Kelli Russell Agodon's Blog, page 2
January 30, 2021
Feel the Fear and Write It Anyway
I haven't done a blog post in a while.
Between the pandemic, my job as an editor at Two Sylvias Press, my next book, and just a world of distractedness, I've been missing from this world.
But I wanted to talk about risk in our work, in our poems and stories, in what we write.
This week I'm finishing up the FINAL edits on my book, Dialogues with Rising Tides. That's final like--once I send in any final corrections or edits, I will not see the book again until it's published. That final. Like, "Oh I see I forgot to thank my mother and I've misspelled the word 'cemetery' thirteen times" final. Done. No more changes. We're through here.
That is scary enough, though as a human, I've learned I'm okay with an occasional typo.
(Fun fact: if you look on the spine of my book, Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room, you will see that the second "i" is missing from "Dickinson"--I kid you not. We thought it got corrected, but obviously, that was missed before the printing.) But here's the thing I learned from that--mistakes happen and in the end, don't matter too much. I've learned, they actually aren't that big of a deal, I mean, that book ended up a winning Foreword Indies Book of the Year in Poetry and was a Finalist for the Washington Book Award, all while having a big mistake on the cover.
But over the last two years, as I've been getting ready for this book to come out, I have woken up in the middle of the night anxious about my poem--not the craft of them, that I have worked on endlessly, but that some deal with some very personal topics. As I received my final edits this week, I found myself waking up at 3 am with a "what have I done?" feeling. Along with the gratitude and thankfulness of this book, I've been hit with the classic--Omg, people are actually going to read this!
Talking with other women poets, I realize many have also had this fear or concern as their books and poems come out into the world. It comes down to risk, we need to write what scares us.
I took a class with Brenda Hillman and after we shared a poem, she would ask us, "What did you risk?" Some people would say, "I'm writing in a new form" or "I risked sentimentality" but some would say, "I'm writing about something that makes me feel shameful" or "I'm writing about a topic I have been afraid to share." Every time we risk or write about the things we are afraid to or think we shouldn't, we open doors for other poets to do the same thing.
In a world of filters and photoshop, it can be hard to be real and vulnerable. Sometimes we want to put on a lot of concealer and cover what we consider are our flaws. I want to consider that word "flaw"--maybe what we consider our "flaws" are us just being human. Maybe when we are able to say "this happened to me" or "this was very hard to write about and equally hard to publish," we are finding ways for others to feel less alone in the world.
Ultimately, we cannot control how people respond to our writing. We open ourselves up, we try our best, and we hope it's well-received. And while we never will know how anything will be received, what we can know that as poets, writers, and artists--every time we stretch ourselves in work, every time we write, we are opening up doors for others to enter.
By not skimming the surface, but going deeper, you may find yourself doing your best work. We should be trying things in our work that make us feel uncomfortable--in voice, in form, in style, in content, in __________ (fill in the blank)...there are so many ways to write what scares us. To risk something in our work.
So this post is just as much for you as it is for me--a reminder that we are not alone in the anxiety that sometimes comes with publishing a book and as William Faulkner said, "You cannot swim for new horizons until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” And coincidently, my cover is of life ring so I like to think that while we may feel we are going under, reach out a little bit to see there is security around you--maybe in the form of friends or supportive writers, maybe in knowing that in the end, we have to write the poems we have to write. And we can do that.
P.S. If you want to read for yourself, you can preorder Dialogues with Rising Tides here. Thanks for all your support!
________________ www.agodon.com www.twosylviaspress.comKelli Russell Agodon
www.facebook.com/agodon
www.twitter.com/kelliagodon
Feel the Fear and Write It Anyway
I haven't done a blog post in a while.
Between the pandemic, my job as an editor at Two Sylvias Press, my next book, and just a world of distractedness, I've been missing from this world.
But I wanted to talk about risk in our work, in our poems and stories, in what we write.
