late summer, 2008

Poetry
The latest issue of Urbanite features a piece on the resurgance of Poetry in Baltimore. Or, perhaps more accurately, discusses its current iteration in Baltimore. Academic poets and slam poets unite! One of the faculty of my program states that she believes there's no more turf wars where poetry is concerned in our fair city. The language poets, the spoken word people, the formalists, and the free versers are all sat down at the table of images and metaphors. The article made me realize a couple of things: I don't know the Baltimore poetry scene at all (I think spoken word artists and poets of the academy are two very distinct camps), and that I'm not sure I'm a viable poet when all things are considered.

I submitted poetry to Urbanite quite recently and heard nothing from them. I submitted poetry to Smartish Pace (another local outfit) and was rejected. I submit to numerous online journals and print journals that would be appropriate venues for the kind of poem I write. I always hear something like this: "Interesting, but not right for our publication." Then I go back and reread the content of the periodical (whichever one it happens to be), and I really cannot discern any credible difference between my stuff and what they deem worthy of print. Or, I read the winners of their contests, and I don't see what it is about those prize-yielding poems that made them such.

People whose assessment of these matters I trust have told me that I'm a good poet, but at what point do I accept that my stuff just isn't publishable? Okay. I have been published. Three of my poems were picked up by the Little Patuxent Review a year ago. Until then, I'd only had a little nonfiction article published in an online men's forum. Still, I have to ask if I've been wrong all this time. I'm starting to feel like I have no place in this literary conversation. Should I be fighting for more visibility among my peers?

Wine
Sarah and I had a wine feast with our favourite couple--the former Baltimore Sun journalist who interviewed me about my blog back in '06 and his wife--at Wine Me Up! in Westminster. The effortless, fluid conversation lasted four hours before I even knew that a minute had passed. Two bottles, one Rock and Vine, the other The Black Chook, aided and abetted this communion. They are the kind of people that you just love fiercely and immediately. Halfway through the evening, I decided that I wanted the husband of the couple to walk me down the aisle someday. If there's ever an aisle to walk down, that is.

I Spy
Thanks to Catchka's generosity, I am more than halfway through the Alias series. I am nearly done with Season 3 and am ready to borrow her Season 4 disks. I have been dreaming in spy vernacular and I love it.

My Holistic Health Guru is in Costa Rica Surfing
and my eating has been out of control. But I spun twice last week. Gosh. I have to get a grip.

Other stuff
I want nails again. I mean like salon nails. Like augmented nails.

Stay tuned.