Forging ahead

Go forth, little book manuscript ... I've scrubbed your face and tied your shoes and fixed the button that was buttoned crooked. Now it's your job to be as charming as possible and make yourself some friends.

Yep, it's out there in the world making its first few visits, with more to come (I have no illusions about sending this thing out to one or two places and striking immediate gold). Hey, anything that gives me a reason to go out and buy new office supplies (printer paper, enormous envelopes, address labels, binder clips) has got to be a Good Thing, right?

I do have to say that as I wrote out the checks for the reading fees, I was grateful all over again for the grant I received that's covering the first flurry of submissions. Very, very grateful.

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Speaking of grants, I got word this week that my good friend & fellow poet Shana Ritter received an Individual Artist Grant from the Indiana Arts Commission this year. Go Shana! She's got an interesting project planned.

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You can now download the podcast of my recent radio appearance. (You don't have to have an iPod or anything; it's just an mp3 file you can download.) You can go to WFIU's podcast page and scroll down to The Poets Weave, or go directly to the program. You can also subscribe via iTunes. It's always so weird to hear my own voice on the radio!

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Finally, a few pictures from my recent retreat at Clifty Falls State Park.


The Ohio River, viewed from behind the Clifty Inn.


There were tons of these turkey vultures hanging out on the thermals over the river, pretty much all the time. They're enormous, with a wingspan of several feet, and incredibly graceful as they soar.


I saw a couple of these cranky-looking box turtles. When I was a kid we used to catch these and keep them for a while, but you're not allowed to do that anymore.


An early morning walk in the woods. Anyone who says Indiana isn't pretty is nuts.


A desk, a cup of coffee, and a bunch of unruly poems. I think this was somewhere around the time that I was despairing of ever turning this mess into a manuscript.