This week I'm finishing up the FINAL edits on my book, Dialogues with Rising Tides. That's final like--once I send in any final corrections or edits, I will not see the book again until it's published. That final. Like, "Oh I see I forgot to thank my mother and I've misspelled the word 'cemetery' thirteen times" final. Done. No more changes. We're through here.
That is scary enough, though as a human, I've learned I'm okay with an occasional typo.
(Fun fact: if you look on the spine of my book, Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room, you will see that the second "i" is missing from "Dickinson"--I kid you not. We thought it got corrected, but obviously, that was missed before the printing.) But here's the thing I learned from that--mistakes happen and in the end, don't matter too much. I've learned, they actually aren't that big of a deal, I mean, that book ended up a winning Foreword Indies Book of the Year in Poetry and was a Finalist for the Washington Book Award, all while having a big mistake on the cover.
But over the last two years, as I've been getting ready for this book to come out, I have woken up in the middle of the night anxious about my poem--not the craft of them, that I have worked on endlessly, but that some deal with some very personal topics. As I received my final edits this week, I found myself waking up at 3 am with a "what have I done?" feeling. Along with the gratitude and thankfulness of this book, I've been hit with the classic--Omg, people are actually going to read this!
Talking with other women poets, I realize many have also had this fear or concern as their books and poems come out into the world. It comes down to risk, we need to write what scares us.
I took a class with Brenda Hillman and after we shared a poem, she would ask us, "What did you risk?" Some people would say, "I'm writing in a new form" or "I risked sentimentality" but some would say, "I'm writing about something that makes me feel shameful" or "I'm writing about a topic I have been afraid to share." Every time we risk or write about the things we are afraid to or think we shouldn't, we open doors for other poets to do the same thing.
In a world of filters and photoshop, it can be hard to be real and vulnerable. Sometimes we want to put on a lot of concealer and cover what we consider are our flaws. I want to consider that word "flaw"--maybe what we consider our "flaws" are us just being human. Maybe when we are able to say "this happened to me" or "this was very hard to write about and equally hard to publish," we are finding ways for others to feel less alone in the world.
Ultimately, we cannot control how people respond to our writing. We open ourselves up, we try our best, and we hope it's well-received. And while we never will know how anything will be received, what we can know that as poets, writers, and artists--every time we stretch ourselves in work, every time we write, we are opening up doors for others to enter.
By not skimming the surface, but going deeper, you may find yourself doing your best work. We should be trying things in our work that make us feel uncomfortable--in voice, in form, in style, in content, in __________ (fill in the blank)...there are so many ways to write what scares us. To risk something in our work.
So this post is just as much for you as it is for me--a reminder that we are not alone in the anxiety that sometimes comes with publishing a book and as William Faulkner said, "You cannot swim for new horizons until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” And coincidently, my cover is of life ring so I like to think that while we may feel we are going under, reach out a little bit to see there is security around you--maybe in the form of friends or supportive writers, maybe in knowing that in the end, we have to write the poems we have to write. And we can do that.
P.S. If you want to read for yourself, you can preorder Dialogues with Rising Tides here. Thanks for all your support!
________________ www.agodon.com www.twosylviaspress.comKelli Russell Agodonwww.facebook.com/agodonwww.twit...
March 30, 2020
What Day is It? The Working from Home Edition
Today is a Monday.
On most Mondays, I'm at the Two Sylvias Press office working, since Friday, March 13th, I have been working from home.
The first thing I noticed is how both long and short the days are. Long in that, without a commute, running errands, or even choosing an outfit or putting on makeup, there are definitely more hours in the day. However, with everyone home, "the house" becomes its own project of cleaning up and dishes.
The first two weeks both felt as if I got a lot done and nothing done. My biggest problem was I couldn't remember what I did. Did I write? Did I do Two Sylvias work? Did I do laundry? Did I sit on the couch and scroll through Facebook? Did I play Words with Friends and bingewatch Love is Blind (possibly...)?
So I've started a few things to help me understand where my time is going and to remember what I did.
