Putting the cart inside the cart.

To continue the theme of my last post, April has been a month of many poems, and very little blogging. I've attempted numerous NAPO and NAPO-eque exercises in the past, but this is the only one where I stuck with it 100%, and where most of the daily entries were actually full poems. Having a project seems to help. I'm glad that May will be here soon, but I might keep writing a poem a day for as long as I can.

I do have a few things to report, such as my poem "A Genesis" being picked as a Verse Daily web weekly feature. You can read the poem here at Waccamaw. Thanks, Verse Daily folks, and Waccamaw. The poem is from O Holy Insurgency, forthcoming in 2012 from Black Lawrence Press.

Here's a poem and a little interview for National Poetry Month over at the BLP Blog.

Also, I got to recommend five recent poetry books over at the 32 Poems blog.

And somebody is selling a used copy of Saint Monica on Amazon for $367.02 plus shipping. It will be out very soon. I promise!

In the good news department, I seem to be strepless, and my summer class now has enough students to remain afloat. It's been an anxious few weeks, but things are (hopefully) looking up.

I encountered the above items the other day, and just had to catch them in the act.

Happy weekend to all, carts included.

holy / unholy / holy

I'm not completely sure what makes this April so much different from last April, but this April I haven't been blogging much, and last April I was blogging fairly much, and this April I am writing many poems, and last April I was writing no poems for a goodly chunk of the month, so what gives? I am sure there is no connection whatsoever. But I'll take it.

So far I've written a poem a day this April. If I knew the date of today offhand, I'd tell you how many poems that adds up to. Minus the one for today, which isn't written yet. I am writing at the same time every day, right after I put my kids to bed. I'm exhausted, but sometimes that's good, in the way that I can say Meh. This image is kooky but I will leave it. Without serious fatigue, I might revise something away.

Today is my second day off antibiotics. I was on various antibiotics for almost three weeks. I am hoping that I am able to stay healthy this time. I hate right now because I am constantly thinking I am getting sick again. Like, there's a bird in the tree outside my window, and there was a bird in the tree outside my window last time I got sick, so I must be sick. Or bird-sick.

Beyond dodging germs, I have a bit of exciting news to report. Saint Monica will be released very soon! I just approved the final version of the whole cover, and the pages look amazing, and I am super excited and feeling so lucky to have two books released this year (M&W was released in January, but that seems like a long time ago).

I can't wait to meet Monica in person. I almost mistyped in prison. Oh dear. Here she comes.

Progress(ish)

So, we're ankle-deep in April, and I have yet to make any comment here. You may thank strep for that, a very bad case that knocked me thoroughly out of commission for over a week. I'm only just starting to feel like myself again, and even then it's slow going.

After canceling a week's worth of classes (and not being able to answer emails or annotate poems, or anything, really) I came back this week and made it through. I really hope that the rest of this year is smoother sailing. It's been a real bummer in the health department lately.

Three more weeks of the semester. Trying to keep up with it, but kind of in disbelief.

Two new poems in the very awesome Devil's Lake. A bunch more forthcoming in other places, which makes me happy.

We have a plethora of new reviews over at Barn Owl Review. Check 'em out. We begin accepting submissions of poetry on June 1st. Holy cow.

Tomorrow it's supposed to be 81 degrees. Right now I'm wearing three shirts and I have the heat on.