Monday, March 30, 2009

The Number 30

Today is brought to you by the number 30, as in I've just completed my 21st round of 30 poems in 30 days.

Titles:
1. A Cloud Takes All Away
2. A Child that Knows Poems
3. Belated Love Song for Dinosaurs
4. Building Absence
5. Leonardo Improves the Story
6. Dear W–
7. The Obloquy of Crows
8. Nearer the Goal
9. Through a Glass, Darkly
10. With One Piece of Your Heart
11. We Cannot Conceive of an Undreamt Thing
12. No Remedy for Love
13. wall me up alive in my own body
14. Irrational Obligations
15. Heracles Pauses on the Road to Delphi
16. Ode to a Haymaker
17. Desire of Dead Things
18. Survey Report before Demolition
19. With a Heart for Any Fate
20. He doctors his accounts. It takes him days (sonnenizio on a line from Juster)
21. Breakup with Fishbowl and Unlight
22. A Certain Semblance of Shadow
23. Like God after the Flood
24. Hardware Store (found poem)
25. In This Town I Can't Get Arrested
26. Song for the Artist
27. Captain Von Trapp Exorcises the Past
28. Prayer for the Blank Page
29. mise en scene
30. I Go Running Down Your Street

Thursday, March 26, 2009

You Spin Me Right Round

With Spring Break here, I was finally able to get up to Hood River and visit Foothills Yarn & Fiber for the lesson that came with my spinning wheel.


Wool.


My first skein.


I made yarn!


After setting the twist.


Ready to knit.


Stitches.


Swatch.


An apron for Audrey.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

P.S. Did I mention that Girl Scout cookie sales are finally done. Hooray!!

February Sweaters

Hey, look, I've been knitting! Actually, I've been knitting all along, but this is the first chance I've had to take pictures of anything. These were Valentine's Day presents. Hello Kitty is Emma's friend, and Kate's bunny is named Flopsy.





There was Christmas knitting, too, but since most of it was given away, I don't have pictures. I made 10 Pocket Creatures and stuffed them with sachets of lavender from Hood River. They are great stocking stuffers!

I also knit toy horses for the girls, then made dresses and shawls from the same yarn for their Groovy Girls. They love it when things match.

Right now I'm working on more adorable animals from the same yarn (Emma and Kate have decided that the Groovy Girls are running a zoo) and an Easter surprise. Oh, and Dennis is hoping I'll get around to finishing his second Sailor's Rib sock, too.

Knit on!

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

In the Mailbox

I've gotten some good mail in the past week. First, Issue 15 of Quarter After Eight arrived. This is a journal that focuses on publishing flash fiction and short prose/poem pieces. I have two stories in this issue - "How Thunder Stepped into the Sky" and "John Wesley Powell and the Colorado River Blues." I'm thrilled to be sharing pages with fellow Zoetropers Elizabeth Ellen and Stefani Nellen.



I also received my copy of the Arabic anthology "American Stories Dialogues" which includes three of my previously published flashes. This anthology was put together by Saleh Razzouk and I am honored to have been included in the company of so many fine contemporary American writers.


Finally, I had a letter from River Styx informing me that, while I did not win the 2009 River Styx Schlafly Microfiction contest, I was one of 20 finalists chosen from over 500 submissions. Close, but no cigar. Guess I better start sharpening my pencil for next year!