9 to 5 Poet

I’ve called myself a working writer before, but that’s because I work at a full time job and write on the side.  But now, I can call myself a working writer — someone who gets financially rewarded for writing.  I’ve been hired for my very first paying freelance job!  A good friend of mine from college hooked me up with a gig and I get to work at it over the summer.   It’s perfect timing, because my job slows down in the summer (due to the students being done with school), so I’ll have energy to devote to other work.  I am really excited to try something new, and of course, get paid for it.   If it works out, I may try to actively seek out more freelancing later.  Woo-hoo!

This weekend, my husband and I took a road trip to Madison, WI to visit some close friends.  As a pit stop, we hiked in Devil’s Lake State Park, a gorgeous state park that surrounds a large lake, but also has an oak forest and a huge rocky hill you can climb. 

The weather was perfect — sunny but not sweltering and we hiked several interlacing trails, including one up some stone stairs built into the rocky hill. The top picture is of the “Devil’s Doorway,” a rock formation at the top of the hill.  It was nice to stretch our legs, take some pictures, and get some much needed sunshine in before we finished the drive.  Check out my husband’s blog for more pics from the weekend!

This week, I read a wonderful chapbook called Savage Machinery (18 pages) by Karen Rigby.  I don’t want to spoil my review for it, which will appear on Read Write Poem on Wednesday, but this is a wonderful series of poems. 

My husband read over my shoulder while I was writing my review and said, “Oh an Adam and Eve poem.  You must like this chapbook!” And of course, I did, for more reasons than having an Adam & Eve poem. The chapbook weaves together several of my favorite themes. It’s about sensuality, food, religion, human connection despite distance and dang it, it rocks. 

When it comes out from Finishing Line Press in September, I heartily encourage you to pick it up!

Total For 2008: 3819 pages
Genres: Memoir (3), Essay (1), Graphic Novel (1), Non-Fiction (3), Poetry (5), Comic Book Anthology (1), Novel (2)

My level of discipline has suddenly plummeted. 

Rather than writing poetry on the bus, I’m obsessively completing crossword puzzles.  (I bought a book of 500 at the campus bookstore on my Monday.)  I can see black and white little boxes in my sleep.  I keep itching to do another, as soon as I finish one.  I think they could be habit forming.

Of course, I’m also spending more time outside, taking walks and playing catch or frisbee with my husband.  When I’m inside, I’m watching TV or watching more TV.  So You Think You Can Dance  has a two hour premiere tonight, which is practically a holiday in our house. 

And my reading habits have changed.  In the past three weeks, I’ve read two different mysteries.  The first, admittedly, was an assignment for writing a review for the Uptown Neighborhood News. But it whetted my appetite for more mysteries!  Unfortunately (or fortunately for my review) the first was way better than the second. 

I would highly recommend State of the Onion (325 pages) by Julie Hyzy, especially if you like female protaganists in your mysteries.  The second, Simple Genius (420 pages) by David Baldacci is kind of cruddy. That’s the technical literary term. The story is good, but the prose and dialogue is so wooden that I felt dirty for reading it. 

Despite these mixed results, I still want to read more mysteries.  So, if you have any recommendations for mystery authors that can write well, let me know!  I think I need to make peace with my tendencies towards frivolity, at least for the summer. 

Total For 2008: 3801 pages
Genres: Memoir (3), Essay (1), Graphic Novel (1), Non-Fiction (3), Poetry (4), Comic Book Anthology (1), Novel (2)

I am only tangentially on prompt today for read. write. poem., this uses figurative language more than specific metaphor or simile, but I was just so happy to have written a new poem, that I had to share.

My Morning, In Yellow

Tree pollen cakes my shoes
as I crunch through fallen beginnings.

A man in a yellow polo carries a body length
mirror, reflecting his twin.  Dandelions dotted

on the lawn behind him.  At the bus stop, the young
girl says on her cellphone, “You know what he said

to me — Bitch, if you don’t back up, I’m gonna
cut your stomach. He’s retarded!” Her nails flash bright

yellowed tips.  I count yellow signs:
Two Amigos Bazaar, Subway, For Sale By Owner, No

Trespassing, on the ride to work.  Two empty
school buses idle on opposite corners.

Crude mural on the abandoned day care shines
a shaft of lemon yellow light on cartoon Jesus.

Pregnant woman ahead of me sips nuclear bright
Mountain Dew. Gold stars on my journal cover.

I see street signs, lamp posts, speed bumps,
in chipped yellow hues.  The light

rail train glides silently on flat tracks,
yellow warning lights blink on and off.

Even in this abundant morning light, I see you,
portents and possibilities, blooming and lying dormant.

I’ve been dreaming up this collage for days and I finally had time to make it today.  The funny thing is, it didn’t turn out the way I thought it would.  But I like it so much better in this way.  I love that mistakes, revisions, and evolutions in ideas end up making a better piece of work than a perfectly planned piece. 

Say what you want about Charles Simic, but this review of his latest book by Katha Pollitt is fantastic!  I really feel like I got a picture of his new (and 19th) book, That Little Something, as well as the scope of his life’s work.  Personally, I really like Charles Simic (in small doses) and I now have the next book on my summer reading list.  I also now want to read more from Pollit.

Funny how reviews do two jobs at once. 

I have just posted the first issue of Asphalt Sky!  It took a bit longer than I expected (as every project always does), but I’m really proud of the result.  Kate, Jo, and I worked very hard to find the best poetry, art, and fiction possible, and I think we have a lovely diversity of artists, poets, and storytellers.

I hope you check it out!  If you like what you see, I’ve opened submissions for Volume 1, Issue 2.  Please submit by September 1. Find out more at the submissions guidelines page over at our new and improved site.    Thanks!

On Sunday, I was hanging out with some friends, and one of my really good friends lent me the greatest book.  It’s called Look! Up in the Sky! and it is an anthology of comic book poetry.  As soon as he turned it over to me, I thought, I wonder if Jeannine Hall Gailey has any poetry in here, because she wrote an entire book of comic book poetry.  In fact, she is!  She has two of her poems from Becoming the Villainess in there.  I felt smart and in the know, for a moment.  Don’t worry, it passed.

Throughout the past couple of days, I’ve been flipping through the book, and it has some great poems in here.  I think it stretches the theme a bit, to include all sorts of heroes and villains.  But I’ve enjoyed much of the poetry inside.  My favorite, for now, is a poem by Samer Saliba called “The Pussy Doctor,” which describes what it feels like to grow up with a father who is a gynecologist.  (This is the the stretching it part — the dad is a hero, in the poem.)  The best line: “Whenever my dad saw me crying and called me a pussy, I had to take his word for it.”  Brilliant!

SARK, one of my favorite writers in the universe, has a new book coming out this August. I was disappointed with her last book, Fabulous Friendship Festival, mainly because it wasn’t an engaging topic for me.  But her new one is entitled Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper: Gifting the World with Your Words and Stories, and Creating the Time and Energy to Actually Do It. Now that sounds like a book for me! 

August 5 can’t come fast enough!