It is six thirty on the twenty-fourth of October, almost November, and I am sitting outside on my back deck sipping a coffee and thinking about sweating. The current temperature is 74 (feels like 77 with humidity factored in). I should be honest and mention that it will rain all today (I hope, I am tired of stinking from being a good citizen and not showering) and tomorrow and be bitterly cold this weekend, but I am a poet and the truth, according to such luminous authorities as Plato, is not something with which I am familiar. Though I would suggest my status as a poet ensures I am familiar with the created, manufactured, socially constructed nature of all things we call truth, and can, therefore, reconstruct the social construction. It really is gorgeous out here this morning though.
I went to a talk about a PhD program here at State last night. It was an interesting talk, but I am not sure that program is something that would attract me, or match my interests. I do wish the MFA alone would satisfy my needs for employment, but there are too many poets and not enough jobs that actually pay.
Last night, my poetry class let out early so we could go attend the poetry reading by a candidate for the new poetry teaching position at State read. God, I love that horrible sentence, can you understand what I said, cause I ain't sure I can. Any way, Erin Belieu read, and so I was there listening. She is not a great reader, but she is better than some I have heard. The event was well attended, far better than any event like this at the U of A. Maybe because it was held in the evening? I would hate to suggest that Americans have a greater fondness for literature and poetry than Canadians.
I need to get going on my busy day, I suppose, but I have enjoyed sitting outside in November (almost) sipping my coffee and enjoying the dark, though some stars are visible in the sky so not too many clouds have rushed in to begin the rain storm the weatherman has promised.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Snail in the Soup
I am one more day closer to winter, and already I dream of summer. Where is the warm weather that now seems so distant?
I have another busy day ahead of me, but I should enjoy what I am doing today, no desperate deadlines (until Wednesday Night! and Thursday night!), time enough to muck about and think about the things I would like to think about. I am rather pleased with my copy of the Chicago Manual (15th ed.). Guess that makes me some kind of uncool? Ah well, everyone has their cross to bear (furry and growly), and mine is pretty light, a teddy bear.
Our high today was 80. Not sure this warm weather is going to last, but it sure is nice (baring the no shower cept Sunday thing). I made this great supper tonight, schmushed horseradish potatoes, sauteed spinach, and baked and marinated tempeh. Filling though. For desert I had a chocolate loaf cake with a scoop of chocolate vegan ice cream. Just roll me to school tomorrow.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Slightly Anxious
Fall is sneaking up on me. I see small red patches of poison ivy high in the pines, you might wonder why that should signal fall, but it is a shocking sight when the low slanting, and a bit cold, evening light finds those brilliantly colored leaves near the green crown.
I am facing a problem with a longer poem I am working on. Resolution where are you? Notice I avoided the archaic thou, though I was thinking it. I am plugging away at school. There are seven weeks of classes left in this term, and I will have completed one fourth of my MFA program. I have become more acclimated to the strangeness of living in a new environment. The sun is low enough now to show me where south is at noon. But the poem, ahh the poem. What I write is personal history, and for those who know me and that history it might have some interest, but for those who don't, I wonder, how can I get them to care. Maybe if I hire a go-go dancer and she can do her thing in the corner while the lights flicker psychedelically...A talking bear might distract the critic but how could I feed them? Carrots. The answer to every question is Carrots.
I am facing a problem with a longer poem I am working on. Resolution where are you? Notice I avoided the archaic thou, though I was thinking it. I am plugging away at school. There are seven weeks of classes left in this term, and I will have completed one fourth of my MFA program. I have become more acclimated to the strangeness of living in a new environment. The sun is low enough now to show me where south is at noon. But the poem, ahh the poem. What I write is personal history, and for those who know me and that history it might have some interest, but for those who don't, I wonder, how can I get them to care. Maybe if I hire a go-go dancer and she can do her thing in the corner while the lights flicker psychedelically...A talking bear might distract the critic but how could I feed them? Carrots. The answer to every question is Carrots.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
mid term freak out
The reason why this vegan can't lose weight: Vegan pumpkin and chocolate chip cupcakes with a cinnamon icing....yummmm Maybe if I called them muffins they would not be so fattening!
details to follow.
Details!
This has been a long weekend for me. Classes ended Wednesday and do not resume until Monday. It might be considered a holiday, except that I have been busy all weekend, with the exception of Thursday, the day I took the photos up there.
Thursday morning Carol and I hopped on the number 12 CAT bus after standing at the bus stop shivering for five minutes. On the way to the bus stop I saw a person wearing a winter parka, it was that cold. We hopped of the bus and walked a half block to the North Carolina Museum of History In the lobby downstairs they have a racing car that was owned by an ex-moonshiner. He had an amazing life, and the car looked like a winner too me. The downstairs exhibit was all about what was worn over the last 250 years or so. They included a few corsets, and I felt out of breath and constrained just looking at them. They must have been extremely uncomfortable to wear. They had a display that included a pair of spats, so now I know what they are! Upstairs they had a display of a woman who had photographed people in the North Carolina Mountains (they can call them mountains if they want to, even if they are kinda runty, the mountains I mean). She took some incredible photographs of the people and the area. As we moved on through the museum, a whole horde of kids descended and quickly began to screech and holler the way kids do. They rubbed my nerves raw, and so I suggested we escape and return some other day to finish the tour.
After leaving the museum we wandered through the historical part of downtown. The huge house that you can just see through the trees is the Governor's mansion. The other houses are withing 5 or 6 blocks of his place. My favorite house is the one with the little tower and balcony way up at the top. I could see myself sitting up there enjoying the early morning, sipping a coffee, and hollering down at all the bums who have to go into work.
