It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Midterms

everywhere you go...
There's a kid with an online test,
trying to do his best,
in tears because his download speed is slow!

It's beginning to look a lot like midterms:
soon the sobs will start,
and the thing that make them stop
are the caffeine pills you pop--
don't mind the racing heart...

A pair of essays to write
and a flu bug to fight
are the curse of every coed;
group projects to do,
no one working but you
make you want to bang walls with your head;
and now you're sexiled from your room
so your roomie can "study" in bed!

It's beginning to look a lot like midterms--
stress that you can't shake...
But just hold on for a week
and the leisure that you seek
will be yours: Fall Break!


Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are in midterms week here at the University of Notre Dame. Once again it is very strange to watch the undergrads in the painful throes of exams and projects while not having any to do myself. I mean, I do have a paper for my one and only bitchin' hard class, Poetry and Theory, but that isn't due until the Friday after break. Anticipate a rant and breakdown right around next Monday. Maybe Weds, since I tend not to have rants/breakdowns/conversations on Mondays or Tuesdays. You know, because of Studio 60 on Monday and Veronica Mars & Nip/Tuck on Tuesdays. So plan on a Wednesday rant.

I was really panicked about two weeks ago, thinking that I had nothing to offer the world of poetry, and that my thesis wasn't ever going to get done because I was writing only crap, based upon the responses and intense amounts of criticism from my thesis director. *Don't point out to me that criticism, particularly of me, is his job; I know that...its usefulness and accuracy don't make it any easier to accept.* However, in the thesis meeting after that, he noted the improvement in my writing, particularly in my revisions, and said that I have about 20 poems that are almost ready to go--only minor revisions necessary--for my thesis. 20 poem. That's between 25 and 30%, and I still have three months to finish the rest. This is awesome, particularly since I've given myself permission to write what I want: to be quirky or light if that's what I'm feeling, to have a tone shift in a poem (as long as the voice/speaker is unified, which may or may have been the problem before), to use Spanish or not as the poem moves me...these things are all aspects of poetry that I had been denying because I was trying to make my work sound like everyone else's, which is just silly when only one of my multitudinous personalities is anything like anyone else really long sentence that won't seem to die and yet must die right about now. So yeah...having given myself permission to write my poetry, instead of what I think other people think my poetry should be, I'm inspired to write more often, and far more willing to work on the finer points of craft, since I'm interested in the material.

Having spent now three hours in a variety of procrastinatory activities--talking to friends, reading the newspaper (all of it...the Trib and the Times), reading about Studio 60 again--I should probably get some work done before I succumb to temptation and go see Open Season. Talking deer, wussy bears and squirrels with Scottish accents: what's not to love?

Song of the moment: "The Internet is for Porn"~Avenue Q

If You Like Pina Coladas...

And who doesn't? I mean, seriously.

So, tonight's episode of Veronica Mars is definitely a step in the right direction...quite the turnaround from last week. I couldn't be more pleased.

Problem is, I really want to share the best parts, but with the advent of TiVo and DVR, it's possible that people, even those in my time zone, might not be up to speed, and I certainly don't want to spoil it. So I won't, however much pain it brings me.

On the bright side, I've been having a fairly prolific week, as far as writing goes. I'll put the poems up in a bit, but the best part of it all is that I've done it because of--not in spite of--spending hours in front of the television. Let me explain: yesterday, there were a couple of specials on the History Channel...episodes of a series called "Engineering an Empire." Those featured were Rome, with the marvels of Hadrian's wall and the Pantheon, etc. Then on to the Egyptians, and all of the pyramids, the dams, the mud ramps and sand traps to prop obelisques... Very cool. They also shared some smatterings of information about the various reigns of emperors and pharoahs, and that's where the poems originated. It's nice to know that I can write at least some of my sloth off as research for my job which is, of course, writing. At least until May.

Lessons of Empire
Rome

1
the victor in any decent fratricide
will not simply etch out his brother's name
paint a new face on a familial body

no

a good political murder requires evidence
a chipped stone
smudged ink
a brother beheaded in effigy

evidence
anyone can be erased


2
while the baths may be for everyone

warm water spilling from tilted jars
and flowered fountains
steam beading on marble facades
rising to painted dome heavens

someone must stoke the fires

senators will always leave their stains
in the bath house
in the heated sweat of coal caked slaves
the open mouths of bath house queens


3
without water
even a gilt kingdom
will crumble like poorly
mixed concrete

aqueducts are a necessary beauty
an exposed vein
begging for a razor



Stay tuned for Egypt, currently a work in progress.

Song of the moment: "Right Here Waiting for You"~Richard Marx