No Chaser

Yee-haw

Ah the summer is here, and it is glorious.  Seattle is the number one place on earth to be in the summer.  It is so damn perfect that it entirely makes up for the six or seven months of overcast, spitty damp.

The islands were lovely as was the company.  Met some nice people and even ran into some old friends from grad school who were celebrating a successful defense.   Did a lot of soaking and laying about.  Ate some tasty food, explored local culture, joked around a lot.  All in all, a nice summer kickoff.  (Sorry, RG, no pictures were taken.)

I am not ready for my two-week sojourn in the corn, but I am eager to see my friends and the fireflies and am grateful to not have to suffer either the swarms of undergrads or the miserable heat that will take hold later. 

In the meantime, I'm going to cram in as much Seattle summer fun as possible.  In that spirit, today, I'm taking a nice bike ride up the Burke-Gilman with the Sandlot Poet.  I heart summer.

posted by: NoChaser at May 30, 2007 12:43 | link | comments (2) |

'Tis the season

Camping season that is.  And, I'm starting off with a bang, taking a nice long weekend trip to the San Juans with Nellicious & Co. 

One nice thing about starting the season in the San Juans is that it is Camping Lite, which means the inclusion of good wine, soaking tubs, and café breakfasts.  I was once of a mind that even a tent was wimpy, and I was thrilled about stomping up hills with a 70-lb. pack on, but as I age, Camping Lite becomes more and more appealing. 

Another nice thing is that it is possibly the most beautiful place on earth.  Idyllic really is the right word.

posted by: NoChaser at May 24, 2007 09:42 | link | comments (2) |

Poetry

I've been writing a lot of poetry lately, about one poem a week.  A while back (Drat! I can't find the post), I mourned the loss of a sort of poetic vision I once had, a way of experiencing the world as a complex sea of interconnected image, metaphor, and symbol. 

I've not had this particular type of vision since I was writing regularly back in the days when Zenslop and I were slogging away in our beer-swilling, kidney-punching workshop group.  Even when I have written poems and done other creative work in the intervening, ahem, fifteen years, I have never quite recaptured that poetic sense (and sense is the right word as it is quite overwhelmingly sensuous).  Until now.

In part, I am blessed by a gorgeous muse currently inspiring me, which is always helpful.  But, I have a few less classical hypotheses about why it has returned now, many of which have to do with intellectual and emotional barriers I had created and have been slowly breaking down these last few years.  The return of the poetic sense indicates to me I have finally broken through, and it is glorious.  

I'd hoped when I quit writing that I would take the time off to become a more experienced mature person, with more interesting things to say, and that I would develop a stronger appreciation for and facility with language.  And, indeed, both of those things have come to pass.  So, my poetic sense is somewhat different than it was when I was 23, but it is also much better.

I am fortunate as well to have a good friend only a few blocks away who happens to be a very good writer and reader of poetry.  He and I had a fantastic three-hour poetry workshop at a local café this week, and boy, it was the funnest thing I've done intellectually in a long time.

The best part of all this though is I can't stop writing. 

posted by: NoChaser at May 18, 2007 19:16 | link | comments (1) |

It's a Good Day

I know it's not nice to celebrate a death, but I just have to say how delighted I am that Jerry Fallwell has passed into the ether.  I think, in fact, I've never been happier to hear of someone's demise.  This calls for champagne.

posted by: NoChaser at May 15, 2007 14:08 | link | comments (1) |

On not writing

I have not written because I am on vacation.  And although I continue to be on vacation, I am not actively pursuing vacation-like activities, so I will probably start blogging more again.  But not right now.

For now, you have to check this out. (Courtesy of Alison Bechdel's blog.)

posted by: NoChaser at May 13, 2007 21:54 | link | comments (3) |

Feels Nice

So, lately, I have had the strange good fortune to have people interested in my scholarship.  I've discovered that one of my articles from a few years ago has been cited twice.  My dissertation has been checked out of the library for months by no one I know.  And, three different friends have recently cited me in their current work and not just because we're friends but because my work was relevant to theirs and helped them think through certain ideas.  This is kind of a nice pat on the back for all those years of effort, and it makes me feel like my intellectual contributions were not so invaluable after all.

posted by: NoChaser at May 05, 2007 12:20 | link | comments (2) |