The Hermit Poet

Newly Arrived

My contributor’s copies of Portland Review and the latest California anthology from Tebot Bach, Blue Arc West. I have 2 poems in each. Actually, the 2nd poem in Blue Arc West was a surprise — I hadn’t realized they had taken it. Furthermore, it’s better than I recall — a nice surprise. The anthology as a whole is very very good. I’m reading it and enjoying it quite a bit.

• Portland Review – “What I Know About Abstraction” & “In the Country I Call Home”
• Blue Arc West (anthology) – “After Neruda” and “Pomello”

Other Mail Received

• Bucknell Visiting Poet Fellowship is a no.
• Converse College (another teaching position) is in the middle of selecting candidates.
• Stanford says that they’ve received my Stegner application and will begin reviewing it shortly (along with the 1000s of others no doubt)
• University of Wisconsin Press writes to say “no” to my manuscript, but a handwritten note says it was very strong (and this year no “semi-finalist” note, although if I got a handwritten note again, I’m assuming it did reasonably well)
• Check for a reading I gave at the North Vancouver Teacher Librarians Association

Sent Out

• PhD application to USC (yep, finally finished that annoying statement of intent)
• 2 new poetry submissions to Poetry and New England Review (aiming high with these ones!)
• poetry manuscript to the Dorset Prize, Tupelo Press — despite all the bad press and animosity toward the editor of late, I still think it’s worth a shot

New Writing

• 2 new poems for my series entitled Letters to the Unknown Wife — inspirations drawn from recent power outages and storms, as well as the view from my window of the nature reserve and the distant bridge which leads out of the city
• more emails to friends far and wide, some more philosophical than others. I stole my own lines from one of them to write a poem
• another 15 envelopes addressed to various journals to be sent out tomorrow

Received by Accident

• I’ve managed to catch a cold right before Christmas. I’m not a happy camper. Congested and throat somewhat sore.
• Inspiration for more writing. Strange how a letter from a good friend can open doors. Lately I’ve been blessed with wonderful chats and correspondence from friends. Ron Villaneuva shared a new lyric form he created for his NYU workshop which seemed perfect for a couple ideas I’d been exploring. I haven’t had a chance to tackle it yet, but I’m looking forward to it.