Morning Garden

This past weekend I went to the Morning Garden Writers Retreat, hosted by Jennifer Jean. Located in Gloucester, MA (about 10 miles from my house), I spent two days in the company of 15 writers and visual artists envisioning, creating, and commiserating, as we artists tend to do.

The retreat came at a particularly good time for me, with this year’s Mass Poetry Festival and my semester grading over. I needed take a moment and make some decisions about how I wanted to approach my writing during the summer. Since the kids are in school until June 30—Thanks, Old Man Winter—I have a long stretch of time with hours to myself. It would be so easy to waste the time. But at the retreat I was able to kickstart things by whipping my third manuscript into shape.


The last time I grouped poems together for m'script #3 was last August. And when it did, it still didn’t make much sense to me, but it was progress. Since then, I’ve written about 70 poems (yes, 70!). Many of them about snow or turkeys. Many of them bad. So it was time to rip the m’script apart and redo it. I won’t lie—it was hard. Took me about four hours on Saturday morning. But I’m happy with the order, which may change. For now, it makes sense.



At first, I wasn’t sure if now was the right time for this. I had a handful of must-do items on my list that need attention. Not to mention that it was Mother’s Day weekend. But I wrapped up my time early on Sunday morning, and in the afternoon took the kids to see Avengers: Age of Ultron.--my Mother’s Day wish!

So for now, the well is full and there’s a plan in place. Bring on summer!

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