Is this the first day of winter?

The cold front has moved in and brought the rain. Where was all this rain when we needed it over the summer? Our Texas forests burned unchecked for weeks and people feared for their lives. Well it is here now and I am thankful. On to better days and nights of cooler weather.

This is what I do

Last night I went to Taft St. Coffee house to hear some poetry from the local poet's scene. It was amazing! I have been a part of another poet's group that meets every month for the past three years. While I have learned a great deal from that group and we have formed a bond it was refreshing to go out and hear other voices. I was particulary impressed with a young group of poets who call their group Meta-Four. They are talented, fresh, and speak directly from the heart. Sometimes I think the world of writers is such a lonely one and we hole up in our rooms writing our poems and it gets frustrating when the words just won't form a cohesive flow. I know I sometimes feel my poetry is forced. But these energetic young people have that spark that comes from youth and their experiences. It's great. I enjoyed myself and they just serve as inspiration to keep doing what I do.

What do you do?

I have been teaching for the better part of a decade. Now I am without a job. The teaching crisis is at its full peak. Our law-makers consider education the last priority and have decided it's okay to fire teachers and cram more students into a classroom. So I am facing unemployment, general anxiety about the future, and a sense of floundering. What else can I do? I am a teacher. I love being a teacher. Maybe it's time to focus my energies on other things.

Has it been that long?

I stayed away too long. I have no real excuse only to say I had other committments I needed to take care of that took priority. Anyways, I am back. Although, I warn you I may disappear again. I attended an art show yesterday. I missed it. God, I didn't know how much I missed it until I was there among the artists and in their studios. I used to be married to an artist and we attended art shows every week. Ten years I did the dutiful wife thing and stood by my artist husband and attended all his openings, his friends' openings, the open studios arts' day, etc...Then we divorced I closed myself off from the art scence for another ten years. Yesterday I got a taste for the life again. I can't live without poetry, art, or music in my life. It is something that resides deep within me and I have to free the creative mind in order to get on with my life.