Tara's comments (member since Jun 02, 2009)

Tara's comments from the MFA Poets group.

I don't have anything new out right now--just lots of rejections, no-wins in contests, and a slew of stuff out for review. I've written several drafts of poems and have a few from earlier in the year that need serious revision. It's a time of reading and writing for me. I'm hoping to do some serious self-study this fall. Then get some new material out there.

I'm on page 39 of "Departure" by Rosanna Warren. I'll let ya know.

I did the Artist's Way a few years ago and got about 1/2 through before getting sidetracked and doing other things. I honestly can't say if it works or not. I keep a journal regularly anyway, so the extra morning pages were a bit too much for me. I also regularly do creative activities like visit museums, watch films, explore music, go into nature, and try my hand at the arts (not good at them, but they're fun!)

Cameron is very inspiring, though, and I know that at the time I read the book I was a little fearful and stuck with writing, and it *did* help me in the sense that I felt not so alone in some of my personal feelings.

I definitely have to get a writing schedule. I had one for a while--writing at night, actually. I did that 6 days a week for about 10 months. I was sick for the past few years and around that 10th month my health took a nose dive. Then I had surgery this March, I'm still sort of recovering. I'm moving across country in a few weeks, one of the first things I'm doing is setting up a writing space and, with my new environment/schedule, putting discipline back into my writing. Focus! I need it!

Jim McGarrah helps me out, too. He often suggests great places to submit my work--from one of them I got a rejection with a hand-written note from the editor, my first ever!

I don't have an MFA in poetry, though I did take many writing workshops through the University of Denver when I got my MLS. My favorite teacher over there is Andrea Dupree, but she's fiction, not poetry. If you're interested in fiction and in the Denver area, she runs a lot of workshops through Lighthouse Writers (some of them online, I think)--she's a very warm and funny woman and knows a heckuva lot about fiction.

Right now my poetry teacher is Lisa Bellamy at the Writer's Studio. I love her! We work mostly with narrative technique rather than the formal, musical aspect of poetry. So we work from fiction exercises to write poems as well as poetry exercises. The program has worked for me better than any other writing workshop I've ever taken. Fun too.

I saw a video of Ordinary Genius a few days ago on Powells.com and it looks great! How are you enjoying it? Do you recommend it for purchase?

Congrats, Ruth! You just kick butt all over the place. I love to see how well you're doing :)

Hey Ruth, did you get the Stone book from the Copper Canyon Press free book deal? I almost bought the Stone but decided to do Black Box, by Erin Belieu because I'd never heard of her before.

I'm still trying to finish the Levin! Doing lots of reading in bits and pieces because I'm trying to find poems written about fairly tales. So far I've hooked up with The Fairy Tale Review and am loving "Snow White's Acne" by Denise Duhamel. I'm looking to write my own poems using fairy tale characters.

Found a copy of Bucolics and accidentally picked up "Delusions, &tc" by John Berryman instead of the Dream songs. Is the book 77 Dream Songs different than The Dream Songs book?

I'm reading a couple books of poetry right now--In the Surgical Theater by Dana Levin has been on my "currently reading" list for probably a month, it has really captured me, have either of you read it? It's so grotesque in a way, and intense...yet quite beautiful, true. I keep re-reading the same poems over and over. Usually I move on because my book pile is so dang big. This one has me netted.

I've also started a couple chapbooks from New Michigan Press. Ever read those?

Thanks for the rec, Pamela. I'll see about getting my hands on that one today!

And for Heather--Borders is pretty cool, I just meant that the one in my town is tiny and has like maybe 2 itty bitty shelves of poetry. It used to have its own section. I've seen it grow smaller and smaller over the past 8 years I've frequented it. Kinda sad. We don't have any independent shops where I live. I'm like you, though, and I do most of my shopping online. Powell's is my favorite.

I don't know a lot about John Berryman. Any one collection to get me started?

I work in an academic library, too--a special collections branch, rare materials on Western Americana. It's pretty cool. I enjoy getting to use the main library whenever I want and get a lot of books on ILL. So thanks for this book 12 x 12; I hadn't heard of it yet but it sounds right up my alley and I'll look into getting it loaned today.

Your borders sounds cooler than mine :)

I just picked up "A Poet's Companion" off my shelves this morning, funny that you should mention it. I've been looking for some kind of structure to get me going--I've been 'away' from writing for a few months and now I feel stuck. I figure some exercises might light my fire. I remember reading it about 4-5 years ago and enjoying it. I'm also thinking of picking up again "Poem, Revised" ed. by Robert Hartwell Fiske and Laura Cherry. It's pretty fascinating to see the process that other poets go through in order to come to the 'final' draft. Helps open my brain a bit.