Yesterday was…

Yesterday was unexpectedly productive. I woke up, had tea, checked my To-Do list (which I'd rather been avoiding recently) and realized that WindyCon starts today. It's a little local convention in Schaumburg which had scheduled me to do some readings tonight and panels over the weekend. They have an art show too -- though since I didn't reserve space, there's no guarantee they'll have room for me.

Nonetheless, I blithely spent several hours yesterday sorting through art I already had, organizing my supplies (which had gotten quite kerfuffled somehow), and making two new pieces, which I am moderately happy with. So I'll pack up art in my car around noon and head up to the convention; cross your fingers that they have space for me. It'd be lovely to sell something -- WisCon was something of a bust as regards selling art this year. Maybe the good people there are tired of my stuff. Or maybe nobody had any money in May. Who knows?

I also did two more job applications (UC Davis and Eastern Illinois University), which made me feel virtuous. But the bulk of yesterday's work was on Silence and the Word -- I did a massive sort-through of my files, finding the pieces I'd published, the pieces I thought should have published, the pieces I still love even though no one will ever publish them. I put 'em all in, and I formatted and did running heads and fixed the pagination, and printed out a copy of the rough draft of the book. And that took until 1 a.m.

I feel as if I have no perspective on this material -- I'm honestly not sure if all this stuff belongs in here. So I'm going to get a couple of my writerly friends to read through it and tell me what I should dump. Right now it's about 200 pages, which is quite a respectable size; I think it could go a little shorter. Here's the preliminary TOC -- I don't think anything will be added to it (though if there's a poem you love that you don't see here, you could let me know), but some things may well be cut:

  • Esthely Blue
  • And Can This Ever End?
  • Silence and the Word
  • Fringes
  • Johnny's Story
  • Still
  • Spinning Down
  • the sock tray
  • You Think This is About Love, But Its Not.
  • Seven Cups of Water
  • Rice
  • Minal in Winter
  • Listening to My Daughter
  • Under the Skin
  • And the sea is shaking
  • Kali
  • And Baby Makes Four
  • Wild Roses
  • when you are old
  • Conjunction
  • Exposure
  • Invocation
  • The Survey
  • Would You Live For Me?
  • Amanda Means Love
  • Poem for a University
  • How It Started
  • A Jewel of a Woman
  • Flowers and Branches
  • one of the ways
  • Letter to Kevin
  • Sitting Under a Tree, in the Rain

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