laura and Carlea were good, one of the few hip hop dance numbers at Spotlight. The rest was tap and jazz and other stuff. I thought Laura and Carlea were the best.

Picked up Girl Scout cookies that people ordered so I can give them to them!

Saw Pinback with Michael at the Wonder Ballroom. We enjoyed it. But after hearing them play for a while the idea of sitting down really appealed to me, and I was glad that Michael felt the same way. We left before the encore. But what we saw was great.

Ran 5 and a half miles.

Thought of titles for unwritten poems on my run but haven't written them down yet.

Met Daneen to talk about our new writing group. Poetry! It was just Daneen and I today at the Bipartisan Cafe, but in two weeks we will be at Daneen's house and there will be more of us!

Dyed my hair.

Watched the first Battlestar Gallatica miniseries, that we own on DVD. Now I want to watch the entire series. I love Laura Roslin.

Read some of the Theory of Clouds. I read some of the 2004 Best American Poetry because Lynn Hejinian edited it and I saw her last weekend so I wanted to remember who she picked for that edition.

Read some more of a friend's book so I can write a blurb for it.

Here's your Gertrude Stein excerpt for today: A light in the moon the only light is on Sunday.

Tomorrow I have another day off! Thank you Presidents!

Happy Valentine's Day

I am supposed to be grading student papers. Here I go.

Flowers for valentine's day! Lovely lovely flowers.

I am making creme brulee.

A poet I like asked me to write a blurb for her upcoming book.

Another poet friend has a new book out and it's sparkly and fresh.

I admit it, I have book envy.

Laura has a dance competition this weekend. Max has Little League tryouts.

I am writing a poem this week. I will finish it soon.

Li-Young Lee is coming next week. To the Newmark. I will be there too.

I have papers to grade. Here I go.

Your Gertrude Stein quote for the day: A vegetable garden in the beginning looks so promising and then after all little by little it grows nothing but vegetables, nothing, nothing but vegetables.

Sigh.

Dead Fish Museum

Wow it's been quite a week for books and me (I can say that because this is MY blog).

Mary Oliver on Tuesday! She read and talked about writing. Tonight, just around the corner at the Heathman, Charles D'Ambrosio read from The Dead Fish Museum and talked about writing. He is working on a novel, and I thought he said some interesting things about writing essays and writing stories. If I was a loquacious blogger I'd talk for several paragraphs about what he said but you know by now that's not my style. I saw him. He was good.

I have signed books by Mary and Charlie now and I like getting books signed by authors. I like what Mary said about showing up to write every day. Charles is pro writing programs! Go writing programs! Meet other writers! Connect! Teach each other stuff!

I have been playing this stupid stupid game on Facebook where you put things in your pack and then you also steal them from other people and you get points if you make sets. I allow myself 10 minutes or so doing this every few days, although Saturday, when I first started playing it, I think I spent like 20 minutes. It's kind of like an aggressive GO FISH card game. I think it also can be seen as a kind of metaphor for something having to do with consumerism.

If you're not too tired to think in those ways, which I kind of am right now. Plus it's kind of trite to say something is a metaphor for consumerism because that's like so easy. Except Ratpack (I think that's the name or something) is about GETTING STUFF, so I don't think it's entirely off base. But maybe too obvious.

My office is a mess. I ran three miles today and I have been working on a poem this week that I'd like to finish a draft of soon.

My dogs want their walk.

Persepolis!

I saw Persepolis this afternoon and I loved it. I'm going to read Persepolis I and II.

I finished Pillars of the Earth! It is the longest book I think I've ever read.

You are not supposed to feed puppies cupcakes but sometimes you just can't help yourself.

I have been messing around with Facebook, but I'm not sure what it's for. If you take away the hugs and the pokes and putting stuff on people's walls, what's left? A poet sent me a virtual strawberry and encouraged me to send one back and then the message said, "together, we can fight global warming!" So I sent a few others to "friends" and it seemed funny and also, kind of sad. Because it really won't fight global warming. But maybe it was meant ironically. Or maybe it's just a Facebook fun thing to do, when you need time off from fighting global warming.

Tomorrow I have the day off (from work I mean, not from fighting global warming, as I spend very little time actually fighting global warming, although I do recycle and sometimes take public transportation).

