Watkinsville, GA

Here I am, close to Athens, feeling good in a new little town, feeling alive...
I'm gonna teach a Writing Children's Lit class...it excites me to no end...
All you need is love...love is all you need.

www.wordletting.com

I have a poem published in their first issue. Check it out if you feel the need. It is a tribute to a good friend who is sick.

Jonathan Williams' passing

My favorite poet of late...a Black Mountain poet living in Highlands, very close to where I live currently, just passed at the end of March. I had been planning on writing to him. He came to the bookstore in town to do readings, but I never got to see him. Look him up. He's worth a read. Funny, outrageous old man.
He was 79.

Being an Adjunct

Being An ADJUNCT
I ask myself all the time is it worth if for me to teach 4,5,6 classes at a school and still barely make 1000 bucks a month at the most? This is the plight of an adjunct professor. More and more schools are using adjuncts ("part-time" instructors) all the time. This means they don't have to give us ANY benefits, and only pay us for "contact hours" which means the time we are IN the classroom. Anyone who teaches knows that is only a minute part of doing our jobs. I do feel I am a good teacher, and for the most part, really enjoy it, but as someone who has to constantly worry about bills, I most definitely do not feel it is worth the hassle, even though I am in my field, which I love. I am SO not alone in this. If you are interested in this issue, as it affects our schools GREATLY, read this article, go to the AFT website, and take ACTION!
http://www.aft.org/higher_ed/news/2007/adjuncts_ask.htm

the love of self

I claim:

myself
(as God does)
full cloud
watertight
ready to spill
tape bullets to me
dance with me
try to cut me from
myself
but you can't

I am on a twisting path
passionate
ready
beheaded
so I won't fight
with myself

I embrace my head
like a baby
on my heart

mmm...Jack Black...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62CZL9Rhz8Y

This is how I build things.

In a new series of poems, I'm exploring the need we have as humans to construct: ideas, things, feelings. So, this is a product of that:

to build death

she took ten pounds of red clay
and slung it over her back,
put some on her head for good
measure

we think death is sharp
but she rounded the edges
of a soft metal
and took apart her concept of love,

allowed it to wallow for a while
like her body floating in open water,
ready for fish-nibbling

and taxidermy crossed her mind
numerous times
but she couldn't get the image
of glass eyes out of her head

so she ran naked in small circles
around her trampoline,
parts bouncing haphazardly

as if not actually attached to her body

then she began to understand the
construction of death:

like layers of her skin or guts
turned inside out and
upside down,
but not painful
only colorful and bright,
like the pink of a duodenum

and she drowned in yesterday
's bathwater, but it never got cold

and she lived in beautiful death
for the rest of her days.

Haiku of Prayer

On youtube is a short film by a friend Gray Bowen; I contributed a little to it, in the form of teaching him about haikus, and collaborating on some of them.
It is under Haiku of Prayer. Check it out!

garageband, phd programs, heart attacks and bedroom eyes

2007, the year of Sylva. It really sort of was. I swam in Sylva rivers, Sylva partying, Sylva friends, Sylva bands, Sylva dance, Sylva men...
Apparently, I also, almost drowned in the men, as usual.
But I am swimming still!

My attempts at getting into a PhD program are moving along. I started working on a project to record my manuscript on my computer. This computer is so amazing, though I don't have internet at home.

Luckily my parents have wireless...yes! I'm recording my manuscript on garageband. This program, once I figured it out anyway (which took an online tutorial and a few hours of playing), is ridiculously awesome!

My dad had another heart attack this year...the first in about 10 years. Scared me silly, as usual, but he is doing well now. I love my daddy. He giggles and acts silly like me. We sang Elvis Christmas songs in the car going to Wal Mart. hehe.

Also, I recently put up a pic of myself on my myspace. Somehow, it must be sexy or something. I have had many people compliment me on it (in various ways--"Are you topless in that pic?" "I want to pee on your leg!" "lookin good girl!"), so I figured I must have on my bedroom eyes in that one...funny.

long time no blog...

So I have a blog on my myspace, which I have used a little, but not much either. I have just been busy,and I go through phases where I'm not sure if I want people to know my thoughts out loud. I'm telling people too often as it is.
Got into Future Scholars Visitation Program at U Georgia. This is most definitely good news. The next step will be getting into the Ph.D. program.
Been thinking a lot about wanting a baby.
This decision to go back for my Ph.D. means probably 4 or 5 more years without that in my life.
That is okay, I'm sure; somewhere in my faithful heart, I believe I can't make it happen, not my responsibility. And I'm on my period again. It seems like every other week! I keep telling myself at least it means I'm still of birthing age.
That's lame.