I spent the week rereading three books: Jumping Drawbridges In Technicolor by Mike James, Visiting Days by Gretchen Primack and when I was a girl like me by Margaret Bazzell-Crocker. Like so many other writers, I have a difficult time reading as much as I would like and there is always a stack of books on my bedside table that I promise myself that I will get through. This week, I decided I would take my time with three books that I already read and comb through them for various reasons. I reread Jumping Drawbridges In Technicolor just because. I like that Mike James continues to surprise me with his writing, each collection tests a new boundry and reminds me that we don't have to write in one particular voice or style. I reread Visiting Days because I was working on a review for Albany Poets. I interviewed Gretchen awhile back about her new book here: https://albanypoets.com/2019/03/interview-with-poet-and-educator-gretchen-primack/ . While writing the review, I was reminded that writing a review is truly a gift for the reviewer, in that you have the unique opportunity to look deeply into the author's work and the reason why they do what they do, really the process is intimate. In addition, for me, Gretchen's book resonates with me as I am working on my own poems about incarceration, so to read from someone else's point of view gives great insight. The third book that I reread, when I was a girl like me, was one that I have been waiting nearly two decades for. Margaret published her chapbook Throw Like a Girl with Green Bean Press, which was the first press that I worked with. I was absolutely in love with her work during that time and because there were less women publishing in the small press at that time, she became a writing role model. Her new book of poems resonates with me for so many reasons and I really fell in love with her work all over again. I am currently working on a interview with her for Albany Poets and will share the link when we are done.
On the writing front, San Antonio Review published one of the poems from the collection that I have been working on involving mental illness, tragedy and the incarceration of a loved one: https://sa-review.com/2019/04/22/feeding-the-fish/ and an essay I wrote about mental illness came out in the anthology: Into Sanity: Essays about Mental Health, Mental Illness, and Living In Between,edited by Martha Nichols, with a preface by Mark Vonnegut: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45158139-into-sanity
I started working on a poem inspired by Margaret Crocker about motherhood, which I am tentatively titling "If I Ever Have Time to Finish This Poem..." Yeah, a little mom humor.