Max has a chess tournament this weekend.

When I turned 5 I celebrated my birthday at a Farrell's in Eugene. I also celebrated my 21st birthday in Eugene. I remember when I turned 35 I thought I was SO OLD. Ha!

When I was three, I think, my mom made me a cake from a magazine recipe. It was like a bear or some kind of animal and our Siamese cat ate the ears off it. The ears were like gingersnaps or something.

Michele said something very useful today about my poetry manuscript. Because the idea of putting this year's poems, and all the poems to come, back in that first manuscript, making room for them somehow in a manuscript that I feel very DONE with, doesn't appeal to me at all. And she asked me if it was done and I said, yes. She said, then it's done! And I should just believe that it was going to get published eventually and the new poems go in the 2nd book.

So! It's done. It'll get published and then I'll already have a 2nd book well on its way when that happens. Funny how I couldn't just tell myself that and still needed my thesis advisor from 4 years ago to tell me that and somehow give me permission! Well! Thesis advisor, it's just a never-ending job.

It also reminded me of a conversation I had once with Michele when I was in school and she asked me how I decided if a poem was "done", and I said, uh, well if someone publishes it, I guess. Lame answer I know. She said at the time, oh so then you let someone ELSE decide?

Reb Livingston's rant on her blog made me smile.

Debbie your book is on its way to you!

I received this book today!The web page that displays this book has been permanently bookmarked in my web browser for almost two years, as I've been thinking about buying it for a long time. And then I opened a present today and there it was!

Wherever you go, there you are!

New Issue is Up!

The new Caffeine Destiny is up! Check it out.

I have been having fun on Facebook.

Laura's hair is now a very pretty red.

I want it to snow.

I'm almost done with The Pillars of the Earth. It's been a long read, but it's good!

Some Things I Did Today

I ran three miles, over to Hendricks Park and back to the hotel room.

I ordered a nice meal but didn't have time to eat it. Cecelia brought it to me later and I ate it even later in my hotel room. But I didn't have silverware in my hotel room so I ate it with my hands.

I went into Track Town Pizza just to be nostalgic. Didn't get any pizza.

Cecelia, Track Town Pizza, Hendricks park - I'm in Eugene!

With the Oregon Book Awards author tour.

More soon, from Portland.

Reading Tonight at the Press Club

Which was a nice location for a reading! Rebecca Loudon didn't make it but was there in spirit. I gave one of my poems to someone who said he liked it.

If you respond before Tuesday I can sell you a copy of the anthology for $12 which is a bargain. After that I'm sending them back to Reb.

Going to bed now.

Saying Goodbye to 2007

This is from a Keats altered book I'm working on.

Soon it will be 2008. I'm ready!

Christmas Vacation

I am having a good vacation so far!

I got a cool new blue ipod from Michael for Xmas. And one of those Nike plus things that attaches to your ipod and tracks how far you run. Amy and I are doing challenges - I ran 3.5 miles today and Lance Armstrong congratulated me at the end!

I watched MANY episodes of Project Runway and a few less many of Biggest Loser this week.

I"m reading Then We Came to The End by Joshua Ferris, working on the new Caffeine Destiny, and enjoying life in general.

Sending out my manuscript to a few places tomorrow or the next day. I was first runner up in the Kore Press manuscript competition so I decided that was a good sign.

Max got a cell phone for Christmas. We gave him the complete Chronicles of Narnia on audio CD, which I think he will listen to eventually.

I am listening to the Challengers by the New Pornographers. I am a huge Neko Case fan so I hope she comes back to Portland in 2008.

We're going to Pinback in February.

Christmas Vacation

I am on vacation! I want to clean my office and get my manuscript submitted to a few place and make some collages over the break. And begin getting the new Caffeine Destiny done, but I'm not going to push myself to get it done super fast. By the end of January is fine.

Also, over vacation I'm going to sit and stare at my Christmas tree. I enjoy that a lot.

I am listening to WNYC, broadcast from New York City. I haven't done that in a long time.

I am reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I want to finish it over vacation.

Interesting article in the New Yorker this week about how much Gordon Lish edited Raymond Carver and how Carver didn't like it so much, after the first book.

I made fudge but it didn't set. So free super soft fudge to the first ten people who respond!

I am so kidding.

It's December!

Our tree is up.