1) The Daily Log: I now keep a book next to me, a daily log where it has four columns, Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Other Things. I just write what I did during the day, just enough so I can see where I spent my time. Other Things are good things (or things) I want to remember:
Here's today's log:
MORNING:
Talked to Annette (the other editor at Two Sylvias)
Sent Erica her finished cover
Sent an invoice
Choose winners for the April Poetry Prompts Giveaway
Finished the Facebook banner for #NaPoWriMo
Called my mum
AFTERNOON:
Meditated (20 minutes) / Napped 30 minutes
Did 2 poetry submissions
Responded to emails
Wasted time on Twitter
Logged submissions
Worked a collaborative poem (RB)
EVENING:
Watched The Rape of Europa (documentary)
Played Words with Friends
Did a blog post (finally!)
Worked on a collaborative poem (MS)
OTHER THINGS:
A friend shared my poem with his creative writing students (DR)
The artist who chose my poem send me what she painted based on it
I looked for AirBnBs to create my own retreat
Nothing big, but just reminders so I can look back on my day and feel as if it wasn't just lost in the abyss--right now, I feel my calendar is sinking into the abyss.
2) Gmail Time Tracker: I realized I am someone who can spend way too much time on email. I keep Gmail up and constantly check it. Why? Because I feel it's the one area that can knock me down.
To get a better idea how much time I was using, I added the Google extension Gmail Time Tracker into my Chrome browser to keep track of how much time I use. Yikes. Sometimes I spend 30 minutes on one email. Yikes (I do love to write letters to friends) but seeing the timer tell me how much time I've used really shows me what a time sink email can be. (When you are writing an email, a little timer in the upper right of your Gmail tells you how long you've been working on the same email.)
If you work with clients, you can download a spreadsheet to see how much time you spent with whom. For me, I just wanted to wrap my head around how much time I'm using. And it's more than it should be.
Some things to know--the timer is free to add to your Chrome, but if you use more than 10 hours, a little sign pops up telling you it's $4.99 a month (or full disclosure here: you can write a blog post to to get unlimited usage). So for my Capricorn mind, seeing the amount of time I've been spending helps me sign off gmail and manage things better.
3) Take It Easy On Myself and Other Housemate (aka Family): The final thing I'm doing is making a point to give everyone a pass. Are there huge house projects that would be nice to have done--uh-huh. Are they getting done? No. Is that okay? Yes.
I realize, we're in uncertain times, we don't know how long we're going to be here and humans can be annoying. I remind myself of my privilege (and how lucky I am) to be able to do my job from home.
Yes, it takes longer and twice I've had to drive into the office for things I didn't realize I'd need, but I didn't lose my job or am on the frontlines of this. I have a couple stresses but I keep the perspective of --I am not a doctor, a firefighter, an EMT, a store cashier, a delivery drive, a postal carrier, or any of the essential jobs that are still being done. Also, after watching all these WWII shows, I also remind myself that I am in my house with food, water, heat, electricity. I am not watching my city bombed, I am not blacking out my windows at night. I am an editor and poet who is mildly inconvenienced and because I know it's worth the life and health of others, I stay put. Because I know that I can be useful by staying home, trying to remain positive, and helping my elderly neighbors and mum.
So I do.
I'm trying to have gratitude for all I do have and not jump too far into the future with "what if this happens?" or "how long will I be here" or any doomsday scenario. I will live when they come up. I'm working on "be here now" and "one day at a time." It isn't always easy. Last night I cried over something dumb, a friend said, "I don't think you were just crying over not getting a writing residency, I think you were shedding tears for this situation." I'd like to think/hope given that I've never cried over not getting a writing residency, that's kind of old hat for me.
So we do our best to get by.
And maybe if I'm lucky, I'll discover something about myself during this time.
Thanks for checking in.
~ Kells
________________
www.agodon.com / www.twosylviaspress.comKelli Russell Agodon
www.facebook.com/agodon
www.twitter.com/kelliagodon
What Day is It? The Working from Home Edition
Today is a Monday.
On most Mondays, I'm at the Two Sylvias Press office working, since Friday, March 13th, I have been working from home.
