Too Much Poetry?: A Mid-Semester Update

This semester, I am taking forms of poetry, a poetry workshop, and a literature class on Arthurian narratives.  I think it's pretty easy to believe that things have been a bit different than last year.  Poetry classes have a little different feel to them than fiction classes.  Poetry workshop seems a different environment from fiction workshop -- less sometimes passionate arguing and more shared interpretations and building on each other to try and understand a poem.  It's been interesting for me also to notice my self-confidence as a poet compared to my self-confidence as a fiction writer.  I have written stories far longer and feel far more developed as a fiction writer than I do as a poet, but I often still feel drawn to write poetry, and, being intensely serious about any writing I do, I feel the urgency to try and write highly successful poems.  This rarely actually happens, but it's a humbling experience, and I'm learning.

I am again teaching Introduction to Academic Writing, doing things mostly the same though with a little tweaking.  I recently submitted a proposal to teach a section of English 211: Writing about Literature, and it was accepted, so I've been often thinking about that class and even more particularly what I want to do with it.  It also looks likely that I will be getting in on a chance to help teach an Introduction to Creative Writing: Poetry course. Yes, that's right -- poetry.  I'll be working with my forms teacher, and she thinks I'll do a great job, so let's hope she's right.  I feel underqualified, but excited for the opportunity nonetheless.

One day just recently I decided I'd been writing too much poetry and was feeling the need to get back to some prose writing.  So I decided it was time to stop only writing notes for the novel I intend to be my thesis and actually start writing it.  The process is going to be a bit jolted, as I still have a lot of research I want to do for it, but there are parts I can work on now, so I'm starting with those and doing more research as I go.  Hopefully soon I will be visiting one of the middle schools here to job shadow the band director!  I have been in touch with her, and she's very excited about my project.  I'm also just enjoying starting to engross myself in the world of music again.

Officially done with 1/4 of the comps list. Not as far along as I'd like to be, but making progress.

Also, after a couple weeks of frustrating writing time when I never seemed to be writing anything worth reading, I finally think I've latched on to something. Maybe. At least the words are coming more smoothly than before.

Still also trying to enjoy Alaska summertime, which is not, actually, that summer-like, in my opinion. It's been very rainy, and lately even cold -- we're talking 50s, sometimes even 40s in the morning. But at least there are fresh blueberries to be foraged and most of the mosquitoes have moved on to torment other areas, so being outside is bearable. On days that aren't too wet, hiking is a must, and I've been spending so much time on the porch that I keep leaving things outside thinking it's just another room in the cabin.

The plants are growing!

This is about as exciting as my life gets right now.


Still reading, still writing, and tomorrow, Sarah, a friend of mine from undergrad, is coming to visit, so I should have more to do for awhile!

Summer is slowly wasting away, the veggies are growing in the garden, I've spent far too much time not reading for comps, but what can ya do? It is summer, after all.

I've started to receive rejection letters from some of the journals I've submitted to, and I'm happy to say they have almost all been personalized -- hand written thank yous on form letters, comments that they'd almost chosen to publish a poem, etc. Means somebody ought to bite eventually, right?

Apologies for the long hiatus. The end of the semester was a crazy one, and after a brief trip to Iowa, I'm back at the cabin.

Plans for the summer include:

• reading for the comps - the list is here, if you're interested: http://www.alaska.edu/english/mfa/requirements/readinglist/fiction-2010-and-2011/ I'll be taking the test in February, and so far, I've read only 8 of these books, so it's time to get crackin'.
• writing - I want to polish up some of the stories I wrote during the year, as well as write some new ones and get started on the idea I have for my thesis to see if it'll work.
• submitting to publications
  
• gardening - Just spent the afternoon (off and on) tilling one of two raised garden beds. It seems they haven't been used in awhile, and between the weeds, roots, and hordes of mosquitoes, getting them ready for planting is turning out to be much more work than I'd anticipated.
• sewing/crocheting/cooking/whatever else catches my fancy
  
• jury's still out on the whole employment thing....

I'm hoping to be able to go see more of Alaska this summer. I've pretty much only been in Fairbanks so far, aside from the drive up. I'm feeling pretty limited by the fact that I don't have a job right now, but I'd at least like to make it to Denali, and I'll be seeing what other hiking trails I can find around the area as well (though I'm pretty attached to and content with Murphy Dome already).

I would also just like to note that the mosquitoes here are the largest I've ever seen. And yes, I have seen the ones in Minnesota.

Moose Encounter!

Friday night. I'm headed to my jeep after time at the pub with friends. I walk out of the building that houses the English department and proceed past one of the residence halls, where students are gathered outside. I walk past the end of the building. A moose is just around the corner. I see her. She sees me. She starts running towards me. I start running back where I came from. When she sees me running, she stops. When I see her stop, I stop. I watch warily as she walks slowly across my path and down the street before I proceed on my way home.

The way I see it, there are 3 major markers to indicate how cold it is: freezing point, zero, and snot freeze cold.