Here's an interesting interview with Kristy Bowen.

Last night's party for the Oregon Book Awards finalists was fun! A great turn out and excellent readings.

This weekend it's raining, I have papers to grade and we're going to Mcminnville.

I haven't made any collages in a really long time, but over the holidays I hope to.

I know

I never post anymore! But I'm not ready to surrender the blog. No! I can do it!

Ah well.

I read at Wordstock this weekend and that was pretty fun. It was good to see Zanni! I have been getting up early to write - I aim for three mornings a week.

The book awards are very soon and this Friday is the party for the Oregon Book Awards finalists at the Ace Hotel. It's free so please come!

Maybe in December I will post more often. Yes!

Well, I haven't written much in this lately, it's true.

I am reading Istanbul this weekend.

Max's time won their football game yesterday.

There will be poems by Katie Ford and Brenda Hillman in the winter Caffeine Destiny.

Later this week I will write more. I swear.

Happy Birthday Amy!

Still September!

Yes it's true, I haven't blogged in a while. But I've been thinking of you!

And reading The World In Place of Itself and Mary Ruefle's new book too!

Today is picture day for Max and Laura. Laura is going to Bonneville dam on a field trip.

Yours truly is reading at Wordstock. I hope Zanni can make it out from Fishtrap to read too.

More soon, I promise!

New Burnside

Went to a party for Burnside Review yesterday.

It's TBA time! Check it out. We're going to see dance Sunday night.

I miss you already Barbara.

Max has a game tomorrow, and then the Ducks play Michigan!

Fishtrap, Zanni, Home Now

The author tour to Eastern Oregon was amazing. I had never been to the Northeastern corner of Oregon. Now when I see the I-84 East sign that says "the Dalles", I know where that road leads. A woman in Pendleton told me Enterprise was "God's country", and I believe she's right. I loved the house at Fishtrap - what a great community of writers live there in Enterprise.

I saw Zanni in Enterprise. We drove into Joseph on Friday, and I saw Wallowa Lake, and Chief Joseph's grave. I saw the Blue Mountains. Northeastern Oregon's air smells different. Pine. I want to go back with Michael and the kids some time. And definitely another author tour there next summer!

Now I"m home and full-time at Literary Arts! Kids start school soon. But first - family camping! This weekend at Timothy Lake.

It's True

I haven't posted in a while!

Max is 11 now. This weekend he's going to a Mariner's game with Michael.

Laura and I are going camping Friday and Saturday with Holly and Elise! It should be fun!

I went to a Loggernaut reading last night.

I haven't written a poem since April.

New Caffeine Destiny is Online

The Fall Issue is here!

Michael, Laura and I are going to see the Dandy Warhols tonight.

I am getting better at my turns.

I start full-time at Literary Arts the last week of August.

I am looking forward to seeing Zanni at Fishtrap in a few weeks. I don't think I have ever been to Pendleton, La Grande or Enterprise. Should I buy a cowboy hat? Zanni please advise.

We saw Romeo and Juliet in Ashland last week. Outside, in the Elizabethean theater. Romeo and Juliet and the other characters their age were dressed in contemporary clothing, and their parents were dressed in more traditional Shakespeare attire.

I have been practicing my turns. I get dizzy. But I like my ballet class.

I have been working on Caffeine Destiny today. Thanks for your patience, gentle contributors! And kind readers!

Max is in Sisters. Laura is taking a class at Northwest Children's theater this week. Next week she'll be at Rock and Roll Camp for Girls! Max starts football practice Monday.

Tonight is my last hip hop class. I am still enjoying ballet. I'm hoping to continue it in the fall.

Zanni hasn't updated her blog in forever!

I am still reading Snow. I told Max we'll buy the new Harry Potter on the way to Ashland this weekend.

I got a poem accepted by Cranky this week.

I might make jam today. There will be a new Caffeine Destiny very soon, but probably not this week. But definitely before the month is over.

It's summer - that's what I know!

Summer

It's July already! My mom turned 70 on Sunday - Happy Birthday Mom! My aunt Debbie was here for 4th of July and it was great to see her.

Friday Laura and I are going to Seaside overnight, and the following weekend Michael and I are taking the kids to Ashland to see Romeo and Juliet. It's summer! Max has football camp three afternoons this week.

