Karma

I believe in karma. I've always felt strongly that if I want to get my work published and get people to read it, I've gotta get out there and buy books and journals and support the poets who are putting their work out there.

So I think I'm making a rather belated New Year's resolution, which is to do something concrete in support of poetry at least once every two weeks -- buy a book, subscribe to a journal, go to a reading. I thought about making it "every week" instead, but I have so many damn books in this house already, I don't need to be giving myself excuses to buy more. :) But every two weeks -- well, that won't be hard, but making it a commitment in so many words feels like a good thing to do.

I made up for lost time tonight -- between online purchases and envelopes filled with checks ready to be mailed out tomorrow, I've purchased one book, subscribed to two journals, and taken out a membership at the Writers' Center of Indiana . That last one may not do me a whole lot of good, as the vast majority of their activity takes place in Indianapolis and it's not usually possible for me to get up there except on weekends, but at least I'll get their newsletter. And a couple of weeks ago I did go to the Yusef Komunyakaa/Susie Ibarra performance, which was just phenomenal. Oh! And earlier this month I helped organize a local reading to benefit tsunami survivors, and I bought two of the books that had been donated by poets (the ones I bought were by Kyle Dargan and Joseph Kerschbaum). So, uh, I guess I didn't so much need to worry about making up for lost time. And "every two weeks" is really not going to require changing my behavior much at all. But ... making the commitment does feel good. Now let's hope some karma comes back in my direction, hm?

In other news, the Oscars just finished. I watched, even though I've only seen one of the movies that was nominated for anything. Why was Sean Penn wearing roadkill on his head?