Thursday, May 22, 2008

sweeping down the plain




I'm not so good with this, I guess. The upside, however, is that I've been focusing more writing energy on poems. This is good. Very good. This is especially good because in just over three months, I'll be sitting in my first graduate poetry workshop with some brilliant writers and I don't want to embarrass myself. In other words, I'm moving to Amherst, Mass., in August to start an MFA program in poetry. I will also be adopting the teacherly legacy passed down from everyone in my immediate family (read: everyone); this means that I'll be teaching a section of freshman writing. I am honored and thrilled and nervous about all prospects. More about this later.

In the meantime, I'm going to Oklahoma. Tomorrow. When I land in Tulsa, Brian will greet me and I will be whisked away to meet the rest of the Jones clan. Already I have been promised the best barbequed meat of my life, the best steak of my life, and a very epic tour of Oral Roberts University. While I'm excited that multiple promises involve meat (and the other involves a nefarious Charismatic Christian institution with a 200-foot-tall "prayer tower"), ultimately I'm looking forward to finally meeting his family. To quell the pressure and anxiety, brian insists that they already think lowly of me, so really I can only rise in their estimations. Inspiring.