I am taking ballet and hip hop classes. So now I'm sort of a dancer! I am going to stop calling myself clutzy and uncoordinated. There was a very accomplished dancer in class last night - she had pointe shoes. She was there for demonstrating purposes. I have a little trouble with my glissades, but I will persevere.

I planted sunflower seeds out front. I am still reading Snow.

Summer

It's summer now and I'm glad. I finished Divisidaro and it was great; the first Ondaatje I've read. A very lyrical writer; I read somewhere the book was a series of intimate moments, strung together, and that makes sense.

I'm reading Snow by Orhan Pamuk now. We are going to Sunriver this weekend!

Michael is very busy with school. Tomorrow I start hip hop dance. And Monday I start ballet.

I think Janine returns to Portland next week.

Caffeine Destiny summer issue is going online the third week of July. I promise.

Here I am!

I haven't been updating this lately, which I know is no way to maintain a fan base! All 14 of you...

Michael and I saw Michael Ondaatje at the Portland Art Museum on Monday, and if you went yes that was Michael and I giving out programs.

I made bread today.

Today it's officially summer. I've read two Josephine Tey mysteries in the last few weeks. I need a big summer read, and I think I'm going to read Divisadero, Ondaatje's new book.

I haven't finished a poem in a few weeks. Michael is getting up very early to go play golf tomorrow so maybe I'll get up early with him and write before I go to work.

Or just go back to sleep. I'll keep you posted.

Cowgirl Up!

Tonight Laura and I are going to go see Tim McGraw and Faith Hill in concert and I am very excited!

This is the last week of school for the kids.

Read a Josephine Tey mystery in two days last weekend and now I'm reading another one. Summer is a good time for mysteries.

I have been revisiting my poetry manuscript and it's been revised from last summer into a stronger manuscript and so it's out on the road again. If it doesn't find a home this time, I know it will eventually.

In gardening news, I think I killed one of my coreopsis plants trying to divide and relocate part of it. I planted sunflowers and my lavender is almost set to bloom. I am thinking I won't grow any tomatos this year.

I started a longer poem and I thought about the Z's comment about writing dumb unfinished poems. I have lots of dumb unfinished poems, but they're the engine for the less dumb, more finished ones. It's all one big thing. Maybe the dumb, unfinished poems are the bottom of the iceberg, and the finished, less dumb ones are the ones that poke up out of the ocean. Okay, enough poetry metaphors.

June

I haven't participated in an ATC swap in a long time, but this is one I made for a "bumble bee" swap that I sent off last week. I've been working on three different altered books at the same time. I find that's more fun!

I am reading the mystery, the Hotel Majestic by Georges Simenon. I have never read anything by him, but he's a French writer. The book I'm reading was first published in 1941. I'm also reading Equivocal by Julie Carr. I like her poems. Alice James Books consistently puts out really exceptional books.

The kids will be out of school soon. Then I won't have any kid in grade school. I'll have two middle schoolers! Max is going to be at Parkrose Middle School next year, with Laura.

I ran today and went shopping with Laura. Michael and I took a nice long walk with the dogs tonight. Summer is definitely here. My lavender will bloom soon!

Home Again!

I arrived back from Ashland on Saturday. It was a great tour, with stops in Roseburg, Klamath Falls and Ashland. As soon as the photos I took are up on the Literary Arts web site, I'll let you know!

In Ashland I saw On the Razzle , a Tom Stoppard play. We're taking the kids back in July and we're going to see Romeo and Juliet. I hadn't been to Ashland since high school. I recognized the Best Western motel our high school group stayed in. It was a Thespian field trip! We saw Macbeth that year.

It's nice to be home. Laura and I went to see Waitress today, the movie with Keri Russell. We both liked it a lot.

My Marylhurst students turned in their rough drafts. Tomorrow I am at home and I'm determined to set aside some time to write poetry. Yes!

The Clientele

I was messing around on Itunes today, which is kind of fun to do. Anyway, I found this band, The Clientele, that I had never heard of before. They are British, with a very ferry-cross-the-Mersey sound, but modern(ah, I have discovered my new career as music reviewer!). And when I saw the picture of their new album I decided I really liked them. Because I've been working on a poem where owls feature prominently. And I just like the way it looks in general! So yes, their cover has good art direction. You can hear one of their songs here.

