a poem up at kaliedowhirl, the last of the fever almanac ones to find a home.
Two more things to do this semester and I'm a free woman.
Tormorrow's presentation (I'm hoping the poems will carry more weight than my paltry discussion of them), then my final project for forms, which somehow went from sonnets to prose poems because they worked better that way and I'm not pulling off the rhyming thing well lately. They're a good chunk going into girl show anyway. Except for the ones that somehow want to go into the older book, but they still work in the context of the project.
The workshop on Saturday went well, a good size group of about 15. I started off talking about possibilities for personal websites, showing them some samples of Chicago poets, then moved on to the basic-how to, promoting your site or blog, joining communities, and ended with a a survey of online journals of various approaches. (They really liked the stuff at Born and Poems that Go. Plus audio recordings (MiPo) and sound poetry (Drunken Boat). All in all a good way to spend an afternoon. Did catch this year's Juried reading. I wasn't particularly jived about the work of the winner, but LOVED the poems read by second place poet Natalie Shapero (not at all the kind of poet you'd expect Billy Collins to select.)
I had a brief rush of relief as they were announcing the winners that I wasn't down there in front holding my breath again. Winning was great both runs (3rd one year, 1st two years later) and I got so lucky those years that the judges seemed to like something in my work (first James Tate, then Campbell McGrath). The odds are just so monstrous now. Double the entries, and not just Illinois poets, but regional.So happy I'd already been there, done that.
