Things I've Been Doing Instead of Blogging

I’ve been slacking a bit on my philosophical inquiry into poetry’s decline, or even on my thoughts about my own process. It’s summer, after all, and I like to let my mind go a bit, in between intense sessions of dissertation writing, of course.

Instead, I’ve been running errands, relaxing, catching up on movies I’ve wanted to see, and working on a long list of “to-dos.” One thing on this list was to get a haircut, which I did in rather dramatic fashion. To commemorate the big change, I wrote a limerick and haiku. I love the way that the forms really dictate how the experience comes across:

There once was a girl with long hair

Who cut it all off on a dare.

It was twelve inches long,

But now it’s all gone –

Her head feels exceedingly bare!

Morning regression

Cutting away a year’s growth

Straw blonde waterfall

I did, in fact, cut 12 inches of my hair off yesterday, but it wasn’t on a dare (poetic license!). I decided to donate my hair to a foundation that makes wigs for kids with diseases that cause them to lose their hair. You can read about the program here. I am adjusting to the cut, and I do go back and forth between laughing about it (limerick) and feeling a little regret (haiku).

Also on my list was to do a new set of Polaroid transfers (see my original ones here). I shot 1/2 a roll of 35 mm slides of rural Georgia grave sites (some of the headstones are hand carved!). I'm working on setting up a series of animal skulls to finish out the roll, and then I'm going to print them on watercolor paper.

Finally, I am trying to work on drawing. My husband Jym, an art professor, has been helping me a lot with this. Below is one I completed of a rabbit. Keep in mind, I've only had one real art class and that was almost 10 years ago!

Hopefully my blogging will continue as the semester grows nearer. I can only imagine that I will be horribly busy with five classes to teach (yes, the triumph of getting hired is already wearing off as I face scheduling, creating syllabi, textbook orders -- i.e. reality; but I am still grateful for the job!).