Life: The Poetics Of Breaking Through Walls |

It’s been one hell of a week. I’ve been trying to find the time to make a post now for three days. Between Cub Scout meetings, finishing up the final touches on a website update, the business, and household chores, I’ve barely had time to take care of necessary bodily functions. Caring for three small children is hard enough without them being someone else’s.

It’s been about three weeks now since my grandchildren have come to live with me. After my step-daughter and her Neanderthal boyfriend decided to uproot them and move them to Texas on a whim only to find themselves without a place to stay, no jobs, and no money within a week, it’s been a roller coaster ride getting these children back to a safe and secure place where they know people care about them. This is the second time in three years and I’m beginning to remember why I chose in my twenties not to pursue a family for myself. It leaves little time for writing, which has always been my highest priority.

Nevertheless, there is a full plate of things to do. I recently added my poem “Cigar” to World Class Poetry and added it to the World Class Poetry Toolbar as a free broadside. I have made many other updates to the site this week as well and you can read about them in the latest issue of Hyperbole. Plus, the list of things to do is huge and growing.

I’ve got new pages to add to the site
Some new features need to be added
Some current features need updating
I have a list of books to review
Plus, I’ve got a few of my own pet projects to get under way
And I have poems to revise and new poems to write

I don’t know how I’m going to get to it all. The oldest grandchild is in first grade and has nightly homework. We have two children at home, one of which is an overactive five year old. And we’re entering the busy season for our business. Plus, the six year old has Cub Scout meetings on Thursdays and we’ve got a project to work on and finish by this Thursday. I’m dying over here.

Ah, the joys!

To folks who are waiting on me to review your book, please be patient. I’m working on them. It’s a slow go, but I follow through on all of my commitments. Please don’t e-mail me and ask about the status of your book. I will review them and spend ample enough time with each one as I do so. Currently on my list are the following titles:

History’s Twists: The Armenians by Helene Pilibosian (reading this one now)
The World of Richard Dadd by Michael Mott (for Rattle)
What Feeds Us by Diane Lockward
Sonata for Rain by Rebecca Gonzalez
Fumbling In The Light by Sidney Hall Jr.
Blue Mist White Rain by Sha Raaven
100 Sonnets by Day Williams
see what i see by Susie McCray
A Man In Transition by K.L.
Confessions of a Latter Day Cynic by Paul J. Bean
The Poets Don’t Write Sonnets Anymore by Robin Ridington

In addition to these, I’ve got my own list of books to read through including a second reading of Itinerary by the late Reginald Shepherd. I have been putting off ordering Ron Silliman’s The Alphabet for a week now, but I won’t be able to put it off much longer. And this is just the tip of the iceberg where the reading and the updating are concerned.

I missed the Dodge Poetry Festival this weekend even though I wanted to go. Other things, of course, took priority. It seems the more I try to immerse myself into the literary scene the more things pop up to prevent me from getting in as deep as I want to go. I must remind myself that the writing always take precedence over the networking and the marketing. I think too many poets get that backward.

John Lennon once quipped, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” That’s the way I have felt for much of my life. While I have busied myself planning a literary career, other things have taken over. Still, I am not discouraged. My head is too thick and I’m too hopeful to be bitter.