Almost Random Notes, Part 9

1. No, I won't be participating in "National Poetry Writing Month." It's impossible for me to work full time, teach four hours a week (and prepare for class, grade papers, etc.) help take care of the kids (even Marcia will tell you I am fairly diligent about this), take the dogs out, shop, cook, etc., and make a realistic promise about writing a poem a day for the next thirty days. Anyway, I'm not so comfortable with that approach to writing. I'd get discouraged about the work because, at the pace of a poem-a-day, everything I wrote would be...well, "underperformed."*

2. I could set an unrealistic goal and try to achieve it--say 80-100 "finished" lines of poetry for the month. That would probably amount to 3 or 4 poems. Although that pace is still wildly ambitious. Because I have an appointment with my retinologist in early April (next Friday, as a matter of fact) I already anticipate several wasted days--one to worry about the visit--I am, truth be told, already obsessed with it--one with my eyes dilated, and two or more days baffled and discouraged after what can only be bad news.

The eye charts are stacked against what we think we are.

3. I have a reading at the Grand Rapids Public Library on Wednesday, April 18 at 7 p.m. I'll be reading with Heather Sellers, Jackie Bartley and Jack Ridl, all members of the faculty at Hope College. It should be fun. If you are in the area, please come to hear us read.

That's all I have going for regular-old National Poetry Month.

________________________________

*Translation: It would suck.