Monday, April 28, 2008

blessings

The Lord is giving to us daily.

Quick announcement, then I must run away to a poetry workshop.

While I was in South Carolina (note: I did not make the trip just for this) I was able to attend the SC Poetry Book prize winning announcement. This year's judge was Elizabeth Alexander (announced the week before they announced the winner), who is my idol, whom I adore and read her critical and poetic works.

There was a reading and music and food and fellowship. I had a friend with me, though, unsure of the results, I failed to invite my parents because I believed it would be boring to them.

After Elizabeth's great reading, she announced who she chose for the 2008 book prize winner.

My manuscript, How God Ends Us was chosen as the winner. I was estactic and still cannot believe it, really.

Look for my book due out in early 2009. Lots of work to be done!

Yay God, yay universe, yay blessings.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

homecoming

so my kids in nyc are on spring break. i decided that i needed some fresh air (literally and figuratively) from nyc and nj and everything around it, so i decided to come home. i should say, too, it's mostly because i was homesick and didn't want to admit it, but now being home, i'm realizing it really was mostly being homesick, missing the people who love me most, and being around family.

i'm saddened by the number of times i blog somewhere about a death in my life/family. i had another relative pass away while i was home. i can't say i didn't know it was coming. i sort of felt it. i felt it in my bones, in an unexplainable feeling i get when i feel the universe shift. it happens that i feel like crap and then the answer reveals itself. so another family member is gone, and there's this void...ut it's interesting how a void builds a bond. how the maintenance of the universe works so that because no energy is ever lost, there is a building when there is a destroying, and each family member is filling in the certain spaces, the voids.

it's also interesting to see how my role in the family shifts as i come home each time, or during a time of duress. my father is the rock. i am the pebble by the rock. they look to me to keep everything together, to be strong. it's interesting: here i am strong (by here i mean my current location, home, SC). when i'm away, i'm increasingly weak. Perhaps the strength is in family.

it is. i miss it. i almost don't want to go back to new jersey.