Friday, July 13, 2012

Spilled Honey

No use crying over spilled milk, they say. But what about honey? Today was an unlucky Friday the 13th for a truckdriver around here, whose semi rolled over, spilling its cargo of honey.

But some of us were luckier. I got to see my mom in a play tonight, drinking hard lemonade and threatening to parade around naked as a jaybird. Got to see an old friend, playwright Doug Post, who had come down to Normal from Chicago, to speak about playwrighting as the final judge in Heartland Theatre's New Plays from the Heartland event. Got to see lots of fine writing and marvelous acting + the throwing of vegetables onstage. It was sold out tonight, and I think they have only 8 seats left for tomorrow.

And I am lucky to be up today in Tampa Review Online--with the fabulous nickname TRON! My poems "Undertow" and "Renewal of Vows" are presented with the paintings that inspired them. These are both poems I had faith in, sending them out patiently till they could find the right home. I have revised them gradually over time, trying to get just the right mood, tone, and detailed rendering of the painting through the eyes and voice of a speaker at a certain emotional moment (or layered moment) in time.

I'm lucky the poems found the right home, and doubly lucky to see them posted just as I was pondering poet Molly Spencer's blog entry on the patience and persistence of sending work out to relentless rejection...and how to handle that. So good luck and moral support to Molly!

6 comments:

Collagemama said...

I love Winslow Homer, especially the watercolors. Got to view the George Bellows exhibit at the National Gallery last week. Blown away by the limited earth pigment palette landscapes and the tenement drawings. Your poem is slippery and salty.

Kathleen said...

Many thanks!

Bethany Reid said...

I loved both of these poems. The painting of the men working, and the subtext of work pulled me in. And have I told you I've been dreaming lately of the ocean? Thanks for both poem and painting.

Kathleen said...

Thank you, Bethany!

Molly said...

Thanks for the moral support, Kathleen! I love both the poems you have in TRON - congrats!

Kathleen said...

You are most welcome, and thank you, both for the congrats and the chance to ponder the question of what to do with rejection and how to have faith in our poems....!