The residency was brilliant, as usual. Highlights included outgoing Poet Laureate Don Hall reminiscing about his friendships with Robert Frost and Dylan Thomas, Timothy Liu’s lecture on craft, Lyndall Gordon’s lecture on Emily Dickinson, and of course a reading and workshop with my wonderful new teacher Amy Gerstler.
Back home I feel a little flat, of course, although I have plenty of work to keep me going until my next (and final) residency in January 2008. I have to craft my 20 page paper on the Dante translations into a 25-30 minute lecture, and I could probably work on my thesis every hour between now and then and still not be 100% happy with it. This is partly because I feel I have learned so much in the most recent months that I almost want to junk half the poems and start over.
I did get some good news though. My sonnet “A Loss” was awarded the Quarterly prize by The Lyric magazine, which is one of the longest-lived and most respected small press journals dedicated to formal and metrical poetry. I also got an email from a Fanwood area reporter who wants to write a small feature about my reading there earlier this month.
Becky is still at IGC–it feels odd to have only one child in situ. I do hope she is having a good time. We were discouraged from calling and consequently, while I have sent emails and letters and even seen pictures of her looking cheerful on the IGC website, I have had no contact with her since Keba left her there over a week ago. Keba and Lorna seem pleased to have me home.
Read this scary personal essay by Kazim Ali on the climate of fear and prejudice in which we live today.
Well, blogging is not (always) working, although I am gestating a future entry on some craft issues which might qualify. Meanwhile, I’d better get back to that thesis.
