Three Poem Check-In, and the Inevitable.

Our colossal and now deceased Snowma'am sends happy greetings of the New Year. 2010 feels pretty okay so far. Actually, it feels kind of tired, and coffee isn't helping. The kids are watching Mary Poppins in the living room and shaking the entire first floor with their dancing. My eye hurts for some reason (confetti? no). But so far so good with the 2010, which is so much fun to type.

I did not see the blue moon last night. It was too cloudy. I'm not even sure it was up there. Anyone in Ohio see it?

Here's the big(ger) question: who was able to meet the "three poems before 2010 challenge"? Thanks to all who have already dropped me a line about it. I wrote four, and did some revisions, but having the kids home full time put a real dent in my plans for adding the new poems and revisions to my ms. The kids go back to school this week, which is the annual "how much can I get done in a week" week, and I hope it's a productive one.

I'm teaching two poetry workshops this semester, an advanced undergrad one and an MFA one. I have already collected the first round of poems for the MFA class, and I am so excited. I have taught workshops so many times, but it's always a different class, you know? I like it when I have a semester where I can teach all creative writing. Not that I don't like teaching lit, but there's something about carrying student poems around with you everywhere, battling that constant backlog of annotations, and being surprised every time you get something new.

I totally wasn't going to do resolutions, but this list is so awesome that I decided to make some anyway.

1. [Note: this resolution was made for me] After February 1st I will no longer add poems to my current manuscript, O Holy Insurgency. Instead I will send it out and just write new poems.

2. In the next week I will write the last two poems of the ms mentioned above, sequence it (finally), and let it chill.

3. I will start a new moleskine and actually use it. I noticed a serious drop in new poem production when I got lazy about this.

4. I will try to eat meals at a table like a normal person whenever possible. Typical day: eat breakfast standing up in the kitchen, eat lunch at my desk while working, eat dinner standing up in the kitchen or walking around the house. I don't imagine that's very healthy.

5. I will continue the following things I've already made good headway with: (*) Being more patient, especially with the kids, and not letting them drive me apeshit. (*) Doing something creative every day. (*) Appreciating the spectacular people in my life a bit more. (*) Maybe being a little less antisocial, maybe not, though. (*) Continuing to love my house and work hard to make sure it's the way I want it to be. (*) [Addendum] Letting things around the house slide a little, and handling things like cleaning in a triage fashion. (*) Trying to be more calm. Not letting stress from work get to me. (*) Continuing to enjoy, once again, things like trying new recipes (and eating them) since I wasn't able to do this for a long time. (*) Continuing to work on my budget, getting some tax help, and learning to do more with less.

6. I will somehow allow my poet side, editor side, teacher side, and administrator side to coexist harmoniously. Sometimes the editor and administrator back the poet and the teacher into a corner with a lot of cobwebs and centipedes and rattle them a little. The poet just zones out and feels a combination of anxious + resentful. The teacher freaks out and starts ransacking anthologies, looking for a Carlos Drummond de Andrade poem that was never actually written. I'd like these entities to be able to sit down at a table with some Sambuca and work out their differences.

My children are running around the house, talking about firewood, dogs, and cell phones. They just started fighting, and as an intervention I said something to the effect of: What difference does it make? Be creative. I think that may be my new slogan for 2010.