온라인카지노 사이트추천
- At January 19, 2019
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
1

Sylvia and Shakespeare taking care of my books
Down Time: Reading Writers’ Words About Writing
Good morning! At left you can see what I’ve been doing with my time – mostly sick in bed, surrounded by books and cats. Last night I finished Ursula Le Guin’s Words Are My Matter, from Small Beer Press. My favorite bits from the writing of her last decade were an essay called “Disappearing Grandmothers,” a diary of her time at our local Writer’s Retreat Hedgebook on Whidbey Island, “Learning to Write Science Fiction from Virginia Woolf” (whose letters I have been reading,) and some of her reviews, including Philip K. Dick. Quick quote from “Disappearing Grandmothers:”
“We really can’t go on letting good writers be disappeared and buried because they weren’t men, while writers who should be left to rot in peace are endlessly resurrected, the zombies of criticism and curriculum, because they weren’t women.”
I get the feeling I would really have gotten along with Ursula. And her commentary on Virginia Woolf made me realize why I’d been picking up her writings again – she really did have a way of approaching old subject matter in a singular way. I’m learning a lot from reading non-living writers, and coincidentally, a friend just sent me a collection by Mary Oliver, who recently passed away. Of course, we should appreciate and cheer our living writers, both friends and heroes, too! But it does feel fascinating to be reading letters from Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, and essays by Ursula Le Guin – like the most terrific conversation with women writers across time.
A New Poem in Star*Line
Thanks to Star*Line (this issue was edited by Vince Gotera) for publishing my poem “Self-Portrait as Pretty Monster.” If you join the SFPA you get a subscription to Star*Line for free. Here’s a sneak peek:
A Little Seattle Color and January Wildlife
Lest you think from my ramblings that in Seattle our January is always a dull grey and the rain never ceases, a rare sunny day when I was able to get out and do a little nature photography (and pose with an antique red truck – what a cheerful color!) Hummingbirds are regular visitors thanks to our feeders and deer love to eat the new grass that grows this time of year. In our neighborhood, you can usually find an array on antique cars or car shows on any sunny day. And I love all kinds of flowers, but this time of year, coral roses seem especially vibrant and cheering. Glenn’s been making a new quick-jam that I got out of a magazine called cranberry-pear butter (we make it in the instant pot, not a slow cooker, much faster) and not only is it beautiful, it’s delicious (the ginger really makes it pop and feel winter-appropriate!) Great on greek yogurt, a scone or a slice of pear-cranberry-ginger cake.
- Anna’s Hummingbird
- Glenn and I pose with antique truck
- coral roses
- Woodinville Stream
- Deer Visitor to our yard
Supermoon Eclipse of 2019
Tomorrow night is the only full lunar eclipse of 2019 – and usually the night sky here is very cloudy – or it’s raining – this time of year. I hope you are able to watch it (around 6:30 Pacific, 9:30 Eastern) but I always feel a tinge of foreboding around supermoons in general and supermoon eclipses in particular. The red color of a lunar eclipse is so eerie. I do not consider myself superstitious and particularly astrologically-wise but moon cycles really get to me, and I think they affect something not just in the earth (tides, etc) but something in the human body. I wrote a poem about how eclipses are supposed to take away the veil between dimensions and worlds, between the subconscious and conscious. Lunacy and all that. Perhaps this year the supermoon will bring us good changes this year, which I think we could use with all the lunacy in the world right now. Here’s wishing good health and new poems to you and to me!
온라인카지노 사이트추천New Review of Who is Mary Sue in The Rumpus, New Poem in Scryptic, Poems set to Jazz, and the January Doldrums

