Medusa's Head

A big part of what I learned in my MFA program was how to emotionally detach myself from my poems and see them as my readers would so that I could better revise them. When I was writing lyrics about museum visits and mockingbirds, this worked. By my third year in the program, I chafed in workshops, receiving critique that pointed to problems I already saw or that were informed by a different aesthetic. I had already seen the reflection of my poem that was going to be offered to me by eyes that I had internalized or rejected. And then I had a miscarriage. And then I had kids. And then my marriage matured out of its now-uncomplicated-seeming first few years. And then I started to become estranged from part of my family. The emotional detachment that I had learned to apply to my work—an art product crafted out of visual stimulus and some kind of feeling of insight from my lyric self—I could not apply to my life. My poetry began to flesh out and give voice to the parts of myself I ...

So our time here in DC is almost 2/3 done! We'll be moving summer of 2013, and it looks like Montgomery, AL is going to be home for a little while. Probably. I've checked out this neighborhood in Montgomery called Old Cloverdale that seems awesome. It's got its own gardening group, and house tours, and outdoor musical events, and restaurants, and is not too far away from a Montessori school for Jefferson, although it is on the whole other side of town from the only Catholic school with a kindergarten. So there's that. The premature house search/droolfest has begun! So far I'm in love with one Colonial Revival and a couple Arts and Crafts Revivals that are huge, cheap, and slightly delapidated. And a beautiful Victorian in downtown Montgomery, although I don't know anything about the neighborhood. And one in the Garden District , which had an interesting write-up on ThisOldHouse.com. If I can find one without lead, asbestos, or a leaky roof, we're go...