I'm very excited to say that last month, I heard from Stephen Reichert of Smartish Pace that they'll be publishing a couple of my poems in their next issue. I'm so grateful to have these particular pieces in print, as they're especially meaningful for me and I'd wanted them to have a home.
The news arrived on the afternoon of a day when I had spent an hour or so before work writing. I don't usually fit that much time in before 8am, but when I do, it seems that I am very often rewarded with some kind of gesture from the universe. A message (or at least, I'll take it that way) to carry on with this work that brings me so much happiness.
Lately, I've been listening to Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald, and enjoying it even more than H is for Hawk. I love this book. It inspires me to want, almost desperately at moments, to be a writer of personal essays or of what I believe might be called creative non-fiction these days. A memoir that is in prose but with all the beauty and insight of the best poetry.
I also just finished Travels in an Old Tongue, Pamela Petro's book about traveling the world as an American Welsh-learner, trying to speak only Welsh (or as much Welsh as possible) in every continent she visited. Everything she said about Wales and the Welsh language, culture, and people - wherever they were in the world - resonated with me profoundly. I've spent forty years keenly interested, if not obsessed, with Wales and Welsh, so to read her felt like meeting a kindred spirit. I just ordered and received her latest book, The Long Field, and I am looking forward to digging in to it as soon as I've finished the latest titles for our library's February book discussions.
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