June 11: "The Student," Summer Vacation, "Poetry Gardening"

Billy Collins writes about . . . 

The Student

by: Billy Collins

She made asterisks

next to passages she liked,

little stars that kept shining

after she closed the book.

Today was the last day of school for my student son.  Summer vacation has officially begun, so he won't be annotating any books for the next three or so months.

Me?  I worked on my poetry manuscript again, among all my other tasks.  Today, I organized poems, created sections, and proofread.  It was a little anxiety-inducing to say the least.  (Reminder:  I have been living with this book for over 20 years.  That's almost as long as my daughter has been alive and five years longer than my son has been on this planet.)  The floor of my office was a minefield of poetry for a good portion of the afternoon.

However, I'm happy with the results.  Maybe "happy" is too strong a word.  It's more like I'm satisfied with my work.  It holds together.  Makes sense.  Feels done.  However, I have been at this point before and then worked another half a decade on various poems.  (One poem in particular took me ten years to complete.)

Saint Marty is cautiously optimistic, which is not an emotion he experiences often.

Poetry Gardening

by: Martin Achatz

Poems spread across the floor, 

sprouts and dandelions

waiting for me to start 

weeding.

October 7: Silent Film, Richly Blessed, This Little Light

The guards drew together instinctively, rolled their eyes.  They experimented with one expression and then another, said nothing, though their mouths were often open.  They looked like a silent film of a barbershop quartet.

"So long forever," they might have been singing, "old fellows and pals; So long forever, old sweethearts and pals--God bless 'em--"

Have to apologize for my absence last night.  I was not bunkered down, waiting out a fire-storm.  I was at the monthly poetry workshop I lead at the Joy Center in my home town of Ishpeming, right in the heart of the Upper Peninsula.  There were lots of old pals and colleagues there.  We wrote about ghosts, watched one of my favorite haunted house movies (The Changeling), and ate.

You know, I have realized this Saint Marty's Day that I have been richly blessed this year.  So much good has happened in my life.  If I were in a silent film of a barbershop quartet, the subtitles would probably be the lyrics of "This Little Light of Mine" or Pharrell Williams' "Happy."

I know I'm sounding very Up With People, but I have been very lucky this year, connecting with new friends and reconnecting with old ones.  That has been one of the greatest blessings of being chosen Poet Laureate.  I get to go places, read poems, talk about poetry, and meet wonderful people all over the Upper Peninsula.

Of course, there are still troubling things happening in the world--locally, nationally, and internationally.  So much division and strife.  These last couple days, there was a registered nurses' strike at the local hospital.  Good people, walking a picket line to make the community a better, safer, healthier place.  And, of course, there was Las Vegas this week.  Donald Trump.  Brexit.  North Korea.  There are plenty of things to worry about, and I'm not ignoring them.

However, for today, I'm going to watch my silent film, read the subtitles, hum a song.

Sing with Saint Marty:  "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine..."

May 20: Reading Tonight, Nature Essay, Magic 8-Ball Monday

I have a lot of things on my mind this morning.  It's going to be an incredibly busy day.  Aside from working, I'm appearing at Peter White Public Library in Marquette for a book release event of The Way North, an anthology of U. P. writers.  I, along with several other authors in the collection, will be reading and answering questions.

I'm not quite sure how this reading is going to go.  Late last week, one of the other readers suggested we all dress in "traditional" U. P. clothing--flannel, swampers, hunter's orange, snowmobile helmets.  I think he was half-joking, but some of the other writers latched on to the idea.  I have no idea what I'm going to be walking into tonight.  I have an orange dress shirt I'm going to wear, but that's the only concession I'm making.

After the reading, I'm going out for drinks with the other readers.  I probably won't order anything with alcohol in it.  I've got to work tomorrow morning, after all.  However, it will be good to be included in a pack of writers.  I seldom get that opportunity in my daily existence.

The other thing I have to do today is work on a nature essay.  A local publisher is sponsoring a writing contest, and I've decided to give it a shot.  First prize is $250, for God's sake.  Now, I've never written a nature essay before.  I'm not really sure how to go about writing a nature essay, but I do have an idea for my subject.  I think it's going to be a hybrid of memoir and nature writing.  We'll see how it turns out.

Which brings me to Magic 8-Ball Monday.  The questions I have is simple:

Will I win the nature essay writing contest?

And the answer from the gospel according to Salinger is:

"I agree!  I agree they do, some of them!  But that's all I got out of it.  See?  That's my point.  That's exactly my goddam point," I said.  "I don't get hardly anything out of anything.  I'm in bad shape.  I'm in lousy shape.:

Well, the first half of that answer is pretty affirmative:  "I agree!"  The second half isn't quite as hopeful:  "I'm in lousy shape."  I'm, not quite sure how to interpret that answer.    Positive?  Negative?

Saint Marty is going with the first half of the answer this morning.  He wants to be happy, not depressed, today.

I won't be wearing one of these tonight