Miscellany and Mayhem: What I'm Doing with my Summer, Part I

Welp, June is almost over and I've blogged twice (now, three times). That's considered a massive failure in terms of blogging, isn't it? Or should I have written, "that's a massive FAIL"? ("I'm with it! I'm hip! Tucka tucka tucka tucka tucka . . . .")

*Sigh* Anyway, I've been doing a lot of little things but I feel like I have a lot of nothing to show for it. I've been reading . . . a back issue of American Poetry Review here, a back issue of Poets & Writers there. Some more Glyn Maxwell. And I sent out a submission. Also, I've been "revising" -- scanning that fairy tale poem a few pages at a time (I'll say it again: that thing is long), and occasionally rewriting a line on the spot, but not often. (I'm going to have a lot of work to do once I finish scanning. I feel like there are a lot of lines early in the manuscript that could/should be stronger metrically). I wrote that one poem last week (last week? It feels like a month ago by now . . .) but nothing since then. 

A.P. now has the entire book manuscript in his hands and will give me a verdict sometime next week. I made some significant (maybe?) changes to the MS -- I changed the title of the last section and added two new poems. At this point, I think this improves the section, by developing it a little further and making it more cohesive . . . but I guess I won't know until I get some feedback. L.C. has the MS too (hey L.C.!), and eventually I'll harass her enough to the point where she gives me feedback, too. (You won't mind, will you L.C.? You don't need to get to that sabbatical project yet, anyway, right?)

And I haven't touched my research for the Poetry of Witness article since my little trip to the Cloisters on June 14 (I read and annotated two rather lengthy articles that day -- on the LIRR and while sitting in the gardens of the Cloisters. I wish the trip out there wasn't so lengthy or I'd visit more often). I need to delve back into that research. One, it's interesting and I like it. Two, I don't want to lose momentum. Similar to my history with writing poetry and creating poetry manuscripts, I've had ideas for articles before, but never really pursued them -- and missed opportunities because of it. I don't want to let that happen this time. I want to make sure I see this through to the end . . . and publication.

So, announcing my plans for the article on this blog helps. It makes it more real, putting the idea of it out into the universe, even if no one really reads the blog or holds me accountable for its completion. (Although I made sure also that certain people will hold me accountable  . . . I've already spoken to Willard Cook, the publisher of Epiphany, about interviewing him for the article, and to Stephanos Papadopolous, too. Ruth Irupe Sanabria is next on my list. The more people I tell, the more pressure I have to finish it, right?)

I've had the kids all to myself this week, and that slows down my writing/reading process considerably. We've been having fun, though, so I can't complain -- for instance, we went to Connecticut with my in-laws on Tuesday and terrorized the little city of Mystic. I ate far too many sugary things. So did my children, and boy did I see the effects of THAT mistake yesterday. They were beastly, those beasts. It's my own damn fault, though. I need to remember that while being on vacation is supposed to be fun, creating an imbalance in your children's blood sugar leads to the opposite of fun. Less salt water taffy, more visits to duck ponds, Kain.

I'm hoping, as always, to establish a routine over July. It'll be a "camp" routine -- there'll be only two days a week when I have solid stretches of time by myself, and those stretches will not be long -- but it'll create some order and maybe I can get back in the habit of actually following through with projects. And maybe I can return to my fucking verse play, which is turning into some kind of fantasy and moving further away from something that's actually going to be written.

I have a list of school-related tasks that need to be taken care of, as well. And it keeps growing. Ahhh!

*Breathe*