Confession Tuesday - Baseball is coming you cannot deny.

Dear Reader:

It's been one House Intelligence Committee Hearing, two winning games of Canasta with my mom, one episode of Madam Secretary, one trash pickup day,  a Saturday night poetry reading and an hour and a half phone call with my mentor since my last confession.

One of my highlights of any week is watching Madam Secretary.  The plot is always intriguing and grounded with a touch of reality. I give the writers and the actors a lot of credit. Often it will touch on something that we are simultaneously dealing with in the real world. I confess that is doesn't hurt that Tea Leon is Hot!

The proximity of April closing in leaves me with a decision to make. Do I undertake 30 poems in April. One a day? Sometimes I will make a pledge to do this. Sometimes I make it and sometimes I don't. Then starts the guilt. I confess this decision is a lot like the agony over  New Years Resolutions. Sometimes I just  try to take the pressure off by saying I don't need to make a resolution  to try and have a better new year. Just go with it. I've done the same with the Poem -A-Day.  Try, but don't  hold yourself to it... the world does not hinge on 30 poems.  But hey, I've got a couple more days to decide.

I ordered a copy of Marie Howe's new book, Magdalene. Howe is among my favorite poets and I confess that I am most anxious to read this book. It's release date was yesterday and I should have my copy by tomorrow. I Hope!

An hour and a half on the phone this week in a single call with my mentor and the talk revolved around craft, a particular poem draft I had written and poets read & reading. I confess that I have mixed feelings about the conversation.

Baseball season is closing in fast on us. You know those pictures of a space ship docking with another, or even the space station?  That's what it seems like. Going so fast two two will collide, and then in the end, it all looks like it is so soft and precise a fit together. You just  watch and say wow!  I confess I am in a wow mode!

That's it for this week -  Hope you all stay safe and happy...

Confession Tuesday - Corrosive Thought

Dear Reader:

It's been a couple more Trump campaign  links to Russia, a whole bunch of March Hoops, Two contacts with my mentor, a shitload of writing and maybe two promising drafts  and one week since my last confession.

For some reason the word cohesiveness came to me this week. I confess it was like it came out of nowhere and slapped me in the back of the head. So obviously I had it's full attention at this point.
I thought about what  it's like to be corrosive. I pictured a metal platform being eaten away by corrosive elements much the same way an old car will develop rust spots often called car cancer. Then I thought why a platform and I realized I was standing on it. Something clicked in my head and I decided this is what was holding me up... the platform. And to my dismay it was crumbling under me.

Sometimes I question my personal compass. Am I pointed the right direction? Now my fear was, am I standing where I shouldn't be? Am I not on a good platform or foundation for where I hope to be going?

I've written a lot this past week. I've not liked most of what I've written, and that is okay because that is going to happen. But I do get tired of it when this stretches on for some weeks  (which periodically happens) and it has a way of  making me second guess things. I confess that as the Writer 2 Writer module moves to # 3 where we focus on craft, I think maybe I am supposed to be having these self doubts and asking myself questions. Well, I confess it will give me a reason to talk craft with Ken.

On an uplifting note, one day this week I got a book and went out onto the deck and took in the springlike weather with a nice breeze. I read a while and then just listened to the birds and watched the trees in the breeze with their buds coming out.   On another, in early evening looking out westward I observed the sky as a mirage of the painted desert.  I confess life can amaze me even when I'm on the cusp of falling through my platform.

My best to each till next time...