Wednesday, July 1, 2009

End of the residency

I took a strong liking to the end of the residency, but not because I was sick of it, I was just too exhausted to continue going for even another day or two--it really did end at the perfect time.

Now I'm not exhausted with poetry or overwhelmed with the work and the daunting task of writing, creating and reading that is stacking higher and higher everyday, I was more exhausted from the commuting and the immediate life-shift that happened to me when I arrived there. No more was I "Jeff the sad unemployed freelance writer and future teacher," I was "Jeff the optimistic and rearin'-to-go prospective poet."

I tried to give as much astute insight as I could there, and felt for a while that my comments were some of the most valuable and most crucial for the success of my peers' work, but there were a lot of BIG things that I missed. Needless to say, I felt less than intelligent after some of these comments and recommendations, and I came away feeling that my own work needed, well, a lot of work.

While the comments that I got last semester I largely disagreed with (from all that I've read in magazines/journals, in poetry books, and in what I have received as criticism from my other readers), I have to admit the level of criticism rose this current semester and became a lot more intricate.

I will write more, and in more detail, perhaps tonight, but for now, it's off to the shower and to camp, which has become a fabulous summertime experience. The pace is fast (it keeps the kids entertained a lot better than the other camp that I previously worked at), and the weather has been so-so (it's currently raining and 73 today.)

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