Then I found out they are going to be at the Doug Fir Lounge next Sunday the 27th, but I think Michael and I have a previous engagement.

Janine sent me her thesis and it is amazing. I have been having fun reading it.

I leave Wednesday for Roseburg.

Laura is downstairs reading for an hour and a half so she can get on the computer for 40 more minutes today. Max is watching MONDAY NIGHT RAW! or something like that - his Monday night wrestling show that he loves so well.

Tomorrow my new car stereo will be installed, just in time for my trip!

Half Marathon

Amy and I ran the Hippy Chick half marathon on Saturday. We rule!

The picture is from a book I was working on today. I also ran a little over four miles, and tried to finish poems, but to no avail. I like writing avail so I guess there's the silver lining!

Next week I leave for Roseburg, Klamath Falls and Ashland on the Oregon Book Awards author tour. I looked at Klamath Falls on a map today and it looked very far away.

Laura found out today she was accepted into the National Junior Honor Society so congratulations to Laura she rocks.

We're going to Max's game tonight.

I have been reading Take What You Want by Henrietta Goodman, the 2006 Beatrice Hawley winner, and liking it very much.

My coreopsis are coming back! Those are flowers, not a skin disease. Let's hear it for perennials.

Pets and Feeders

I ran eleven miles today - yes I'm bragging, but eleven miles - come on! - and I passed this house that had a sign out front "Rats for Sale" and then below it it said "pets and feeders."

So I wondered, did that mean that you could buy the rats for pets or you could buy them to feed to your snake? Are the "feeders" smaller ones? Or maybe they meant you can buy them as pets and you could also buy the feeders they were selling, which was something for dispensing food to your pet rat.

I don't know, but it was kind of creepy.

We saw Volver this weekend, and it was great. Volver means "to return" in Spanish, which I didn't know until I looked it up. I love Almodovar's movies.

I had a poem accepted at Siren so I'm feeling very Siren-ish.

I have been reading Joshua Beckman's Shake this weekend too. Also reading a lot of back issues of Somerset Studio and thinking about altered books.

May Thursday

I wrote my first poem of May today! I spent a lot of time on it but now I'm not even sure if I like it. I think it may be one of those poems that gets written so you can write other poems, that you like better. So, I was thinking a lot about syntax today and that was fun. And I messed around with a few other new poems. I seem to like writing about owls.

Laura has a Girl Scout campout Friday and Saturday. Max has a chess tournament Saturday.

I am reading Matthew Zapruder's The Pajamaist and I like it very much.

Okay, ten minutes later, I revised my poem by taking out the first line and now I like it much better. And it may rain so I might not go running but I have to run 13 miles on May 12th. So Amy I may walk the last three but I tried. Really.

17 years

Today is my 17th wedding anniversary.

I love you Michael. Happy Anniversary to us!

Second Thoughts

I miss Caffeine Destiny. I changed the home page. Now it says "Not the Final Issue."

That feels better.

Fiction

Sometimes I think I would like to write fiction. Stories seem so substantial, so important, such complete little worlds. They take longer to read than poems, they can be optioned for movie rights (okay, seldom but still) and they can be published in collections which are several hundred pages long, and if you start a story and kind of just keep going for like ten years it can grow up into a novel, which are even MORE substantial than poems. Plus fiction's appeal seems more universal - to the reading public I mean - than poems. Whether any of that matters is anyone's guess.

I love to read stories.

I am not very good at writing them, I have been finding out this week. Or finding out again, I should say.

Parts of fiction I can do. I can write a paragraph that sounds reasonably unmoronic. I have a few paragraphs in the story I'm working on - yes I've been trying to write a story this past week or so - that I like. But the rest of my story is kind of a mess. I wrote one very quick lame-o first draft, just to feel like I had a plot to fall back on, that it had some sort of a direction. Then I went back to the beginning to revise and make it sound like an actual story.

But I am at the point I usually get with a story, where I think, should I finish this? What is the point of finishing this?

But, however. I'd really like to write a few decent stories in this lifetime. I just keep putting it off. It's kind of fun, though, moving people around and making them say and do things, and being surprised sometimes when they say something you didn't really have to think about for that long - they just kind of say it and it takes you off in another direction, and that's fun. But plot - jeez! It's like math!

