6 Months Later...

I'm still alive! It seems I have a major problem with cyclicalness. Is that how you make cyclical into an adjective? It seems like there should be a more graceful way. Maybe I just have a cyclical nature.

So let's give it another go, especially now that I'm a bit more settled.

Just to bring everything up to date, I have settled into a life in East Austin, where I live in a lovely little writer bungalow and spend a lot of my weekends gardening and landscaping.

I'm working part time as a teacher (it feels like full time, but my paycheck reminds me that it's definitely part time!) at the Bronze Doors Academy, where I teach creative writing, poetry, academic writing, Socratic Dialogue, textile arts, and Japanese to an assortment of odd, bright, dynamic middle and high-schoolers.

Here is my goofy little teacher profile.

I just submitted a round of poems to the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg competition, in hopes that this year I may get lucky again. Otherwise, I have work upcoming in Alimentum and Confrontation that I am VERY excited about. Order a copy of the next issues when they're out, and I'll be there!

I'm also playing full time with the most amazing inspiring people in a surreal musical project called The Human Circuit. (Excuse the half-finished webpage. We've been concentrating more on practising music. And yes, we do realise that the band name has somewhat appropriate initials.)

The crappy myspace page has some nice live recordings.

We've played a few shows, and besides some technical snags mainly stemming from the incredible difficulty of micing a cello, things are going swimmingly. The next show will probably be a Halloween show, with even more bells and whistles and funky costumes than usual.

So this band is a beautiful thing in my life, and soon we hope to be in the studio working on the first full length album.

I have also postponed my project in India to next summer, so that I have some more desperately needed time to work and right and think and get my head wrapped around the events of this past year.

And it is autumn, so it is time for baking pies, cooking savoury things, writing letters to loved ones overseas, working furiously on my novel, poems, and Emma's and my chapbook. It's time for planting bulbs that will come up in the spring and establishing a fall/winter garden and learning more about growing things. This gardening thing is a constant learning experience, and I am learning that it takes so much more than sticking some plants or seeds in the ground and watering them every day. I'm learning about organic pest control, fertilizer, making leaf mulch, noting what areas get what amount of sun and planting accordingly, how to flick the stems of tomato plants to that they pollinate themselves, the importance of bees, and how much I love spending my mornings murming and singing to my plants and giving them love and attention.

Here are some pictures of the yard before I got motivated:





































And then here's what happens when I go to the nursery and get inspired. Jessamine, Phillipenes Violet, White Salvia, Rock Rose, and some grass that gets red trumpet flowers, along with my two types of basil and some cactus in the pots. I have also strategically planted Anenome bulbs around our metal sculpture and around the tree in by the street.











Purple mums, Zinnia, Nasturtium, Jasmine, Marigolds, a Fire Bush, Fennel, Rue, and some edible purple cabbages (these are where the organic pest control learning is happening.)












Two types of Salvia, Sweet Potato vine, a Butterfly bush/vine thingy, Marigold, and Pineapple Sage.



























Backyard wilderness! Both gardens are full of veggies and lovely green things.







Rosemary, Lavender, and strangely, some cucumber vines.




























Zucchini, Kale, Yellow Chard, Mustard Greens, and some dubious carrot sprouts. Just out of the frame is an heirloom tomato plant.

April 25th, Ted Kooser's Birthday, the anniversary of the Easter Rebellion

Well, I started to write this on the 25th, and then fell asleep, and then I procrastinated a little bit, so it is now the 27th- but I can't be bothered to look up anything about today, so I'm sticking with what I had for the 25th.

Happy slightly belated birthday to Ted Kooser, who consistently delivers punches precisely where it matters and scatters snowflakes over the aches.
Here is one of my favourite poems from Ted:

Flying at Night

Above us, stars. Beneath us, constellations.
Five billion miles away, a galaxy dies
like a snowflake falling on water. Below us,
some farmer, feeling the chill of that distant death,
snaps on his yard light, drawing his sheds and barn
back into the little system of his care.
All night, the cities, like shimmering novas,
tug with bright streets at lonely lights like his.


Also, today is the anniversary of the Easter Rebellion! Not quite as cheery as Mr. Kooser's birthday, but significant nonetheless.

I'm currently awash with stuff to do, trying to plow through a new grant proposal, keep up with my tutoring and my writing students, write these two novels, write poem letters to Emma, sew an Elizabethan corset, and oh yeah, prepare a playlist of music for recording. Too many things!

So I'm at one of my favourite new Austin cafes, Monkey Nest, enjoying the wide open space and the light through the windows, and the bizarre playlist alternating between the Killers and Modest Mouse, with the occasional Beatles, Stones, or Cake song thrown in, for spice. Last week it was a run of Three Dog Night and 70's tunes- heaven!

One of the things I adore about this cafe (besides the fact that I get to hang out with Merri Su every time I come!) is how light and open it is, and, of course, their delicious Turkish spice tea. I'm so used to my usual haunts on the East side- Rio Rita, Cherrywood, etc- which are all lovely and funky, but also a bit dark and enclosed. Although there is the big plus that I can get alchohol in those places, to you know, help me get through my workload.

So I've written a few new pieces in the last week, and in even more exciting news, just had a poem accepted by the print journal Alimentum, which is a gorgeous publication that focuses on literature about food. Which is, of course, my favourit type of literature. The actual journal will be the Summer edition, so it won't be out for a few months, but what an inspiration! One step back, two steps forward!

Another tremendous inspiration that has surfaced in the past few days is, interestingly, my little brother. In the past few days he has chased multiple tornados across north Texas with a team of stormchasers, documenting cloud rotation, twisters, wind and lightning. He almost got hit by lightning, actually. I'm so jealous and incredibly inspired by his work! If I can get my hands on a few of his photos from this latest adventure, I'll post them in my next entry.