The first thing I noticed is how both long and short the days are. Long in that, without a commute, running errands, or even choosing an outfit or putting on makeup, there are definitely more hours in the day. However, with everyone home, "the house" becomes its own project of cleaning up and dishes.
The first two weeks both felt as if I got a lot done and nothing done. My biggest problem was I couldn't remember what I did. Did I write? Did I do Two Sylvias work? Did I do laundry? Did I sit on the couch and scroll through Facebook? Did I play Words with Friends and bingewatch Love is Blind (possibly...)?
So I've started a few things to help me understand where my time is going and to remember what I did.
1) The Daily Log: I now keep a book next to me, a daily log where it has four columns, Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Other Things. I just write what I did during the day, just enough so I can see where I spent my time. Other Things are good things (or things) I want to remember:
Here's today's log:
MORNING:
Talked to Annette (the other editor at Two Sylvias)
Sent Erica her finished cover
Sent an invoice
Choose winners for the April Poetry Prompts Giveaway
Finished the Facebook banner for #NaPoWriMo
Called my mum
AFTERNOON:
Meditated (20 minutes) / Napped 30 minutes
Did 2 poetry submissions
Responded to emails
Wasted time on Twitter
Logged submissions
Worked a collaborative poem (RB)
EVENING:
Watched The Rape of Europa (documentary)
Played Words with Friends
Did a blog post (finally!)
Worked on a collaborative poem (MS)
OTHER THINGS:
A friend shared my poem with his creative writing students (DR)
The artist who chose my poem send me what she painted based on it
I looked for AirBnBs to create my own retreat
Nothing big, but just reminders so I can look back on my day and feel as if it wasn't just lost in the abyss--right now, I feel my calendar is sinking into the abyss.
2) Gmail Time Tracker: I realized I am someone who can spend way too much time on email. I keep Gmail up and constantly check it. Why? Because I feel it's the one area that can knock me down.
To get a better idea how much time I was using, I added the Google extension Gmail Time Tracker into my Chrome browser to keep track of how much time I use. Yikes. Sometimes I spend 30 minutes on one email. Yikes (I do love to write letters to friends) but seeing the timer tell me how much time I've used really shows me what a time sink email can be. (When you are writing an email, a little timer in the upper right of your Gmail tells you how long you've been working on the same email.)
If you work with clients, you can download a spreadsheet to see how much time you spent with whom. For me, I just wanted to wrap my head around how much time I'm using. And it's more than it should be.
Some things to know--the timer is free to add to your Chrome, but if you use more than 10 hours, a little sign pops up telling you it's $4.99 a month (or full disclosure here: you can write a blog post to to get unlimited usage). So for my Capricorn mind, seeing the amount of time I've been spending helps me sign off gmail and manage things better.
3) Take It Easy On Myself and Other Housemate (aka Family): The final thing I'm doing is making a point to give everyone a pass. Are there huge house projects that would be nice to have done--uh-huh. Are they getting done? No. Is that okay? Yes.
I realize, we're in uncertain times, we don't know how long we're going to be here and humans can be annoying. I remind myself of my privilege (and how lucky I am) to be able to do my job from home.
Yes, it takes longer and twice I've had to drive into the office for things I didn't realize I'd need, but I didn't lose my job or am on the frontlines of this. I have a couple stresses but I keep the perspective of --I am not a doctor, a firefighter, an EMT, a store cashier, a delivery drive, a postal carrier, or any of the essential jobs that are still being done. Also, after watching all these WWII shows, I also remind myself that I am in my house with food, water, heat, electricity. I am not watching my city bombed, I am not blacking out my windows at night. I am an editor and poet who is mildly inconvenienced and because I know it's worth the life and health of others, I stay put. Because I know that I can be useful by staying home, trying to remain positive, and helping my elderly neighbors and mum.
So I do.
