what we look for

I find it funny and fascinating that people have found my blog when they typed these phrases into search engines:

• ralph waldo emerson and ladybugs
• poetry is a passion not a habit
• clip art husky head

These three have been the most interesting by far. Fun!

And I'm currently procrastinating from finishing my very, very last final paper for my graduate school career. It's a bit sad, though it's more exciting to feel the celebratory feelings that comes with accomplishing this 2 year commitment that has consumed my life both emotionally, financially, and creatively.

Last night, before my last class session ended the teacher had some parting words to say to commorate the end...(unfortunately, we haven't had our regular professor for quite a few weeks due to illness and surgery...sure missed learning from her this quarter, but oh well...just praying that her health improves)...anyway, Kristen warned/encouraged (who's only 25 with a first book out...got her MA in Creative Writing at UC-Davis) us that our writing life will be definitely be different once we are separated from "the program"...and that (well, at least this was true for her) we would have to learn to write again...meaning, without the crutch of workshop, an advisor, the creative stimulation of our classmates/fellow writers, deadlines, and structured writing, well...we have to kind of figure it out again, that is, answer: "Well, what do I do now?"

For me, that means...how do I figure out a writing schedule while I work a 30-40 hour/week job that pays the bills. Who will be my post-MFA workshop comrades?...those poet friends who will be the ones we share poems with (for response and critique, either by email/mail or phone). And now that I have a manuscript, what will I do with it? (the plan now: submit poems to literary magazines, something I just did not have time for this school year...continue revising and working them). I also have some poems that I did not include in my thesis because they were not revised enough, and I needed more space from them...so I look forward to working on those. Plus, I have a bunch of new ideas that I'd like to get some drafts started. And now that I studied all my thesis books with such depth, I want to work on some of my poems while paying attention to some of those craft ideas that I admired in others' work (keeping Halliday, Kasdorf, and Morling in mind, especially).

And I want to write more non-fiction essays and learn more about that craft.

And Jonathan is teaching a fun course in the fall (which hasn't been offered in 3 years), "Literature of the Pacific Northwest"...so I hope to sit in on that class a time or two, get the syllabus, and possibly go on the "field trip" (a literary journey to Montana to visit Richard Hugo's towns and bars from his poems).

Anyway, for now...one more final...the last one. Due Monday by noon.