Patience

Had a great time in Savannah, on Tybee Island, for Eric and Jenn's wedding.

There were family members there I haven't seen in a while, and there were pretty much no hitches. Overall it was a blast, but it went way too quickly, as good things often do.

Two brothers down. One to go.

Our official two-months-away mark is in six days.

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This interview with David Wojahn from Gulf Coast has sparked some folks to comment, as Wojahn's words, rightfully, always do.

John Gallaher commented on it and got a whole mess of reply comments. It's interesting for me to see how many people love to fire back at Wojahn's words. I think the man's brilliant and would have preferred to learn from no other poet during my MFA years. Despite the fact that I busted my ass on Ghost Lights for the last few years, Wojahn had much to do with that as my former teacher. There's a reason so many younger poets who learned from him have books coming out maybe earlier than they should, me being one of them, and much of that has to do with his ability to make students—no matter what "school" they're writing from—work hard at perfecting where they want and need to go, not where he wants and needs to go.

That's a major difference from many other poet professors out there. Trust me on this.

But as far as the skittery poem and confessionalism and facile and trivial writing and younger poets wanting to stay away from confessionalism go, I think I'll save all my comments for the essays I'll be writing over the next four years at Binghamton, though I'm not sure these ideas will ever be within an essay.

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I already got my TA assignment next year for Binghamton. As much as I'd be comfortable just being thrown into a composition course, I'll be TAing for a British Literature class, which meets on Monday and Wednesday afternoon.

I never had labs or anything like that in undergrad or for my MFA, but I guess I'm meeting with the students on Friday afternoon also to go over everything.

That said, it'll probably be nice to not be thrown into a composition course after trying to get used to a new place, new rules, a new school, etc.

I remember getting my TA assignment from VCU, however, about five days before classes began my first year, so it's nice to already know what's around the corner.

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It's official: I sent my last batch of submissions out for the summer on April 28th. I have a ton of work out to a ton of places, all sent between February and April.

I hope that the rejections don't get lost since folks are slower over the summer at responding and we're moving soon.

Oh well.

And if there are anymore acceptances, I hope the editors use email.

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Speaking of publications, on a weird note I just got a rejection from Front Porch. The thing is: they accepted poems a few months ago that are now published.

And then I checked the online submissions system, and sure enough, it says that they're declined.

A burp in the system, but one I thought was pretty funny, especially since this is the first time I've gotten accepted, published, and then rejected—all from the same batch. I don't think it happens often. Maybe I should buy some scratch-off tickets.

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Watched a VHS screener of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh last night, and I have to say that it was pretty bad (though I do want to watch the proper DVD again to see Pittsburgh in its proper 2:35 nasty glory).

I'm all for the director / screenwriter taking liberties from the book. Look at how amazing The Shining is (and no, not the one with Steven Weber).

But Thurber just tried to do way too much with the characters, and much of it was flat all over the place. I agree with some of the reviews also about Peter Sarsgaard being typecast these days. He seems to be playing the same character in every movie.

Anyway, stick to the book instead, though the visuals are worth checking out. Then again, I'm more obsessed with cinematography mostly anyway, especially in bad movies.

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I have a fear this summer's going to go faster than usual and it's going to completely pass me by.

I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen.

I have a lot of reading to do. Interviews to conduct. My own writing to attend to. My second manuscript to hopefully get close to finishing. Did I just say that? My aspirations are high. Why would anyone want theirs to be low? Plus, I said close to finishing...

I'm doing as much legwork as I can before our wedding, mostly for all things Binghamton (since the wedding's pretty much taken care of by now as far as dates and coordination and all of that).

Here's to productivity.