Purple January Sunrise
January Doldrums, with Sunrise
How has your January been so far? I came down with a very-long lasting cold/virus and sprained my ankle, so I’ve been confined and resting…plus it’s rained nearly every day of the new year, which makes it tough to appreciate the gorgeous Pacific Northwest quite as much as usual (what the with driving cold wind and rain). A leak sprung up around our chimney after one of the windstorms, which somehow seemed symbolic. I’ve been able to read a little bit, write a little bit, but mostly I’ve been sleeping poorly, restlessly watching nature shows, and trying to make headway in the eight-ten books I’m reading. I’ve been researching publishers and vowing to do a better job this than last in sending out my book manuscripts (I have two now, a sixth and a seventh).? I have had some good things happen this week, which I thought I’d share – a new review, a new poem, and a poem set to jazz music.
New Poem, “Angel,” in the new issue of Scryptic, a magazine of alternative art
Thanks to Scryptic, who published a speculative poem of mine for the new year, “Angel,” in their latest issue. From the art to the lit pieces, it’s a bit of a rush to read. My poem’s on page 57 of the PDF, and here is a little preview to the left. The poem is called “Angel,” but it more science fiction than religion.
New Review of Sophie Collins’ Who Is Mary Sue in The Rumpus
Looking for something new to read in the new year that will challenge you and get you thinking? Check out my review in The Rumpus of Sophie Collins’ Who Is Mary Sue, a book that challenges the notion of female autobiography, the idea of authorship and authenticity, feminism and pop culture. I wasn’t familiar with Sophie Collins’ work when I picked this book up at local poetry bookstore Open Books, but she has a fascinating mind.
”?Might every character who is female and empowered be termed by male fanboys a “Mary Sue” with some derision? Might every female character, indeed, be a “Mary Sue?” Whether we write about ourselves or others, women authors will always be accused of the sin of autobiography in a way that men typically are not.”
Poems Set to Music
I also had a suprise when a gentleman named James Gardner contacted me and asked me if he could set my poem, “Robot Scientist’s Daughter [medical wonder,]” to music on his web site, Poetry DNA. Check out the results! I’m kind of a jazz fan, so this tickled me.
Surviving the Dark Winter
So what are your survival tips for surviving the dark, cold winter months? January and February are my least favorite months to live around Seattle, it’s pitch black by 5 PM and the sun doesn’t really come all the way up…ever, plus the cold wind and rain mean you never really enjoy being outside. It’s cold and flu season so I’m not surprised I finally caught something, and this bug is a loooong one. I’ve reorganized my office, written a few poems and revised both my poetry manuscripts, but honestly, I’m restless, ready for a little springtime. (I know, we’re still a long way, but Seattle does start to have some camellia and cherry blooms sometimes as early as late February.) I’ve already started thinking about how to successfully approach AWP – I’ll be doing one offsite reading, and I’m planning to spend max time at the Bookfair saying hi to friends and checking out books and lit mags, my favorite part of the conference. My big goals were: getting more sleep, trying to do something fun once a week, and reaching out and socializing with more people, have all been rendered moot by this evil virus (waking up with early asthma attacks and tossing and turning with fever not conducive to more sleep, sadly, and you definitely don’t want to give this bug to anyone you like), but I hope to be getting better soon and back to my 2019 goals! I also made a playlist called “Survivor 2019” which includes this Sam Smith song from the Netflix series Watership Down, called “Fire on Fire.” Happy January!
온라인카지노 사이트추천New Year So Far, Poem in Natural Bridge, Lunch Dates with Poets and Poet Letters, and 2019 Goals
- At 온라인카지노 사이트추천January 04, 2019
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
1

Sunrise on the New Year
Happy Brand New Year!
Good morning and Happy New Year 2019! Hope you had a wonderful New Year’s celebration! Miraculously I wasn’t too sick on New Year’s Eve, so Glenn and I were able to do a daytime stroll to enjoy the sunshine and then go out in the evening to Willows Lodge where we toasted and listened to a live band and generally enjoyed ourselves – we got home in time to watch the Space Needle Fireworks, by which time the city was locked in icy fog, so we were happy to be home and warm! We ate grapes for luck, and then I stayed up late afterwards writing a new poem and working on my new manuscript – still in its birth phases, but definitely shaping up.? Auspicious writing start – actually writing a poem within ten minutes of 2019!
- Pre-Party New Year’s Eve
- Toast to the New Year
- Willows Lodge
- Fireplace at Willows Lodge

