5:30 a.m., yes, it works! I started the new semester with a new wake up time, and for a week and a half I've been getting in at least one hour at the poetry desk before going in to school. See, I've proven over and over that I can't be trusted to focus on poetry after about 4:30 in the afternoon, when my brain has become crammed with all things student-related or committee-related or house-related.
Yet, just like every "how to" article has ever said, getting up an hour earlier provides a brief time of "uncrammed" brain. I learn so slowly, but I learn.
In any case, I've been successful at sending out submissions this week and even making a few minor revisions to poems I thought long since "finished." I've read one book of poetry (split over two mornings) and made my mini post about it on Facebook, and, more importantly, I've felt much more balanced than last semester. All of this equals a much happier me!
Now, maybe I can coax a few poems out into the light.
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In other news, at PTC, I'm preparing for our spring lineup for the Big Rock Reading Series, and it is going to be phenomenal.
We start in February with Jericho Brown. Ah, yup, Jericho Brown! If you live in the area, Jericho will read at 6:00 p.m. on February 6th. All the details are on the FB event page, or you can email me for details.
In March, we have a trio of local writers/editors talking about how to make a living with an English degree. We will have Annie Bergman of Heifer International, Bobby Ampezzan of the Democrat Gazette, and Eliza Borne (who should have an accent over that "e" but blogger is bad that way) of the Oxford American. Woo Hoo.
And in April, in conjunction with the Arkansas Literary Festival, we have fiction writer, Adam Prince, and poet, Charlotte Pence.
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And now it is time to go out into the world and cram my brain with school-stuff and house-stuff and stuff that may be the future makings of a poem-stuff.
5 comments:
Happy about the happier you!
Thanks, Kathleen!
If I hadn't started getting up early I'm not sure I would have written a thing in the last 30 years. So I strongly endorse your new plan! The only drawback, as you are probably discovering, is that you're even more wiped out at night than usual.
Agreed, John!
Hooray for feeling more balanced (and for 5:30 wake-ups/clear-brained poetry time in general). Wishing you lots of creative energy this year!
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