Sandra Beasley's Blog, page 33

She Writes

In January I signed up for a free account with She Writes, a site with a membership about 7,000 women writers in all genres. The same day I signed up for Red Room.


My Red Room account promptly dissipated into the ether: they make an unsettling distinction between "members" and "authors," and my page doesn't turn up under the browsing menus. Meh. In contrast, within 24 hours the folks at She Writes welcomed me with a personal hello, an invitation to join the "poetry social" group, and a...

One-Horned Beasts

Given the recent preoccupation with snow, snow, and more snow, hard to believe that Valentine's Day is suddenly upon us. I've been thinking about love poems, which led to an essay "On Love Poems (and Other One-Horned Beasts)." 


Here's the opening excerpt:

I've been writing love poems.

Or rather, I've been trying to write love poems.

To be precise, I've been cursing the blank page where my love poems should be. I'm in love, damn it. Where are the poems? When I'm sad, I can write about sadness...

Surreal

This weather is something else. Arts Club reading: postponed to April. Miami trip: postponed to May. Our electricity has held up, but I am superstitious enough to be cooking things that can be eaten cold, out of the fridge, if we lose power. (PEPCO has pulled its workers off the streets because of the winds--meaning that if your lines are down, there's no help on the way just yet).


Nothing but white, white, white. I have to get all the way up to the windows in order to see across the...

Part 4: On Animated Poems & YouTubing

I live in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, DC, and the snow--a solid 18 inches, with drifts in many spots up to 24 inches--got us good. On the night of the big December storm we had friends over and were blithely ignoring the whole thing until, sitting on the step to my balcony, I realized I could reach out and scoop up handfuls of fresh, clean snow to eat. This storm has been more orchestrated--too much hunkering-down, too much waiting and worrying.


Plus, somewhere adjacent to...

Dreaming of Florida

With this snow on its way to DC (24 inches? really, folks?), there is only one appropriate course of action: start thinking about next week's trip to Miami. 



SeminArt - LegalArt Writing Workshop at Rubell Collection
Next Thursday (February 12, 2010), LegalArt, an organization in Miami that provides artists with affordable legal services, grants and educational opportunities is holding SeminArt, a writers workshop hosted at The Rubell Family Collection (show above). The workshop which aims to...

Review-age

I'm delighted to find out that poet Andrew Kozma has reviewed Theories of Falling for Zoland, a cool annual that operates an an interesting hybrid between anthology and journal. Beautiful print values, too (though I'm not sure the print version includes the reviews). 


The review makes some lovely observations about the organization of the book, including the tonal shifts between the sections. An excerpt:



"This world is presented through the eyes of a child who is both being taught how to...

VCCA: Home

If you have ever debated whether an art colony is for you, stop debating. They are tremendously productive. In two weeks I managed to do the following:

7 full-length prose books read
7 full-length poetry collections read
4 literary magazines read
3 chapters revised
12,450 words written

The last thing I did before leaving my VCCA studio: hit "send" on 101 pages--the first half of Don't Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life. Hallelujah!


I got back into DC just in time to head up to Cafe ...

VCCA: 11

Much as I wanted to stay camped out on the living room couch today, fate--or rather, a breakdown of the heater in the main house--changed my mind. So I'm spending one last afternoon in the studio. One of the pleasures of this space is the plaques on which previous residents have signed off, including:


Enid Shomer (September-November 1999)
Marilyn Kallet (June 2000)
Dana Roeser (November-December 2000)
Daniel Nester (January 2001)
Ha Jin (July 2004)
Don Waters (March-April 2007)
Leigh Anne Couch...

VCCA: 10

Inches of snow, here on the mountain. Inches & inches & inches. Upon waking, I went out first thing to idle my car for 20 minutes--I haven't driven in ten days, and I'm worried about having a dead battery for the drive back to DC on Monday. Trudging out to the parking lot in my pajama pants, boots, shearskin black formal coat, and yellow flowered umbrella, I was quite a sight. "Elegant," one of the women at breakfast called it, but she was being diplomatic.

Keeping it simple for today: camped...

VCCA: 9 (on Moves)

In My Craft or Sullen Art

In my craft or sullen art
Exercised in the still night
When only the moon rages
And the lovers lie abed
With all their griefs in their arms,
I labour by singing light
Not for ambition or bread
Or the strut and trade of charms
On the ivory stages
But for the common wages
Of their most secret heart.

Not for the proud man apart
From the raging moon I write
On these spindrift pages
Nor for the towering dead
With their nightingales and psalms
But for the lovers, their arms
Round...