PostPandemic time is weird. The youngest woke up with her continuing saga of drainage and cough, so we tested her for COVID. Is that even a thing people do anymore? Test for COVID? Regardless of the results, I had no plans to take her to church [my lovely spiritual family is full of elderly and vulnerable people] because even a cold can be devastating to the immunocompromised.
But apparently we’re in the age of ‘play at your own risk,’ and I’m supposed to move forward and not worry about any of the rest of you. And that is so weird to me. That we emerged from the most devastating outbreak since the 1920s even more selfish than when we entered.
She tested negative, BTW, and other than the occasional cough and the clear evidence of heavy drainage in her voice, seems otherwise fine.
I DID actually write a poem last year that I had forgotten–I’ll share it here: Pandemic is a 4-letter Word. It was a poem that I originally told as a ‘swipe poem’ on instagram. You can visit that version here. [turns out I wrote that poem even further back than I realized, as the post-date is 2021]
What does this little Sunday morning incident have to do with anything? Nothing, really. It’s just life. And I, a poet, have to somehow carve out a creative practice between the kleenex and cough drops, between the papers that have to be graded and the 3 recommendation letters I wrote in a 24-hour period (because WHY do they always wait ‘til the last minute, yes, I could say NO but I don’t because REASONS too bulky to dwell on here).
Understand, I do not resent these calls upon my time and energy. I CHOOSE these actively.
It’s more like I still believe, naively, that I CAN do MORE… I just haven’t figured it out yet. Here’s some results that have already occurred since I wrote my first Motherwrit entry:
- I’ve been thinking and taking notes all week about the revitalization of this blog
- I picked up a couple more books (as one does) that might have some answers
- Banish Your Inner Critic
- Core Creativity
- I’ve chosen a tentative schedule, to write the blog entry on Thursday evenings, to be posted on Sundays
- I said NO to something because it stressed me to plan out the submission without any specific work to hand (could I use old work: yes; did I have the technical ‘know-how’ to do what I imagined: no)
- I agreed to read some work in an incredibly low-key venue for the end of the month (ohdeargawdWHATdidIDO)
Here’s one principle of creativity that seems to be true for ME:
Assignments with Deadlines WORK.
I don’t know if it’s a result of being a teacher all these years, but I respond to the necessity of an ‘assignment.’ It’s like the finite commitment of time, the parameters of the expectations, function like blinders. So hey. That’s progress, right?
In other news, I collaborated with photographer Amanda Pfister several years ago. Visit here to see more OR if you’re in the Wichita area, you can see a partial hanging of the project at the Ulrich Museum of Art as part of the Faculty Biennial XXIV: Transmissions (Jan 26-April 22nd). Go Here if you want to read more about the show and other upcoming events: The Ulrich Museum of Art.
April Pameticky 