I'm trying to have gratitude for all I do have and not jump too far into the future with "what if this happens?" or "how long will I be here" or any doomsday scenario. I will live when they come up. I'm working on "be here now" and "one day at a time." It isn't always easy. Last night I cried over something dumb, a friend said, "I don't think you were just crying over not getting a writing residency, I think you were shedding tears for this situation." I'd like to think/hope given that I've never cried over not getting a writing residency, that's kind of old hat for me.
So we do our best to get by.
And maybe if I'm lucky, I'll discover something about myself during this time.
Thanks for checking in.
~ Kells
________________
www.agodon.com / www.twosylviaspress.comKelli Russell Agodonwww.facebook.com/agodonwww.twit...
November 10, 2019
Writing Residency: Day 1 - Social Media Detox
My writing area--yes, I have literally been here for 24 hours, though it looks as if I live here. I get comfortable very quickly ("comfortable" is actually a kind word for "messy")
Situation: 10-day writing residency
Where: Pacific Northwest about 40 minutes away from my house.
Why: To revise and work on manuscript that I must turn into Copper Canyon in June 2020
_____________________________
I am currently at a 10-day writing residency and have promised myself that for 7 of those days, I would completely stay off of social media and any website that connects me to the outside world (like the news).
Yesterday, I found myself scrolling Instagram for no reason, just habit. Just--oh, there's my phone, let me pick it up, open and app and scroll. No thought, just action.
Today I woke up and wanted to check Twitter. But I didn't.
I realize, I do feel a loss. My brain wants it trending stories. It wants to see who is saying what.
But there's this other gain, since I have NOTHING to check, I have so much time. Today I thought--what do I need to do? Write a poem? Revise a poem? Organize my work? Submit? Write letters to friends? Go back to bed?
I realize how much of my time ends up on social media, even if I'm not there all day, I realize how much I pick up my phone to check, I don't keep notifications on, so I open the app several times a day--that adds up.
I guess I didn't notice until I'm sitting her after being up for 5 minutes saying, "Okay, what do I do now?"
So when I decided, "I'll write a blog to gather my thoughts." I realize my last blog post is from June. When I have Twitter or Facebook, what I would have normally (well, in the days pre-social media 2001-2009ish) I would have written in a blog or a journal. But I had nothing to blog, all my stories and thoughts went out as soundbites on Twitter or Instagram or Facebook.
I remember hearing Terrance Hayes say he's not on Twitter because he was concerned he'd tweet out great lines for a poem instead of using them *in* a poem.
Now that I have no place to do that, a blog feels like a good way to document the time (and the weird thing is, whether anyone reads this or not). I realize how much of my writing is me just wanting to get thoughts out of my head, on paper, so I can look at them, size them up.
But I do miss Twitter.
Oh and I had one social media dream--I dreamed Ronda (the poet/photographer) I'm staying with and I were in a huge earthquake and we thought--let's go onto Facebook to make ourself "safe."
I'm not sure what that says, I've never had a social media dream before, but have dreamed of people I only know through social media, which is another story...
So the first day rundown:
Friday: Short day--Arrived in the afternoon and settled in, unpacked food and clothing. Didn't bring a ton of clothes, but brought a ton of books-- I should count them. (wrote one poem in the evening Martha Silano, who is staying here with me. Organized ALL my stuff--baskets of writing exercises, bins of papers I bought, notebooks, etc. Finished up Two Sylvias work that still needed to be done. And cleaned my inbox of emails.
Saturday: First full-day. Woke at 5. Wrote a poem. I didn't sleep well, as I somehow turned my nap into a temperature of hell. Way too hot. Tried to nap(s) all day, succeed at 4-5 pm. Did a 40 minute guided meditation (well, two 20-minute ones together) in the morning. Wrote and revised, Submitted to one journal. Began organizing my submission spreadsheet which is a mess. 1 phone call (talked and walked for 50 minutes), 1 in-person 5-minute visit from husband who drove here (not *too* far from where I live) to bring the several things I forgot (last year, I forgot *my suitcase*--yes, this is how I roll--without essentials apparently). I wrote several texts, found myself scrolling instagram, peeked on Twitter, told myself my "settling in time" is over last night and you are now officially offline, baby.
