More about Wellfleet

First, I must stand corrected on my last post.  Charles says he is in the club too;  both men and women talk to him now about Zi and their children.  So, it is not a gender thing.  (Thanks Lori, for your confirmation of this as well).

Okay, so I promised I would write about Wellfleet, and I've needed this month to really think it through, and to deal with losing Phoenix immediately after our return.  And here's what I've come up with.

When I finished my undergraduate degree, I applied to all the best MFA programs.  I did not get into any of them.  If I go back now and read the poems I was writing, it is no wonder.  I was not young, but I had not learned much discipline in my writing.  I am better now, but discipline is still a struggle for me.  So, in graduate school (more at UTD than Auburn because there were just more creative writers there), I learned about workshops.  I learned how to take advice from other students but to still hold onto my voice.  But, if I'm honest, mostly I learned that workshops gave me structure and deadlines (the discipline I lacked).

So, when I applied to have a one week intensive workshop with a few other poets and Marge Piercy, I really was still looking for that..structure.  A motivation tool to get me working on my poems again.  What I got was what I expect people in MFA programs get.  A week with a whole group of talented writers and a mentor who is a major American poet.  What I loved about Marge is that she is a no bullshit woman.  If she likes a poem or a line she says so.  If she doesn't like it, she says so.  There was no time for anything else.  Not only does this help improve a workshop, it is a great way to live life.

And this is my challenge to myself:  stop the bullshit.

In the south, to be impolite is a sin.  But, I never felt Marge was impolite.  Instead, she was kind but honest.  I have spent most of my life bending over backward to make myself seem easy to get along with.  I have spent thousands of hours spending time with people I don't like because I felt I should.

No more.

So, if I call you or come see you, it will now only be because I want to.  And if you think you look fat in that dress, don't ask me, because you probably do and I will kindly tell you, yes.  :)  Okay, maybe I'm not quite that far progressed yet, but that is the ultimate goal.

And, of course, Wellfleet was absolutely gorgeous. Amazing what a town can do when it decides it doesn't want any chain restaurants or big condominiums built there.  It is nice to know that somewhere in this country people still believe that a beach without buildings is worth protecting.

Oh, and I also wrote some amazing poems.

I recently heard a great answer to the does this make me look fat question:  no, the jeans don't make you look fat, your fat makes you look fat.