I just got done opening the mail.

As of late, I have been literally swamped by mail. Not the email kind, but the real, made-of-paper, in different handwritings and stylings, and in different folds and various sized envelopes.

The kind that comes with stamps.

It's been damp outside recently, and some of the paper has that little bit of roughness, that curl-up and dried feel to it. Like the fake money you bought at the 8th grade field trip to Gettysburg.

It's that kind of thing, and it makes me happy.

ruffling her papers. (It's the Cindy version of feathers, really.)

Where I'm From

after George Ella Lyon

I am from railroad tracks and whirligigs, from blue glass
Ball mason jars full of cat's eye marbles and old buttons,
from my mother's Tupperware parties.
I am from tongue and groove paneling
(shiny maple, put there by my grandfather
when his hands were strong and young).
I am from wisteria and milkweed
and planting petunias in flower beds each spring.

I'm from staying up late, fresh kettle popcorn,
real melted butter and shiny, salty fingers,
from Flip Kelly, Uncle Bub and Great Aunt Mary Davis.
I'm from big-mouths and bull-heads,
from don't-cut-paper-with-my-sewing-scissors
and stand-up-straight.

I am from the Moonlight Sonata
on the upright Wurlitzer my grandmother gave me
because my mother never learned to play,
from macramé and ceramics,
watching The Joy of Painting on PBS
and learning to crochet.

I'm from the coal hill and the Eastern,
radio cookies and the bubbly brown sugar
smell of Great Grandma Morgan's sweet yams,
singing Christmas songs along with Carpenters
while we made pressed butter cookies and divinity.

From putting notes in my grandpa's lunch bucket
before he left for the Y&O mine,
from the recipe book my grandma started
for me and never got a chance to finish.

I am from my mother's bookshelf,
the cedar chest, and the kitchen cupboard
where we still keep Grandma's good plates,
from leather photo albums,
and my favorite picture of my mother
wearing the same navy cable-knit toboggan
hat that I wear now.

Kaleidowhirl

I just found out that Kaleidowhirl's new issue has just gone live.

Check out my poem here:

Kaleidowhirl

Gob Pile Chapbook Series News

We are happy to announce our first four chapbooks in the Gob Pile Chapbook Series. These chaps will be out in November, but we will be announcing a pre-order soon.

Chaps:
Alex Stolis’ How to Drink Yourself Sober
Cory Mesler’s Grit
Michael Campagnoli’s Kikukus
Mark Jackley’s Cracks and Slats

Editors for the series: Cindy Kelly and Laura Wackerly. Reader: Shaun Barcalow.

Three more chapbooks should be coming out in December, as a result of the Flip Kelly Poetry Prize. If you haven’t checked out the submission guidelines for this contest, you should. It’s got one of the lowest entry fees around (only $15), and you get a year’s subscription to Plain Spoke (a $24 value!) for free.

Everybody likes free.

A Sestina and a Short Fiction: Publishing news

Plain Spoke Vol. 2. No. 1. is going to be out very shortly, and it's the longest issue yet, full of the fabulous, charming, and lovely works of an eclectic group of writers, featuring the poet Deborah Bogen (www.deborahbogen.net), who resides in Pittsburgh.  

In my own personal quest for publication, I received two good pieces of news today. 

Forthcoming in their "oldest profession" issue, my creative nonfiction piece, "The Brief Existence of Lainey O'Galeigh," will be published in MiPOesias .

Also, forthcoming in the Spring 2008 issue of Kaleidowhirl is one of my favorite pieces, "Homesick Sestina." 

Today I went to the first annual Lady of Mercy Handmade Craft Show in Carrollton, Ohio.  I didn't sell a ton of stuff, but I passed out lots of flyers about our grand-reopening in May (12th-18th, if you're in the area - check www.oldegarage.com for details and schedule of events).  So we made back the table money, sold a few things, and got some (basically) free advertising.  

The weird thing was people were buying lots of fall-flavored (read:  orange and brown and fall colors) things.  I thought it was Spring, people!  :)  

Anyway, I've got a ton of work to catch up on.  

Two Poems and one contest.

I had bronchitis last week, and I missed all of my classes and did not even check my email.  

So when I did sit down to check it, I was overwhelmed with the amount of it (And Gmail does get a "good boy!" for making sure it was 99% spam-free).  

So first, I'll share all the good news:  

1.  Apparently there is an English department award each year, given to two English majors who "who not only earn high grades but who are also actively involved in class and contribute to other students and the life of the campus" according to the email I received.  So yay!  I won!  I never win anything.  

2.  "I Dreamed of Drowning" is forthcoming at Bakers Dozen.  

3.  "A Record of Things" is forthcoming at The Hiss Quarterly.  (This poem is one of my new favorites, and chronicles a piece of my mother's childhood, creatively, with wallpaper.  It should be up on or around May 1.)  

And now a little disappointment:  

I was hoping to be among the winners of the Akron Art Museum's New Words poetry contest, but I wasn't.  They don't send you any kind of loser notification, so I just kept checking the site occasionally.  Oh well.  I just thought it would have been cool to have won that one.