Sylvia in linen closet, her favorite reading space
First Poem of the New Year in Natural Bridge!
Thanks to 온라인카지노 사이트추천Natural Bridge for publishing my first new poem of the new year – “Self-Portrait as MRI.” Here’s Sylvia hiding in the linen closet with a copy, and here’s the poem:

Sarah Mangold and I in black and white
Poet Lunches and Reading Poet Letters
One of my goals for 2019, besides getting more sleep (I average four hours a night, which I hear from doctors is not enough, what?) is getting out more and spending more time with wonderful creative people! Yesterday I had the chance to meet up for lunch with the lovely and talented local poet Sarah Mangold. I had run into her work at Open Books and liked it, so I was happy to have this opportunity to talk over coffee. And now I’m looking forward to reading her chapbook, Cupcake Royale! Nothing cheers me up like spending time with artists, writers, and musicians – I think it decreases the feeling of “I am crazy for doing this” and always inspires me to do more in my own creative life!
I’ve been reading a beautiful hardcover illustrated edition of Virginia Woolf’s letters and the second volume of Sylvia Plath’s letters. Virginia Woolf is always cheerful, restrained and clever in her letters while Plath is a little more self-revealing, passionate in her happiness and her disappointments, but I think both can teach us lessons about women writers. I’m also reading After Emily, a book by Julie Dobrow about the two women who devoted a ton of time and energy to make sure Emily Dickinson had a legacy and a reputation as a great poet. It’s kind of a wonderful lesson in what it takes to become a household name in the 1800’s in upper-crust society in New England and dispels the illusion that Emily didn’t make en effort or that she became a sensation out of nowhere – a sort of early template for PR for Poets! (Book Clubs were very big, FYI.)? (Another 2019 goal: less television and social media and more reading books!)
One quote I thought I’d share – I was reading Sylvia’s new years letters from January 1957 – and she had just had poems published in The Atlantic and Poetry, but was running into trouble getting teaching work for either her or Ted without PhDs, which frustrated her. Plus ?a change, plus c’est la même chose, was my thought about her quote after getting a flurry of new year rejections – which I also got (albeit nice rejections):
“These job refusals plus a pile of rejections (of really fine poems, too) are enough to make me think the teaching profession is run by slick closed-shop businessmen and the literary magazines by jealous scared over-cerebral fashion-conscious idiots.”
Well, you can always count on Sylvia to cheer you up in the new year!
Poetry and Gardening – Things to Look Forward to in 2019
Now, since last year I did lots of individual poetry submissions (and even a couple of fiction subs) but not so many manuscript submissions, I’m going to take an ambitious stab at getting Flare out into the world and work on getting my in-process seventh manuscript finished (themes of witches, religion, nature, politics?) Some of my spring bulbs are already poking up out of the ground – it’s still the dark rainy season, but I’m feeling ready for spring! We planted 45 new bulbs last fall, and had a least a hundred in the ground from the last two years, so hoping for lots of hyacinths, daffodils, and tulips. Poetry and gardening have that in common – the more you put out there, you might get more rejections (unsuccessful bulbs) but also more to look forward to? How about you? What are you looking forward to in 2019?
Two End of the Year Poems in ACM, and Dreams, Goals, and Inspirations for 2019
- At December 29, 2018
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
2
Happy Almost New Year! New Year Poems up at ACM
I hope you’ve all had a wonderful holiday. I was thrilled to discover two year-end-themed poems up at Another Chicago Magazine, “Lights Out” and “Sitting by Yourself at the End of the World, I Mean Year.”? ACM has been one of my “goal” publications for a long time, so I’m thrilled!

