Going to Dodge

So, the schedule is out for the Dodge Poetry Festival and now I’m getting really excited! To not only hear, but to be able to learn from poets I respect and greatly admire like Olds, Collins, Dove, Levine, Hirsch, Cisneros, Hirshfield, Kinnell, Oates, etc. is going to be so fantastic! I’m such a geek-I’ve already made a schedule on Excel. I only wish I had a map to plot out my route to the tents! And my husband is such a prince to join me. He’ll be there with his camera taking pictures of everything. I think he’ll have a good time.

Students are back at San Francisco State, and it’s very inspiring. As I do each time classes convene, I contemplate getting my MFA. Low res? High res? I feel so old to be going back to school. Would I have the gumption to make and meet deadlines? Do I remember how to write a critical thinking paper? I have trouble finishing our bookgroup book half the time.

Speaking of, we’re reading “Reading Lolita in Tehran” and neither my husband nor I could get into it. I’ve heard several people say this. I know it’s supposed to be a great book; it’s just so dense and opens really slow. I flipped ahead to see if I could pick up later in the story, but it’s one of those books that builds up so slowly. Anyway, I’m committed to finishing it, just not by next Tuesday.

I wrote three poems yesterday, and I’m so relieved to have broken through this writer’s block that I’ve been suffering from. It’s been really hard to not feel inspired to write. I took a bunch of poetry books with me and read and searched for inspiration and luckily I found it. I’m going to write again today, but, I know that productivity won’t remain a constant. I’ll just enjoy a nice, hot cup of coffee and read some poetry. Never a bad thing to be doing.

More later…