Poems written: 5
* * *
Facebook: Deactivated and I don't miss it.
Twitter: Not deactivated, but I haven't checked it and do miss it.
Instagram: Don't miss it, but again, yesterday weirdly found myself scrolling through it. Am taking the app off my phone.
Snapchat: *Never* use it, only check it rarely to see what young, hip family members are up to (answer not much) --however, because I *wasn't* on social media I decided to check it. Found photo filters and this happened--
Half of me online, half of me here.Snapchat is now deleted from my phone. (Though it's funny I checked as I never do, but I think that was the loss I was feeling--now that I have this extra time, what can I do??? --Apparently, my first answer was: Waste it! Which is now being taken care of by app deletion. I have no willpower.)Email: The other funny thing is I checked email this morning and not ONE email. So for the first time, in a long time, I just got to work!
*****
Also, I think I have my blog set up that this post will end up on Twitter (HI FRIENDS!!!) and maybe in some of your email boxes if you're subscribed. Hey you. I'm here and I miss you. But doing okay, better than okay...and productive.
Love from the haunted cabin,
~ Kells
________________
www.agodon.com www.twosylviaspress.comKelli Russell Agodon
www.facebook.com/agodon
www.twitter.com/kelliagodon
Writing Residency: Day 1 - Social Media Detox
My writing area--yes, I have literally been here for 24 hours, though it looks as if I live here. I get comfortable very quickly ("comfortable" is actually a kind word for "messy")
Situation: 10-day writing residency
Where: Pacific Northwest about 40 minutes away from my house.
Why: To revise and work on manuscript that I must turn into Copper Canyon in June 2020
_____________________________
I am currently at a 10-day writing residency and have promised myself that for 7 of those days, I would completely stay off of social media and any website that connects me to the outside world (like the news).
Yesterday, I found myself scrolling Instagram for no reason, just habit. Just--oh, there's my phone, let me pick it up, open and app and scroll. No thought, just action.
Today I woke up and wanted to check Twitter. But I didn't.
I realize, I do feel a loss. My brain wants it trending stories. It wants to see who is saying what.
But there's this other gain, since I have NOTHING to check, I have so much time. Today I thought--what do I need to do? Write a poem? Revise a poem? Organize my work? Submit? Write letters to friends? Go back to bed?
I realize how much of my time ends up on social media, even if I'm not there all day, I realize how much I pick up my phone to check, I don't keep notifications on, so I open the app several times a day--that adds up.
I guess I didn't notice until I'm sitting her after being up for 5 minutes saying, "Okay, what do I do now?"
So when I decided, "I'll write a blog to gather my thoughts." I realize my last blog post is from June. When I have Twitter or Facebook, what I would have normally (well, in the days pre-social media 2001-2009ish) I would have written in a blog or a journal. But I had nothing to blog, all my stories and thoughts went out as soundbites on Twitter or Instagram or Facebook.
I remember hearing Terrance Hayes say he's not on Twitter because he was concerned he'd tweet out great lines for a poem instead of using them *in* a poem.
Now that I have no place to do that, a blog feels like a good way to document the time (and the weird thing is, whether anyone reads this or not). I realize how much of my writing is me just wanting to get thoughts out of my head, on paper, so I can look at them, size them up.
But I do miss Twitter.
Oh and I had one social media dream--I dreamed Ronda (the poet/photographer) I'm staying with and I were in a huge earthquake and we thought--let's go onto Facebook to make ourself "safe."
I'm not sure what that says, I've never had a social media dream before, but have dreamed of people I only know through social media, which is another story...
So the first day rundown:
Friday: Short day--Arrived in the afternoon and settled in, unpacked food and clothing. Didn't bring a ton of clothes, but brought a ton of books-- I should count them. (wrote one poem in the evening Martha Silano, who is staying here with me. Organized ALL my stuff--baskets of writing exercises, bins of papers I bought, notebooks, etc. Finished up Two Sylvias work that still needed to be done. And cleaned my inbox of emails.