At times when writing fiction I think, be patient, just keep writing it. It takes time, a different sort of time, and it's a different proces.

Other times I think, oh go write a poem enough already.

Well, we'll see. I think it's just going to take a long time if I want to finish a story, because I write fiction slowly. I write scenes and then I cut them, or I have an idea for what I want to happen and then it changes completely. Due in a large part to the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to fiction. Still, there it is.

Well, we'll see.

Friday

I ordered a bunch of cool collage supplies from Art Chix Studio. I'm looking forward to making some new collages!

It's Friday night and Laura is making chocolate chip cookies and Max is at batting practice. This weekend he has two games, Saturday and Sunday.

Last Sunday I gave a reading at the Silverton Poetry Festival. It was really fun and it made me want to do more readings!

I saw a few poems by Rebecca Loudon online and I want to buy her book. Her blog is here, and she is also a violinist! So!

I ran three miles today; I'm supposed to run 13 on May 12 - I'm running the Hippie Chick Half Marathon! As if!

Have not kept up the poem a day thing. But I have several poems in the works and I feel fine about not churning out one a day. They will get finished.

Michael and I are going to see They Came From Way Out There on Sunday.

Rest in peace, Mstislav Rostropovich.

Spring!

I heard a frog tonight on my walk with the dogs. Spring is here!

The tour was an amazingly great time. I think the audiences in Newport, Lincoln City and Astoria enjoyed the readings. I know I did! I had never been to Astoria before and I want to go back soon. Our next tour is to Roseburg, Klamath Falls and Ashland, with Paulann Petersen, Scott Nadelson, and Keith Scales.

I didn't write any poems at the Sylvia Beach Hotel, but during my stay there in the Sigrid Undset room I did come up with the title for a poem, and I wrote the draft of it today. It's called "My Origami House."

Newport Bound

I leave very soon for Newport. Tonight Floyd Skloot, Gina Ochsner, George Aguilar, Sr. and Edwin Battistella will be reading at the Newport Public Library. You can read about it in The Newport Times or The Statesman.

The words on the collage are from a poem by Floyd Skloot, Dowsing For Joy.

I was reading Gina Ochsner's book, People I Wanted to Be last night. I'm really looking forward to meeting her.

We should return Saturday in time for Max's game, although if this weather keeps up I think it will be yet another cancelled game.

I have to write a poem or two on the tour, to keep up with my poem a day goal! I hope to write a poem at the Sylvia Beach Hotel while I'm there.

This just in - I won a copy of Kristy Bowen's Fever Almanac . If you read her blog, details of the contest are there. And look, I finally made it to Kristy's blog!

April Poems

For those of you are wondering how this whole "writing a poem a day" thing is going, it's going pretty well! I have written four since April 5th. Two of them I like, one I would like more if it were revised some more and the one I wrote this evening I am not so crazy about. However, I'm doing it! I think it's a good practice to get into.

Thursday I leave for the Oregon Book Awards Author tour; the writers and I are going to Newport, Lincoln City and Astoria. So come see us! There is information about it on the
Newport Public Library web site.

My mom told me two jokes on Easter. One of them I had heard before. One of them has the punch line, "Andy walks with me, Andy talks with me." It's a Forrest Gump joke. I laughed.

Bunny Found a Friend

Michael surprised me last night and brought home the other bunny. He put it on the table next to the other bunny, but I didn't notice it until Laura mentioned it. What a sweetie (the bunny and the husband).

I told Amy I like them too much to take them down on Monday! She said I can keep them up all of April. I guess it's a rule or something. Good!

I am going to try to write a poem every day for the rest of the month - in celebration of National Poetry Month! Can I do it? I think I can! I was inspired by Kristy Bowen, who has been posting some of her poems that she is writing for National Poetry Writing Month, which I had never heard of until yesterday. But Kristy is brave and posts hers on her blog and I don't think I'll post mine. Reb Livingston is also posting hers on her blog .

I"ll just post a few lines of the poem I wrote today. Here's the first line:

You were a dove, an open window.

Here's the last line:

You made the trees misbehave.

Now you can make up your own poem, by filling in the rest. It's National Poetry Writing Month - you can do it!

I know my mother is coming for a visit. How do I know this? I dusted the end table in the living room. I never dust.

