What have I been doing?

Heck if I know! Not writing, or it feels like I haven't been writing.

But I have been cooking. This morning, it was brunch.

Scones, a spinach, onion, mushroom and sun-dried tomato quiche, fruit salad, and green salad.

In other food news, Dana sent me information about a healthy recipe contest sponsored by the Kidney Health Fest for African American Families. I don't know whether I'll be able to provide an entry (it won't be quiche), and I'm not sure I can do anything that's low on the sodium side, but I wanted to pass the word along.

Now, I'm going to write. Really.

Poets and painters

Over on One Poet's Notes, Edward Byrne posts about Frank O'Hara and Grace Hartigan.

I'm loving this crazy weather we're having

Keep track of your drafts (or How to avoid being buried in paper)

A while ago, I posted a link to a video about using OneNote to keep track of notes. At the time, I mentioned that next I would show you how I use OneNote to write poetry.

Here it is:
Poetry notes with OneNote

How did this come about? A group of us were talking about wanting to keep old drafts and then trying to manage all the versions and the stacks of paper. I told about how I'd switched over to using OneNote, and people wanted to know more. I can explain it, and I'm always happy to, but it's so much more convincing in action.

If you've already seen me post this link elsewhere 25 times—well, I'm just pretty excited about it.

What do you think? How do you manage your drafts?

Next up: How to pull all your poems (or chapters or recipes) into a single manuscript, with page numbers and a table of contents and everything.

Over and over, again and again

I've heard it said that we write the same poem over and over again—maybe in different guises, but it's really the same poem.

I've been struggling with this series I've been working on, or this group of poems written around a theme. I've been trying to make some of them fit, and trying to make some of them poems.

Halfway through, I suddenly decided that the heart of this group, the theme, was not what I first thought it was. I started writing about Autumn and a pond and some pears (and some other things), and then I decided that it was really about my son leaving for college.

Good to know.

But now, I'm back to the pond. And I realize that, right now, that's all I want to write about. Every day. I'm not just writing the same poem in different guises—I'm writing the same poem.

And I'm happy about it. I'm going to keep writing it for as long as I want.

What about you? Do you ever feel like you're writing the same poem over and over? Do you ever write the same poem again and again on purpose?

Two poems online

Yes, I'm telling everyone, because I'm so happy that two poems from the manuscript (yes, the manuscript) are now online at The Wild Goose Poetry Review.

Such a nice way to start a week.