Thankful Thursday: Ordinary Genius & Writing Dates

I met with Martha Silano yesterday for good conversation and some writing too.

We situated ourselves in a French cafe that doesn't just serve French food at a large table that could hold both of our laptops.

It was good to see her.  I needed to discuss some mom/poet stuff with another mompoet.  It's amazing how checking in with someone else can help me feel better.

We used Kim Addonizio's book, Ordinary Genius to help us revise two poems-- Make a short poem longer and make a long poem shorter.  I had heard good things about this book, but never owned a copy.  After browsing through Marty's, I'm buying a copy for myself today.  (Martha said it's one of her favorites.)

Also, while revising these two poems, I went into my New Work file and found 2 other poems I had written but forgot about (and never moved over to my "Done" file), so I now have 2 extra poems added to my work-in-progress manuscript.  (For me, finding a completed or almost completed poem in my "New Work" file is similar to finding a $20 bill in my pants pocket.)

After a few hours in the restaurant (we were there so long, I ordered both breakfast and lunch, then we finished with a keylime tart for dessert), we headed over the Starbucks.  Marty pulled out a bag of Dove chocolates and we made ourselves comfy at a small table where we wrote longhand instead of on our laptops.

So that was my writing day, a sort of mini-retreat with good coffee and conversation in a busy world.


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