My big hope is that the dust-free end table will distract her from the piles of unfolded laundry and the counter in the bathroom, should either of those housekeeping issues not be remedied before her arrival.

Easter Bunny

Easter is 5 days away. I bought this bunny today. She is 18 inches tall. She is standing by the door because she is hoping I'll let her take a walk outside.

I have been reading Feign, a chapbook by Kristy Bowen, put out by New Michigan Press. Some of the poems were published in Caffeine Destiny. It's a great chapbook - and Kristy has a book coming out soon! She also has a blog and she is the founder of dancing girl press. A busy woman! I love her poems - here's one of hers from the Poetry Daily site.

I did yoga today, and planted geraniums even though it's a bit early for geraniums.

The Magazine is Over, the Blog Remains

The very last issue of Caffeine Destiny is now online.

Spring Break!

I'm on vacation!

We went to Mcminnville and saw the always adorable Carly and Tyler.

Watched the Ducks lose.

Saw Premonition with Amy and Laura. Not a very good movie.

I ran 7 miles today.

Check out Christian Hawkey's new book, Citizen Of. Wave Books is a great press.

You have to go here and try this! It's poems where you can erase words in the poem by clicking on them, and if you like them you can email them to friends and you can also look at erasure poems that others have made. I think it's cool.

I love vacation.

Top O' the Spring!

No there are no leprechauns in the art today! No little green men. I used to leave gold chocolate coins for the kids by their beds on St. Patrick's day.

But it's almost spring and the daffodils are blooming.

George Saunders came to town this week and he was inspiring and seemed like a great guy.

Max has his last basketball game today.

I am grading this week but my poetry class is over.

I am going to go run now. Far.

Term Winding Down

I can feel the end of the term approaching. I see it in my student's weary faces. But outside the earth is waking up to Spring! And we are springing forward earlier this year.

I'm still reading about Lewis and Clark.

The new Caffeine Destiny is late. I'm going to do it spring break, I think. Or maybe the week before.

Max has started Little League practice. Laura has a dance competition in a few weeks.

I haven't made any collages in a while. Maybe spring break.

Oscar Night

I want Mark Wahlberg to win but I bet he won't.

It's week eight of the term and I'm busy with classes and papers and all that good stuff.

I'm reading Undaunted Courage, about the Lewis and Clark expedition and trying to imagine my neighborhood as all frontier.

Last night on a brief evening walk with the dogs I saw something cross the street that didn't look like a cat. It disappeared quickly. Maybe a possum.

I imagine my neighborhood in the 1800's, near the Columbia river, teeming with foxes and raccoons and possums. And blackberries, lots of blackberries. In the 1950's this neighborhood was all farmland, so it's really not that much of a stretch to imagine it unhoused.

Max and Laura's teams both won their games yesterday.

Laura's hair was red but yesterday she dyed it back to light brown. So now it is light brown with some red streaks.

I have been eating too many Girl Scout cookies.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I know haven't been posting much lately, as many of my adoring fans have reminded me. Well, Amy reminded me anyway!

I have been reading Dean Young's new book Embryoyo and I love it! I finished Easter Parade by Richard Yates. I've started The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif, I haven't read very far.

I had a poem accepted by New York Quarterly!" I'll be in those pages ... eventually. I think they have quite a backlog. Still, a nice yes!

Matt Yurdana came to visit my Intro to Poetry class at PSU this week. I think the students really enjoyed it. His book is called Public Gestures - an Oregon Book Awards finalist!

Last night we went to see Sparklehorse at the Wonder Ballroom. They were good. They played a short set but Michael got a signed poster. We went to a bar I've never been to before, called The Echo.

Michael gave me some very nice chocolates and pink roses and a new desk chair which I have been needing! I made creme brulee for Valentine's Day and we are going to watch LOST later. Well, truth be told, I usually fall asleep or get up and go to bed to read during LOST. I am lost when I watch LOST. Matthew Fox can only keep me engaged for so long. I don't understand what they are doing! Why are they still lost? If they have all that other stuff they keep finding on the island than why wouldn't they also find like a cell phone or something? And they are all so serious all the time. I don't think it's going to be any FUN on that island until they find Gilligan and the Skipper. Then the party will start rocking!

Happy Birthday Michael

I love you.