“Sitting by Yourself at the End of the World, I Mean Year” from ACM

2019 Vision Board
New Year Inspirations, Action Plans, and Goals
It’s almost 2019, and if you’re like me (or January O’Neil, who has a cool “poetry action plan,”?you start thinking about your intentions for the year ahead – what you hope for, what you can plan for, what you are envisioning. This year’s Vision Board had a lot of animals in it, and more words about inspiration and creativity. I realized the last two years had been all about survival – first the liver tumors and the cancer diagnosis, then the surprise of neurological symptoms and the MS diagnosis. I’m hoping this coming year to be fewer doctor appointments, more wonder – less about survival, more about creating and befriending and embracing the world.
From the AWP conference in March in Portland to sending out two poetry manuscripts – one about the journey of the last two years and one about the history of women and witchcraft, which I was just shuffling through last night to think about organization and which poems to leave out and which to add. I’m going to get more serious about sending out both – I only sent out book manuscripts four times last year, but I sent out over 150 submissions (!!) total, including fiction and essay attempts, and published about fifty poems, which seems like an okay ratio, but I had no idea I had submitted so much.

Bobcat sighting in Woodinville
Other life goals include cultivating more friendships and socializing a little more, paying more attention to my body and treating it like something to take care of and not push, and spending some time (!!) meditating or doing something restful and creative every day, maybe even just five minutes of art or writing before bed. Also, trying to value my time more. One of the things about getting serious diagnoses is that it makes you re-think what you spend your time and energy on. What are the essential things for living for you? Spending time outside, reading good things, and time consciously building a life – whether that’s balance or motor-skill exercises, or reaching out to a new friend, or time spent noticing the new flowers in your garden to the kind of moon that rises. Or the visitors to your neighborhood – the day after Christmas, this bobcat visited our street!

Christmas Moon
A Quiet Christmas, and a Great Gift for Writers
Christmas was quiet – a sunny (!) Christmas Eve with a lovely church service with interpretive ballet, a retelling of the Christmas story, camels and baby goats and lots of candlelight singing – and dinner with my brother and sister-in-law, a beautiful almost-full yellow moon, and talking about our dreams. Glenn did? a great job as always with dinner (two whole ducks, asparagus and honey-roasted carrots, and cranberry tarts – plus, cracking open his Christmas port). I was lucky to receive LOTS of books this year, and Glenn got me a really special Christmas gift – a library book cart, yes, just like what they have at the library, because he worries about me trying to transport my reading material from one room to another – a pretty large stack of books. I thought it was perfect!
- Christmas book cart
- Christmas with Glenn, Mike and Loree
Anyway, I want to wish you a happy New Year! My traditions these days include eating grapes, black-eyed peas, and a toast at midnight, even if we’re at home at midnight. (We’re planning a low-key visit to a local wine bar with live music, so we can enjoy a little festivity without too much drama…) Also, sleeping in New Year’s Day seems important! May 2019 bring us a better year for all. Leave your inspirations/goals/dreams for 2019 in the comments!
온라인카지노 사이트추천New Interview with Bekah Steimel, Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas and Almost New-Year with Sylvia Plath-style Dreams and Goals

Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice from the Pacific Northwest
?? Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas, and almost New Year!
First of all, hope you are all doing well and celebrating the holiday season with a little rest and relaxation and even a little poetry!
Here in Seattle a lot of people celebrate the Solstice, along with other traditional holidays, the longest night of the year – I think because the long dark feels more intense out here, especially when sunset is around 4 PM. This solstice we had sunsets, hummingbirds (and coyote howls), a full moon, and even cherry blossoms on a neighbor’s tree down the street! It’s a good time to think about our dreams and goals for the next year – which I did this year with a little help from Sylvia Plath. More about that later!
- Solstice Blooms – Cherry Blossoms on my street
- Sunset at Kirkland
- Solstice Colf Wolf Moon
- Solstice Humminbird
Interview with Bekah Steimel
Thank you to 온라인카지노 사이트추천Bekah Steimel for doing this interview with me! I hope you enjoy it! I talk a little bit about my best advice for poets and my time working as Redmond’s Poet Laureate. There’s also a little poem for the resistance!
Field Guide to the End of the World on End-of-the-Year Gift Guide
Also, thanks to Serena Agusto-Cox for including Field Guide to the End of the World on her 2018 Holiday Gift Guide.?
Field Guide to the End of the World is a good book to read this time of year – it’s all about weathering disasters and apocalypses of various kinds. I’ve been reading, along with Plath’s letters, several apocalypse-y books, including M Archive: After the End of the World by Alexis Pauline Gumbs and the always mildly apocalyptic Murakami’s Killing Commendatore and we all know how much fun it is during the holidays to shut off all the noise (televisions, phones, etc) and spend some of that “darkness” time catching up on reading!
Talking Plans, Dreams and Goals with Sylvia Plath
So, one of the traditions as we head towards the new year is talking about our dreams, plans, and goals for the new year. Someone posted this from Sylvia Plath’s journal on Twitter, and I found another list from her school days in my own copy of her unabridged journals (click on each to enlarge):
- From Sylvia Plath’s journal, appendix: Program for winning friends
- From Sylvia Plath’s journal, appendix: Back to School Commandments
No one was more ambitious than Sylvia, so we can all learn a little something from the lists, also, it’s always good advice to work on our inner lives and listen more (plus, French every day!)
So I spent my time thinking about what I wanted from 2019, what I wanted to accomplish, what I wanted to toss from this year, and what I have learned (besides not to date any guys named Hamish!)
Looking to 2019
I sat around a candle with a hot cider and thought hard about what I wanted. My dreams and goals may seem less ambitious than in years past – for instance, I want to spend less time in hospitals than I did the last two years, obviously (a modest goal for some – big ambition for me.) To do that, I need to practice a whole heck of a lot of self-care with MS, like, resting more, eating an MS-friendly diet (brains like avocado, blueberries and protein, apparently), doing my physical therapy, and choosing to surround myself with people who are a real support.
As far as writing goals go, we’ve got AWP coming to Portland in March 2019, so I’m hoping to make it to that and do some socializing, catch up with friends, and look at new journals and publishers at the Bookfair. I plan to finish up a seventh book manuscript and hopefully find a great publisher for manuscript six. I do want, like Sylvia, to make smart choices about people – I want to practice kindness and encouragement towards others, say thank you more often, and reach out and make new friends (don’t want to totally go the Emily Dickinson sickly-recluse route until I absolutely have to.) I want to try publishing essays and short stories as well.
Taking our writing seriously – like, carving out time to, as Sylvia says, “WRITE” – and submit work – which, from reading her letters and journals, I know she also took seriously. She reminds me to aim high, but also, not to isolate myself, which can lead to trouble, and she also represents what happens when you spend too much time trying to fulfill other people’s expectations of what you are supposed to be. (Embrace your strangeness, rather than spend energy hiding it.)? I was surprised this week to receive two surprise gifts from friends who live far away – and that reminded me I am blessed to have wonderful writer friends all across the country.
I want to spend more time appreciating the good things – spending time in nature, with my loved ones, just in general celebrating the good days. I know the holidays can be a tough time for people – a time when what we don’t have seems to be highlighted. As someone with a chronic illness, it’s hard not to worry about the future, especially with an incurable degenerative disease like Multiple Sclerosis. But I have hope. We have more medications and more tools, more research than we used to, and I have faced health challenges in the past. Even with the political turmoil in our country (and beyond) over the past two years, I try to have hope.
There’s a verse from Psalm 30 that says something like “Darkness may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” Wishing you all more joy and less darkness in 2019.