February 5, 2010

Do-mess-ticity








Himself: Swam, coffeed, worked on kitchen cupboard.

Herself: The day before I struggled with my new used iron to keep it going. Yesterday: Swam, coffeed, joined the literary ladies, cooked using the new shelves….gosh how handy, read.

Reading: An old DE Stevenson. Ordered two used Cadells online. I love used hardbounds for a buck fifty.

Balance: The almost done feeling of the kitchen project.

Every time I come up the stairs, I see something new in this stitchery of Duck’s. I smile. For just a moment yesterday when I sat in the living room enjoying the Guatemalan stitchery near a pillow with the same colors, I had that same comfortable and happy feeling.

I had that same feeling of satisfaction yesterday after reading my rewritten poem on escalators to the literary ladies.

Oh, they shredded me up this side and down that. Then after picking at the remains, they asked me to read it again. At the very end, they were debating this and that until they changed the title. I learned a lot…for why else does one go to a workshop but to be worked over.

I’m encouraged. My goal this year is to publish a chapbook of my work, and this positive response gives me enthusiasm to keep on keeping on. PoeWar says, in an October 8, 2007 article by J.C. Hewitt:

“…A chapbook is …created by folding standard 8 1/2 x 11…paper in half so that you create a shape close to that of a common paperback book. By doing this, a single sheet of paper yields four pages of a book. You then bind the multiple pages together by stapling along the crease of the sheets of paper. A mere eight sheets of paper can create a 32 page chapbook. Because of the limitations of the stapling and folding process, chapbooks tend to run about 32 pages and rarely more than 64 pages. In addition to standard sheets of paper, you may wish to create a cover using thicker....cover-stock paper.”

I pulled one of Georgannna Holmes' chapbooks off my shelves to count the pages. She has not only a cover using a lovely, rich stock and unique illustration, but a blank first sheet, a title page, and forty new poems all on one topic. I’m not that good, or prolific, or organized. Still, it will be an affirmation of my work to complete one slender chap book on any gathering of topics.

I’ll be up here later comfortable counting poems yet again, counting words, fitting my domesticities on a page, or 32 pages.


2 comments:

  1. I think it is truly art when you look at something and it continues to tell you new stuff. I also think it is neat that you participate in a poetry group. I don't think they have anything like that near here...wonder how to find out?

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  2. I love the sunflower stitchery!!!

    And I like your idea of a chapbook. Makes me wonder if I should make one. I found an old folder of poetry I wrote long ago and ideas kept popping in my brain as I read about your chapbook.

    Thanks!!!!!!

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