I made a mistake Thursday morning. Wednesday I received a new pair of running shoes from Earth (great shoes, very comfortable, Vegan, and they have the negative soles, buy some if you can), but they were not yet fitted to my feet. By noon my left toe that rubs against the little toe was hurting. For lunch we went to the Irregardless cafe (yep, a non-grammatically correct name for a cafe only a few blocks from the university), which serves some Vegan dishes. The food was good and it let me rest my feet a little before the long trip home.
Since then I have been slavering away on my literature review for the composition class and the essay for my romantics class. Neither one is looking very good at the moment, and I will be busy all today trying to get at least one of them into shape.
The weather has turned cold here. It is only 47 now, and yesterday's high was 75. We still need rain, but I would love to see some warm temperatures again.
It is 6:10 am, and I think I need to get to work.
details to follow.
Details!
This has been a long weekend for me. Classes ended Wednesday and do not resume until Monday. It might be considered a holiday, except that I have been busy all weekend, with the exception of Thursday, the day I took the photos up there.
Thursday morning Carol and I hopped on the number 12 CAT bus after standing at the bus stop shivering for five minutes. On the way to the bus stop I saw a person wearing a winter parka, it was that cold. We hopped of the bus and walked a half block to the North Carolina Museum of History In the lobby downstairs they have a racing car that was owned by an ex-moonshiner. He had an amazing life, and the car looked like a winner too me. The downstairs exhibit was all about what was worn over the last 250 years or so. They included a few corsets, and I felt out of breath and constrained just looking at them. They must have been extremely uncomfortable to wear. They had a display that included a pair of spats, so now I know what they are! Upstairs they had a display of a woman who had photographed people in the North Carolina Mountains (they can call them mountains if they want to, even if they are kinda runty, the mountains I mean). She took some incredible photographs of the people and the area. As we moved on through the museum, a whole horde of kids descended and quickly began to screech and holler the way kids do. They rubbed my nerves raw, and so I suggested we escape and return some other day to finish the tour.
After leaving the museum we wandered through the historical part of downtown. The huge house that you can just see through the trees is the Governor's mansion. The other houses are withing 5 or 6 blocks of his place. My favorite house is the one with the little tower and balcony way up at the top. I could see myself sitting up there enjoying the early morning, sipping a coffee, and hollering down at all the bums who have to go into work.
I made a mistake Thursday morning. Wednesday I received a new pair of running shoes from Earth (great shoes, very comfortable, Vegan, and they have the negative soles, buy some if you can), but they were not yet fitted to my feet. By noon my left toe that rubs against the little toe was hurting. For lunch we went to the Irregardless cafe (yep, a non-grammatically correct name for a cafe only a few blocks from the university), which serves some Vegan dishes. The food was good and it let me rest my feet a little before the long trip home.
Since then I have been slavering away on my literature review for the composition class and the essay for my romantics class. Neither one is looking very good at the moment, and I will be busy all today trying to get at least one of them into shape.
The weather has turned cold here. It is only 47 now, and yesterday's high was 75. We still need rain, but I would love to see some warm temperatures again.
It is 6:10 am, and I think I need to get to work.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian family and friends. I hope you find yourself with lots to give thanks for. I am saving my list of things I have to be thankful for until November and the celebration here.
It is six forty-five on October 8, Canada's Thanksgiving. I am sitting on my back deck sipping a coffee and listening to the frogs and crickets sing the night to sleep. Ok, so that is a bit flowery, and the traffic is heavy enough to make the critters sing louder than they might. It is a beautiful morning though. Nearly seventy and the sun has not yet risen in the east. Lawns still need to be mowed, the trees are mostly green, and the crepe myrtle still have a few blossoms. I think (it is still dark after all) that there are now three flowers on the plant. I am excited to see the color so late in the season. I suspect that the fern will have to go inside later this week or early next week, but right now it is still outside and looking happy.
School is keeping me busy. I have my usual workshop stuff to do (read and offer suggestions to others poems, write my own), a literature review that has a rough draft due date next Tuesday, a midterm in the Romantics course this Wednesday and a five page paper due next Wednesday. Not as bad as it might be, but more than I might wish.
Returning from my morning walk I was looking at the skyline, all pine trees and oaks, and thinking that it no longer looks so strange. I have not yet achieved resident complacency, but I feel comfortable in the green. I added a few images taken from the back rail after photographing the morning glories. Check out the slide show up above or the link below to see the green I live with.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
October the First
The morning glory planted in July has decided to begin blooming. Summer continues here.
My Office:
October 2: I cannot resist a little dig at those living north of me. It is October two, six-thirty in the morning, and I am sitting on my back deck drinking coffee and enjoying the sounds of morning. It is still dark and it is also foggy, but it is not cold.
October 1: I had the misfortune to become sick after my last post. I spent much of last week blowing my nose and coughing. I am still coughing. I have become a great breeder of cold viruses, and they are unwilling to leave such fertile ground. I am slowly pushing them out of my body, but they have built up some huge bunkers, I may have to go nuclear on them.
I had a good week though. My poetry workshop was fun last Monday, though I was not feeling well. I missed only one class on Thursday due to my illness, but I have fallen further behind on my work. I will need to extend my weeks by at least a week to catch up now. Friday I sat at the registration desk for the SCLA (southern comparative Literature association) conference that was happening at NCSU. I was there for an nearly two hours, and I had fun watching all the people come.
Sunday I walked with Carol down to the lake for the first time in a week. Those are the photos that are up top (and linked below). I am studying Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner for class, and the dead sailors were following me as I walked.
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