Welcome!

At the start of September, I decided to go just part time enough with my day job that I could keep benefits and responsibly manage my work. Starting an MFA program this semester inspired me to cut back to do the reading, the writing, and the thinking that will help me grow as a poet. When I realized that my first residency would not be until this winter, I decided I could afford (fingers crossed) to stay part time anyway.

So, what am I doing with these extra hours? Well, this week I finished reading Joan Larkin's powerful and inspiring collection, My Body, and I've been reading Alicia Ostriker's No Heaven alongside Mary Oliver's A Poetry Handbook. Ostriker is delightful; Oliver is insightful. I also completed the first draft of my poetry manuscript (a frightening 71 pages as of this moment), and spent a few hours revising one of my oldest and most stubborn poems. Then, of course, the submission piece: I submitted to and was posted at a very cool website (The New Verse News), and I researched a few other potential markets. By "markets, " I do not mean paying markets. At least not usually. So far the writing of poetry has made me a whopping $10 and several "contributors copies." This is just the way it is, folks.

I'm going to try to post a few times a week with personal stories as well as useful or inspiring resources. If you have comments, please leave them. I'm new at blogging, and I'm certainly learning as I go!