Saturday: First full-day. Woke at 5. Wrote a poem. I didn't sleep well, as I somehow turned my nap into a temperature of hell. Way too hot. Tried to nap(s) all day, succeed at 4-5 pm. Did a 40 minute guided meditation (well, two 20-minute ones together) in the morning. Wrote and revised, Submitted to one journal. Began organizing my submission spreadsheet which is a mess. 1 phone call (talked and walked for 50 minutes), 1 in-person 5-minute visit from husband who drove here (not *too* far from where I live) to bring the several things I forgot (last year, I forgot *my suitcase*--yes, this is how I roll--without essentials apparently). I wrote several texts, found myself scrolling instagram, peeked on Twitter, told myself my "settling in time" is over last night and you are now officially offline, baby.
Poems written: 5
* * *
Facebook: Deactivated and I don't miss it.
Twitter: Not deactivated, but I haven't checked it and do miss it.
Instagram: Don't miss it, but again, yesterday weirdly found myself scrolling through it. Am taking the app off my phone.
Snapchat: *Never* use it, only check it rarely to see what young, hip family members are up to (answer not much) --however, because I *wasn't* on social media I decided to check it. Found photo filters and this happened--
Half of me online, half of me here.Snapchat is now deleted from my phone. (Though it's funny I checked as I never do, but I think that was the loss I was feeling--now that I have this extra time, what can I do??? --Apparently, my first answer was: Waste it! Which is now being taken care of by app deletion. I have no willpower.)Email: The other funny thing is I checked email this morning and not ONE email. So for the first time, in a long time, I just got to work!
*****
Also, I think I have my blog set up that this post will end up on Twitter (HI FRIENDS!!!) and maybe in some of your email boxes if you're subscribed. Hey you. I'm here and I miss you. But doing okay, better than okay...and productive.
Love from the haunted cabin,
~ Kells
________________
www.agodon.com www.twosylviaspress.comKelli Russell Agodonwww.facebook.com/agodonwww.twit...
June 17, 2019
Women Poets: Poets on the Coast: A Weekend Retreat for Women is almost full (and Scholarship Opportunity)
II've been busy with life, but I want to stop to share two things--
1) We only have 2 spaces left for Poets on the Coast (in La Conner, WA from Sept 8-10th) --This is an incredible weekend for women poets (you can register here: http://poetsonthecoast.weebly.com/register.html)
and
2) We are offering a full fellowship for 1 poet (and a partial fellowship) for an additional women poet-- if this is something you want to do, but the cost seems to limit you, please consider applying for our fellowship here: http://poetsonthecoast.weebly.com/fellowship.html
This will be our 9th year of Poets on the Coast.
We are a strong community of women created to support each other in our artistic pursuits. This weekend is a time to help us reconnect with our poetry and our writing lives. We strive to create an atmosphere of joy, inspiration, and friendship.
This year, we are thrilled to announce our guest faculty is Lena Khalaf Tuffaha: https://www.lenakhalaftuffaha.com/
We hope you can join us!
~ Kells
________________
www.agodon.com
www.twosylviaspress.comKelli Russell Agodon
www.facebook.com/agodon
www.twitter.com/kelliagodon
Women Poets: Poets on the Coast: A Weekend Retreat for Women is almost full (and Scholarship Opportunity)
II've been busy with life, but I want to stop to share two things--
1) We only have 2 spaces left for Poets on the Coast (in La Conner, WA from Sept 8-10th) --This is an incredible weekend for women poets (you can register here: http://poetsonthecoast.weebly.com/register.html)
and
2) We are offering a full fellowship for 1 poet (and a partial fellowship) for an additional women poet-- if this is something you want to do, but the cost seems to limit you, please consider applying for our fellowship here: http://poetsonthecoast.weebly.com/fellowship.html
This will be our 9th year of Poets on the Coast.
