So I finally figured out how to get back on the internet in this dark, decrepit cave I'm living in, which is nice, since I needed email to send some important things out to important people. Not to mention when I need to look up stuff for poems. Since I didn't get to post yesterday, let's start there.
Yesterday there was a book sale going on in the morning before classes. I checked it out and bought one of Blas's other books as well as one by a professor I had online over the summer. I hear all kinds of great things about her all the time, so I thought it was about time I checked out what she wrote. I haven't had time to as of yet, but it's on my reading list when I get back home. I've already read most of the poems in Blas's other book, which, yeah, I knew I would love already, because we have similar styles, and I'd read a few of them on the internet. I've decided, as far as books go, I'm going to buy my current mentor's Thursday at his reading, and then I'm just going to see how I feel about the guest readers once I've heard them read. Mark Doty is coming tonight, and I don't think I've ever read any of his stuff, but everyone here is going crazy over him.
Anyway, we had our first group meeting with our mentors, and, judging by that and today's class, I've got nothing to complain about. Gary is, so far, very engaging, open, hilarious, and laid-back. Class discussion has been enjoyable, and I've even done all right on in-class writing so far, which I usually hate. Today I had to write a poem about curdled milk and give the feeling of revulsion without saying the word or any words similar to it, and I actually enjoyed it. I think I might try to make it a longer poem. So far I've written three poems since arriving here, and I feel more pleased and connected to them than I have to anything I've written since La Cucaracha. Which is, by the way, finally completely finished.
After our group workshops, we had a genre seminar on Robert Lowell. I'm not quite sure what I feel about him still, except that he really liked to revise his work. A lot. Then we had a nonfiction panel, which was actually really interesting, despite the fact that I am not at all the type of person to sit down and read an essay. My brain just immediately shuts down. Unless it's like a personal story, which some of the panel members had written. Afterward, the last of the graduates from this semester read their work, and then there was the nightly reception. I crashed out early, because I haven't been sleeping well on this prison bed in my room, but I might as well have stayed up, because I kept waking up most of the night, and then, around 5 am, a big storm hit, and I was so freaked out from my experiences in February, that I could not go back to sleep for anything. I am now especially tired, but I'm so into working on my poems that I can't convince myself to utilize the time I have for a nap before Doty's reading.
Today was sort of a short day. We had group meeting, a poetry craft lecture, and then a break from 2:30 until 7:30. It's a lot of time to have to yourself, but I don't particularly feel relaxed. My brain won't shut down and let me get any rest at this point. Which is just as well. I have ten more lines to write for my homework assignment, and I need to get them done before tonight. Just incase I decide to engage in a group outing to the bar, which I have so far declined because of homework and epic tiredness. Don't get me wrong though. I love being in this environment. I love having so many people to talk shop with. I even love how I can't stop churning out poems, because I'm so determined to prove that I belong here, and I just want to bowl people over with it, really. However, speaking of, I need to go and finish this piece, because I just received a text about possible dinner plans, and it looks like my dreams of a nap are quickly going up in smoke.
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