Shuckswitch Road

I have a poem up today at qarrtsiluni. Check it out!

--RETIRED RETIRED RETIRED--

Henceforth, I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune.
Walt Whitman

Five-Day Countdown

I have five more days before I retire...also five days before my self-imposed moratorium on writing ends. I miss writing acutely but wanted to purge my thoughts of all my old poems. I didn't read them, didn't revise them, didn't even plug my flash drive into the computer to peek at them. I think this fallow period is working--I'm now ready for new poems. I have a squid poem started in my mind--maybe just a haiku, but at least it's something not related to my old poems. All of the old ones are out in the world.

A copy of Meridian came in the mail, and I read a poem I really loved in it, "Sex and Candy," by Eric Kirby. I've linked to it above. Any poem that starts out as strangely as Candy: it's the nookie of children has my attention; this poem kept it all the way through, and the end is heartbreakingly lovely.

As a side note, I'm getting very excited about Sewanee...I still cannot believe I am going. I bought a new journal today to take with me....

In two weeks, this will be what I'm doing...

After 21 years, I am retiring from my job at an area hospital. I'm still going to work for a national transcription/editing company; in fact, I've been promoted. (Good news and better money). I'll still teach as an adjunct; in fact, I may even teach composition.

The days of getting up at 4 a.m. are over in 2 weeks. I can hardly wait. The painting above is Lempicka's La Dormeuse, and that's exactly what I'll be doing. (My new job doesn't start till noon 3 days a week; teaching doesn't start till 9:30 in the fall, 2 days a week). I am so blessed and am going to be so rested.

Scenes from a Marriage: Visiting Tennesssee

1987 (AGE 30)



1997 (AGE 40)


2007 (AGE 50)

Reading Daze

I love how her fingers are part of the leaves of the book.