The Hermit Poet

Neck deep? I’m drowning. It’s proving to be a stressful week of papers, responses, abstracts, presentations, and poetry. Coupled with a frustrating two-week+ bout of writer’s block, I’m more than a little stressed out.

Despite this (or perhaps because of this), I spent about half the day getting my book manuscript ready (trimming a poem or two, reprinting the whole thing, getting copies done, etc) and mailing it out to another 4 contests. I’m glad I cut the poem I did — I’d been thinking for some time that it was a bit on the weak side, but didn’t realize how weak it was until I re-read the whole manuscript last night. Good riddance. Some minor title changes. A couple relineations. Overall, it’s close to what I sent out last month — but the changes are important and hopefully push the manuscript from being “publishable” into being “published.”

Still on the plate for tonight:

1. Response to a Sedgwick essay on Shame
2. Response to Jonson’s “Bartholomew Fair”
3. Precis of my upcoming paper on The Function of Intertextuality in Alphaville (specifically Borges and Orwell — since Eluard has been done to death)
4. New poem (or recently finished poem, if the muse continues her strike)

Still more for tomorrow… ack. I want to be done with this semester and get back to my own reading/viewing lists.

Ok — back to work.