Yeah, I know, it's over today. Like everything, I'm coming late to the party.
It was a busy month for me, with my husband working long, long hours for the first two weeks, then a trip to Vancouver, then the Po Fest, and now I'm in Banff. To write. Alone.
I now have time (time!) to do things like enjoy the fabulous archive of over thirty poets reading at Seen Reading and I've also began to read some of the interviews with poets over at the National Post blog.
I'm also excited about diving into all the poetry books I bought over the last month. (If you're interested, you can see the list here.)
On the mom-side of life, I have been asked to contribute to a new blog for Canadian mothers. My second post, a short one about poetry for children, can be found here.
I'm now four days in to Banff, four days away from my boys. It's hard, but it has also been freeing in a way I find unsettling. I won't go into it now, but I'm sure any of you readers who are both mothers and writers can understand. Kevin will be bringing them to Banff on Mother's Day and we will be together as a family for the week.
In celebration of that day, I'm going to have a small give-away. I have briefly mentioned before that I am having a new chapbook published. If you'd like your very own copy, please leave a comment on this post and tell me something, anything to do with motherhood and writing--your favourite writing mama, a quote from one of the interviews, a poem about creativity, anything. Comments will close at midnight on Mother's Day and I'll draw the name later in the week. The chapbooks are very beautiful and are a limited edition of 100, all handsigned and numbered by moi.
5 comments:
I won't tell you anything, having divulged entirely too much as it is, but I will insist that you sell me a chapbook!
I'd love a copy, so I'll tell you something! I read "A Book Full of Pictures" by Charles Simic recently, in which "Mother knitted." It has stuck with me. You can read it here.
I would, of course, be delighted to have a chapbook (gorgeous), but more than anything am so happy that you have created a forum about mama-writers.
In reading the interviews and reflecting on my own balance - or lack thereof! - the constant that jumps out at me is very simple. Motherhood makes me ache for an outlet, because the sheer honour and responsibility of witnessing my two little ones grow is so intense, so awesome (in the "awe" sense). But writing makes me ache for my children, as they teach me enormously about the ingredients of good reads: humour, love, moral codes, the value of the itty-bitty. Writing and motherhood fuel each other, each better off for the existence of the other.
Warm wishes to you.
Reading the interviews I find myself cheering for all of these amazing women. What an awesome project this is!
When I first became a parent I wept with relief when I found parenting blogs that spoke of my daily bizarre and beautiful experiences. I feel similar relief to have tripped over this corner of the Internet, though it is relief tinged with longing and sadness because I miss writing.
And I love a poem by Robyn Sarah called Maintenance, which begins:
Sometimes the best I Can do
is homemade soup, or a patch on the knee of the baby's overalls.
Things you couldn't call poems.
Things that spread in the head,
that swallow
whole afternoons, weigh down the week
till the elastic's gone right out of it -
so gone
it doesn't even snap when it breaks.(some of those line breaks a victim of formatting)
Talk about coming late to the party... I missed out on the give away. But I hope you had a great time in Banff!
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