Onward.

As much as I would like to be the kind of writer who writes steadily through the year, producing even numbers of poems in even doses, I'm not.

In fact, I don't think I'll write another poem until the semester's over.

I keep getting ideas, but I don't have the energy right now.

When I get the energy, I'll be a loaded gun.

Had a blast with David Kirby at the Cleveland State University Poetry Center. I didn't tell him that I don't plan to write another poem until the semester's over.

It's insanely beautiful outside here right now. Something has to be, right?

Cruellest month? Really?

This is about how I feel right now. It's the time of year where my office is teeming and seething with thesis manuscripts, AWP event proposals, student papers and poems, and various other projects. Add to that a full reading schedule, and the amazing Brian Brodeur coming to town to read, and you have quite a maelstrom.

What I want to know is how on earth we're going to have AWP next year in APRIL. Isn't it the busiest time of the year for most academics?

Kickstart my heart. Or whatever.

For those of you who do readings all of the time, how on earth do you maintain your enthusiasm? I've been doing a reading almost every week, and I'm starting to become bleary-eyed. Tonight I'm reading with some of my favorite girls in the world (Amy Bracken Sparks, Susan Grimm, Jen Sullivan, at Barnes & Noble in Fairlawn, OH, 8 pm) and I haven't even printed the poems out yet. I'm saving a bunch for my reading at Cleveland State on 4/22, and since it's at B&N I can't swear or read anything exceptionally objectionable. So that leaves me with poems from second grade, and a Shakespearean sonnet that I had to write once as a class assignment in high school.

Anyway, I'd appreciate any advice on how to get hyped up when you're reading over and over again. Please enlighten me. If there isn't a special energy drink to help with this, perhaps I'll invent one.

More than a feeling.

Yep, that's some April snow piling up out there. I guess "piling up" isn't terribly accurate. But what really is accurate, may I ask?

I'm counting the weeks until this semester is over. I don't care if it snows, as long as it goes.

Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before.

Well, National Poetry Month is finally here. I could feel it the moment I stepped on the cold hardwood floor this morning. It's also no coincidence that the rains today have subsided, leaving us with a brilliant blue sky, and hopefully some warm weather.

With moving the calendar to April, I realized that I must immediately begin planning our Poem in Your Pocket Day festivities. I'll be returning from a reading in Cincinnati that day (4/30), and it's our last day of class. I'd like to do some kind of action project, nonetheless. Maybe something involving lobsters on leashes, and lots of red paint.

There's a fantastic list of judges for this contest, including yours truly. What a thrill to be in such company.

I'm deliberating over doing a NAPO. When I do a NAPO-esque poem a day thing, it's usually not in April. This is my craziest month, by far. Thesis defenses, daffodils to crush with my heel, advising up the wazoo. Thankfully I am training my replacement right now in many of my duties, as next year I move on to directorland.

Are you doing a NAPO? How on earth do you make the time?

Going to see Robert Hill Long and Allison Benis White tonight at the Cleveland State University Poetry Center. I will not be writing my poem du jour during that reading.