Last-ish splash.

Dear blog, I have not abandoned you. I was in New York! I spent 20 hours in the car with two kids under the age of ten. And I have (obviously) lived to tell about it. But mainly I want to say that September is almost over. I think it should be over. I'm already thinking about November, etc. Anyway, now that the trip is behind us (family wedding, etc) it's all about catching up and moving forward and acting shocked by chilly gusts and orange leaves.

The most exciting part of this week (aside from returning home) was this incredibly insightful review of Saint Monica in The Rumpus. There's nothing quite like perusing the sites you check every day and seeing your own book cover there. I'm incredibly thankful. I am totally going to squeal with glee in front of their table at AWP Chicago.

In other news, while I was out of town the folks at We Who Are About to Die posted this little interview with me about parenting. It's about parenting, but I think the whole "how to write like you're desperate to write, because you are desperate to write" idea applies widely. Cheers to all the folks who checked it out.

I need to post this because soon it's going to be October. I'll neglect the blog less this month, promise. I can report back that I have 16-ish pages of new poems from the new series, so I haven't been spending the whole time filing my nails and dreaming up new recipes for butternut squash.

Night + moves.

Oh dear. This day became incredible hectic, in the "well, I guess I'll leave my desk looking like it's been ransacked" kind of way. Where did that come from, huh?

My poem-writing productivity has slowed a bit this week, but there's still exciting news.

I have some new poems here at Toad. Yeah!

And it has officially been announced that I will be judging two awesome things in the future. I'll be the poetry judge for the 2011 Best of the Net anthology (attention online magazine editors--submissions accepted until 10/31/11). I am also the judge of this year's Mid-American Review James Wright Poetry Award competition, which has a postmark deadline of 10/1/11. That's practically right around the corner!

One thing I can share about judging contests is that my aesthetic is incredibly eclectic. I can honestly say that I like all different kinds of poems. I like dark/chilly poems, and hot love poems, and silly poems, and dark poems that turn into silly love poems. I like lyric poems and narrative poems. I love poems that seem really felt by the author (even if they're funny--sometimes they can be the most moving poems). I'd rather poems take risks and have a few runs in their stockings, rather than being impenetrable in a cold veneer. If that makes any sense. Anyhow, it's an honor to be judging, and I can't wait to read what folks send my way.

On Saturday I'll be reading with the amazing Susan Grimm (who arguably has the best reading voice in all of poetry--downright mesmerizing) at Mac's Backs Books on Coventry, at 7 pm. I'll read some Saint Monica poems, but also a handful of my brand new, hot of the press series that I've been having so much fun with. I hope to see you there, local poetry fans!

And then there was _________.

Man, it's feeling autumnal here in Akron, OH. I am completely obsessed with a new series of poems I am writing. I just had to grapple with whether to use quotes and italics or to make a quoted part of a spoken passage non-italic. But that's pretty much the only thing I don't love about these new poems. I'm not bragging, just enthusiastic.

Maybe I do have a little extra swagger thanks to Kyle Minor's incredible reading of some poems from Saint Monica over yonder at HTML Giant. What a delight to wake up to. I am filled with gratitude!

For some reason, a poem doesn't feel completely real until I print it out on paper. I wish I could get past that, because it's silly. Somehow the screen just seems temporary. Like a bunch of stray light.

I guess that's what it is, technically.

I printed all these new poems up and I am taking them home with me.

Longweekender.

Wow, this long weekend was something else! All of the best things (bestest friends, poetry, beers of quality, curry cauliflower, my writers' group with amazingly inspiring girlfriends, broken things being fixed, new poems even though allegedly "not writing," cooler weather that makes one think about flannel pajamas, two poems accepted by supremely awesome journal, a little relaxation, not doing the stuff supposed to be doing, catching up on laundry, cats that like to walk across your chest while reading, and reading!).

It's hard to believe we're entering week THREE of the semester, and already a day ahead, at that.

My yard is starting to look like a real jungle, and not in a nice way.

I hope the universe doesn't consider this an invitation to throw me yet another curve ball, but I feel as if I am finally getting some things in order and figuring out a workable routine.

It's also not really Sunday night, so I shouldn't have insomnia.

Having some revelations about a new book project!

I'd really like this week to be a good one.