We are a strong community of women created to support each other in our artistic pursuits. This weekend is a time to help us reconnect with our poetry and our writing lives. We strive to create an atmosphere of joy, inspiration, and friendship.
This year, we are thrilled to announce our guest faculty is Lena Khalaf Tuffaha: https://www.lenakhalaftuffaha.com/
We hope you can join us!
~ Kells
________________
www.agodon.com
www.twosylviaspress.comKelli Russell Agodonwww.facebook.com/agodonwww.twit...
April 29, 2019
Making the Most of Insomnia...
If you're reading this, it must be some time between 3 -5 am and I am up listening to Vampire Weekend's new song "Harmony Hill" on repeat.
I've written 2 poems and answered a few emails. I haven't spoken to anyone in 36 hours, and this is the gift of the writing residency. I wonder--what if I didn't talk to people for days in real life, would I have more to write? It seems the less I talk, the more I have to say when I write.
I know it would be almost impossible to achieve this at home, but it encourages me on my next retreat to see how long I could go without speaking.
Solitude, when chosen, is a gift.
Solitude, when forced upon someone, is a punishment.
Solitude, when not wanted, is loneliness in disguise.
I keep thinking that I'm going to have to title this blog post and that weirdly tires me. Or maybe I'm tired because I'm typing this at 4:45 am.
I've started using my insomnia for good. If you ever get an email from me, check the date stamp, many times it's written when the city is sleeping. I've decided because most nights I can't sleep from 2-4 or 3-5, I will use this time to do all the things I hate to do in the daylight, like answer emails.
When I was in my 20s, I used to clean my house from 11 pm - 1 am in the morning, I'd be cranky and achy and just wanting to sleep--and yet, I'm up folding clothes, scrubbing the sink. I'd fall into to bed so tired and the next day I'd wake up and it would be as if elves cleaned the house while I slept. Like when I wake up in a few hours, I'll have 2 new poems and a clear inbox.
Sometimes you just have to make the most of the time you have. Insomnia becomes productivity. Productivity becomes a Vampire. Vampire Weekend singing I don't wanna live like this, but I don't wanna die, until you crawl back into bed...
~
Kells
________________
www.agodon.com
www.twosylviaspress.comKelli Russell Agodon
www.facebook.com/agodon
www.twitter.com/kelliagodon
Making the Most of Insomnia...
If you're reading this, it must be some time between 3 -5 am and I am up listening to Vampire Weekend's new song "Harmony Hill" on repeat.
I've written 2 poems and answered a few emails. I haven't spoken to anyone in 36 hours, and this is the gift of the writing residency. I wonder--what if I didn't talk to people for days in real life, would I have more to write? It seems the less I talk, the more I have to say when I write.
I know it would be almost impossible to achieve this at home, but it encourages me on my next retreat to see how long I could go without speaking.
Solitude, when chosen, is a gift.
Solitude, when forced upon someone, is a punishment.
Solitude, when not wanted, is loneliness in disguise.
I keep thinking that I'm going to have to title this blog post and that weirdly tires me. Or maybe I'm tired because I'm typing this at 4:45 am.
I've started using my insomnia for good. If you ever get an email from me, check the date stamp, many times it's written when the city is sleeping. I've decided because most nights I can't sleep from 2-4 or 3-5, I will use this time to do all the things I hate to do in the daylight, like answer emails.
When I was in my 20s, I used to clean my house from 11 pm - 1 am in the morning, I'd be cranky and achy and just wanting to sleep--and yet, I'm up folding clothes, scrubbing the sink. I'd fall into to bed so tired and the next day I'd wake up and it would be as if elves cleaned the house while I slept. Like when I wake up in a few hours, I'll have 2 new poems and a clear inbox.
Sometimes you just have to make the most of the time you have. Insomnia becomes productivity. Productivity becomes a Vampire. Vampire Weekend singing I don't wanna live like this, but I don't wanna die, until you crawl back into bed...
~
Kells
________________
www.agodon.com
www.twosylviaspress.comKelli Russell Agodonwww.facebook.com/agodonwww.twit...
