The last minute tickets, the mad four hour drive, my car stalling in the middle of Chicago traffic, the wait in the rain, the new friends, the burning in my screaming lungs, the lull only days after, the jazz riff in my heart as I find a photo of him looking right through me.
sleepless summer
windmills
churn the fog
I’m sitting here in bed grading papers on this blistering May Day evening. In less than a week, I’ll be graduating with an M.A. in creative writing. There’s a familiar tingling, giddy sensation as I realize, despite the packing, job hunting, and blog projects to be done, I’ve now the freedom to read what I want, write what I want, not get up at the crack of dawn if I don’t want. Though as anyone who has been a part of academia, or is just maybe a little too involved with work, vacation (or periods of transition) are as terrifying as they are glorious.
Just yesterday, I was discussing with one of my fellow graduate assistants over all the things we could do now that summer is here: Starting new blogs, catching up on Mad Men, reading all those journals that have been stacking up over the last six months. We paused, caught our breath, wide-eyed with possibilities. She then looked at me and then asked, “Where do I even start?”
This is pretty much how I feel about writing.
Once again, I find myself trying to make the effort to write daily. Primarily with 750words. I was working with this site rigorously a few summers ago and it worked wonders on my motivation. And now that I don’t have assignments, a thesis, and all these other things to force me to write, I need to make sure I don’t let up the slack. At the same time, now that I don’t have all these things to worry about, or so I tell myself, I can now go back to venturing into other things (primarily fiction—though I’m trying to pick up the slack on my poetry as well and all that’s going to come applies to it as well). I can give in to things that may not get finished, or I don’t feel pressured has to be a masterpiece. Most importantly, I just want to write freely and remember why I enjoy it and have dedicated so much of my studies and life to it.
To do that though, I have to start. And as I’m reading in a lot of my students’ papers as they reflect on their own writing identities, starting can often be tough as hell.
Most writers recommend reading as a way to get going with writing—especially reading things similar to what you, as a writer, are trying to write, or certain writers that inspire you. This is an undeniable truth. Engaging with words gets the wheels turning and makes you want to get to the keyboard or pick up a pencil. To write well is to read well, and a good writer is a good reader. Period.
While I do read for inspiration (and find it crucial), I draw inspiration from other places as well, and I think it’s important not to forget these other things. I often hear other writers discuss how they draw inspiration for topics from other arts and the world around them, but I want to focus also on the inspiration to create and put words to the page—the inspiration to get in on the action of writing. These are things I’ll be returning to over the summer.
Admittedly, I feel a bit guilty for not really doing anything on my blog this month. It’s the first time in a few years that I’ve not really celebrated or participated in National Poetry Month. I didn’t even get to a “that’s a wrap” post on I Doodle, You ‘Ku 2013. That being said…
My thesis is done. I turned in on April Fool’s Day and have had it approved and cleared for graduation. I settled on the title Out of My Dreaming Heart: A Collection of Tanka, which comes from notes written by artist and poet Toriyama Sekien in his cataloguing of yokai. Upon creating new creatures, he’d often say, “I swear this did not come out of my own dreaming heart,” to imply it was something he’d actually seen. Essentially I wrote 100 tanka and kyoka inspired by yokai (Japanese creatures and monsters) and Hyakki Yako. Some worked out better than others, but overall it was a challenging, but rewarding mix of research and writing that I had been wanting to do for some time. And since having that project done with, I have been working on catching up on everything else in my life (especially grading).
As hinted at above, I’m graduating this semester—in a matter of weeks, actually. That will mean lots of grading, my own final revisions for the course I’ve been taking, and preparing to move back to Illinois. It’s expected to be a little chaotic, which means some of the things I had planned here on the blog will probably be later than anticipated, but I want to at least give you all an idea of the things I’ve got in the cooker:
• Mercurial Touch, which as many of you probably remember is the results from He Doodles, You ‘Ku in January. I’m hoping to at least get poems finalized over the next month. In the meantime, check out HM’s blog the edge. He’s been spotting and featuring nifty designs on the internet, and posting occasional photos and doodles.
• Backyard Games, which is a long overdue PDF of a collaboration with artist and poet Ron Moss and I did sometime last fall. Doodles, poetry, and awesomeness.
• open email 2 promises more from Melissa Allen, Lucas Stensland, and myself. See the first open email here.
• Household Objects is the tentative title for the selected poems from I Doodle, You ‘Ku 2013. I was tickled to see so many new people as well as returning poets this year!
Even with all that going on in the background, I’m admittedly considering another themed collection, but we’ll see. One possibility was the idea of weather and bells/chimes, which is seeming all too fitting with all the tornado warnings/watches, flash floods, and high winds going on today across the Midwest.
Lastly I do have two bits of exciting news that has cropped up over the last week:
• I’ve word that my copies of A New Resonance 8: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku arrived at my non-school address on Monday. I’ll have them in hand next week, and will have copies available for purchase. Of course, you can also pick up your copy now from Red Moon Press or another author in the anthology (as many are selling their contributor copies). When I have copies in hand, I’ll provide more details about purchasing, but I will say I’ll also be offering original, complementary doodles!
• Yesterday was (Inter)National Haiku Day and as per tradition the last couple years, The Haiku Foundation announced the winners of the HaikuNow! and Touchstone Awards. I was flattered to have my “mating dragonflies” haiku selected as one of the winners of the 2012 Touchstone Award for Individual Poems. Of course, there were a lot of other great poems selected as well. Be sure to check them out here.
With the busyness of this late, sporadic spring, I’m slowly getting back into the swing of writing more regularly and will try not to be such a stranger.
green light
over the bay—
daisy dreams
(My ‘ku from National Haiku Day with the help of Susan Nelson.)
The concept is simple: Here’s a doodle. Now write a poem to accompany it! New to doodleku? See the original post; you can also click here to keep track of each day.
Hi folks,
Just a quick shout out that I’ll be posting the final doodle later today. After having my soul sucked by my thesis completing my thesis, I need a little time to spring back. Hope your Easter was more fun than mine!
Cheers,
Aubrie
