Hey! Way to go TIFFANI!

I just finished reading Ed's post over at Black Pearl Poetry re the iWPS Grand Slam. Sounds like it was an exciting night filled with poetry and poet comraderie. I'm still bummed I had to miss it, but I am totally psyched for Tiffani! She's been working her thing for the last few months and coming up with some hard-hitting, in your face poetry, and it looks like it served her well.

You rock, lady Tiff. I would have been cheering you on even if I had been in it! Have fun in Charlotte!

Final World from the Doc

Okay. Time to face reality, I guess.

Just got back from the Doc's office. The procedure on Tuesday will keep me out of the grand slam, and I'll be out of commission for about a week. I guess I won't whine. Things could always be worse.

Missed the OAC panel meetings this week. Wanted to sit in and listen to the committee's criticisms of the works submitted for grant consideration. Would have been a terrific learning process.

Geepers! I'm missing a whole lotta "stuff" this week.

Peace.

Today's music: Middle Child, Barefeet & Pregnant
Favorite tune: "()"
Today I am reading: Patricia Cornwell, Southern Cross

Doing the Impossible

There is a full week ahead of me. Today is Wednesday, and I am woefully behind at Pudding House after several days of deadline demands at my day job. Several authors are awaiting proof copies of their manuscripts and I haven't had time to lay them out. Orders need to be filled and I haven't been around to help out. I think I know what I'll be doing with my spare evenings for several days.

Next week is the iWPS grand slam at Black Pearl Poetry Nite. With my home venue (Writers Block) on hiatus, I've been competing over there. It's the equivalent for me of getting a whole new crowd used to what I do, which is not what they're necessarily used to hearing.

I have the odd misfortune of having minor surgery scheduled the same day as the grand slam. Don't know what that means. Depends on the post-op instructions and whether or not I can stand up and be coherent. We'll see. This may be one competition I have to pass up.

If anyone's reading this, be careful out there shopping.

In the tongue of the beholder

The ground in Columbus is white again, and three or four nights ago it was quite beautiful. Have you ever noticed how calm, how peaceful the world seems immediately after an evening snow? This one came with a few hours of beautifully warm winter weather. It was almost as if one could remove the coat, hat, gloves and just walk around in the pristine freshness of the snowfall, celebrating our ability to breathe.

I wrote a poem years ago after driving home from work in a fresh winter snow. I wasn't a seasoned poet, but I tried to express the way that snow can be both beauty and the antithesis of beauty at once. A workshop instructor called it "the epitome of mixed metaphor." He thought it a useful criticism. I have never forgotten that--not that he didn't like the poem, but that he completely missed the point. That something so beautiful can be both beautiful and dangerous, peaceful and capable of injury and more was the point.

Our words are the same way. Upon our tongues and in our pens, we hold the ability to bless or curse, to uplift or to destroy. How much greater will our lives and our art become when we realize the fragile balance that rests in our use of this most unruly member. A tiny pink instrument of destiny.

Still here... still writing

I think I'd better post something before people think I died or something. Rumor has it that a few very close friends have been very concerned about me lately. We are, however, human--me far no less than others. I live in a flesh house, and every now and then that house tries to shut down on me. I'll be okay, though.

Days like these make one appreciate healthy, high energy days.

Great time at dinner this weekend with friends Steve, Vijay and Abi. Was a great time of sharing and learning. Wonderful conversation. Wonderful meal. Terrific company. I can hardly wait to do that again.

I have to start getting ready for Grand Slam at Black Pearl December 20, even though I may be unable to participate. We'll see whether my flesh house permits me to push through to it. May take a miracle. I've had the great experience of participating in three Nationals, so I'll live if I don't make it to iWPS in February.

Great feedback on an off-the-cuff poem I wrote at Larry's a week or so ago. Good fuel for the "gotta write" fire. Here's hoping the Christmas season break will give me at least one night a week to spend with that inner voice.