Snow Day?

24º and a fury of flurries

This morning my husband got his wish...a snow day. I'm a bit stunned by it, given the "dusting" of snow that is on the ground, but hey, this is the South in all its glory. My school is on a 2-hour delay, but we don't start classes until next week, so this mostly concerns the hard-working staffers and administrators who are handling registration and all the policies that go into getting the semester started. [For those of you who are truly snowed in...my apologies from the South.]

I'm feeling a bit fragmented this morning and having a hard time thinking about poetry b/c I'm feeling the slight unease of needing to get three classes prepped this week. (Sure, I brought home all the materials, planning to work on this a few hours here and there over the break. The best laid plans and all that...)

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So, here's something from December. Anne Haines blogs at Land Mammal, and a few weeks ago she wrote about paying attention to three things each day, a goal I can wrap my scattered mind around. Here are my three things from yesterday:
1. The rattle in the vent when the heater kicks in is not an unkind thing.
2. The warmth of the sun seeps through my wool socks as I prop my feet on the desk.
3. Sunday, I feel like a jellyfish, suspended in a day with no obligations, pushing myself this way and that without any hard steering.

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Also from December, Kristin asked about my thoughts on blogging and my paper journal. Way back in the day of junior high and high school, I kept a personal journal. Through college, this morphed into a writing journal alongside more personal angst entries. Throughout my 20's and early 30's I wrote both drafts of poems and personal entries...almost always expressing my fears and frustrations rather than my joys and celebrations. As my life became more settled (marriage, book, steady job, etc.) those entries have tapered off and I mostly use the paper journal for drafting and poetry work. I'm not sure I've ever really done the true journalling work of deep self-searching.

I know that blogging started as online journalling, but I guess I approached it somewhat differently. I always wanted an audience, and I knew from the beginning that the blog would be about poetry work and not personal details so much. I approach the blog less as a vehicle for self examination and more as a vehicle for conversation with the poetry world; however, I do want to be as honest as possible with my audience so I try not to shy away from getting at the reality of being a working poet (celebration of publications alongside the fact of rejection). I also want this space to be as much about the work of others as it is about my own work...thus the many links to other sites. So, I don't think my paper journal has suffered due to blogging. I think it has followed the path of my life fairly consistently...when I'm content it is mostly poetry...when I'm distraught it is mostly a place to vent and question and search for comfort.

I'd love to hear what other people think about this topic: how you approach blogging, if you use a paper journal and if so, if it has changed with changing technology.