Giving Poetry a Second Shake

Tonight I went to my first meeting of the Charlotte Writers Club, and while I admit the age balance was upwardly skewed, I really enjoyed myself!  Upon arrival, another woman was in the lobby of the church where the club meets asking for directions, and I followed along.  On the elevator ride, we found out we were both former students of guest speaker, Ruth Moose, had both grown up in Charlotte and went to Chapel Hill and were both working writers.  When Ruth saw us at the club, she was thrilled that we were there and formally introduced Laura and Lauren.  Before beginning her reading, she gave us a shout out: "Two former students who survived my class are here!" 

As she read excerpts from her book of poetry "The Librarian and Other Stories," I thought "Huh, modern poetry can be 1) understandable and 2) funny.  I may actually go out and buy a book of poems!"  I know, I know, this sounds like absolute blasphemy coming from a self-professed writer, but I have not written poems in so long, and many of the contemporary poetry I've read is obtuse and leaves me wondering on the point.  Don't get me wrong, give me Shakespeare or Chaucer or Tennyson any day, but contemporary poetry...well, I just hadn't "gotten" it yet.  Well, I got it tonight.  And it absolutely delighted me.  One of her stories about this fictional librarian character was a flashback to her college years when she attends a reunion. She remembers a tryst with a professor, women she attended school with who were there to get their Mrs. degree and so forth, and I not only felt like I knew this character in the span of a one-page poem, but the librarian also made me miss Kayla.

Who is Kayla?  She is my fictional character from the novel I started in college and have yet to finish.  Ruth talked about how the character of the librarian felt so real and but that since writing over 50 poems about her, she seems to have left and has been hard to get back.  I feel the same way about Kayla.  Part of my inhibition about finishing the book is that I won't be able to find Kayla again when I go looking for her.  A big part of her was me at that time, and another part of her was the me I only dared to be on the page.  But the me I am now is so different, that finding Kayla - that old mix of who I was and who I wanted to be - seems much more difficult than when I was living it.

Another admission - the semester I spent writing Kayla's story, I didn't act entirely like myself.  My imagination and my character started having such an influence on me, I found myself doing things for Kayla's sake - for the sake of her story.  Getting sucked up in that world was okay when that's all I really had to worry about, but with a real job and many real life activities, part of me has shied away from working on my book because I don't want to be possessed by Kayla .  Which is why I need to go back to school - so being possessed by your character, or just believing in them so much you think of them as real people, is perfectly acceptable. ;)

At the end of the club I met another Chapel Hill grad, Chris Wampler, who is writes a blog (though I must say, it is much more accomplished and far-reaching than mine) and who has written a book which one can purchase on Amazon.  I'm fairly impressed. lol  His blog interviews writers about their books and such. Link here: http://kriswampler.wordpress.com/.  Anyway, we had a very nice discussion about writing, life, traveling and Ron Paul.  Don't ask.  But nonetheless, I'm happy to have made two new friends who are writers and to have tried out the Charlotte Writers Club.  I look forward to going back. 

On a different note, I did officially finished applying to all 13 grad schools: Stanford, Brown, UVA, Penn State, Johns Hopkins, Univ. of Colorado, Univ. of Michigan, Univ. of TX, Vanderbilt, Washington University in St. Louis, UNC-W, UNC-G, and UF.  From here on out, it's up to God as to where I should end up.  Each program has significant draws - Stanford, is well, Stanford and the most prestigious of the lot.  Brown has a terrific arts program and would let me take drama and fine art alongside writing courses. The UNC's are close to home and family.  Boulder is a beautiful city and would be a very unique experience.  Austin has a lot of fascinating culture and is has a large tango and silk aerial scene.  Johns Hopkins would be close to my MD family.  Lieselotte is also applying to Wash U, and if we both got in there, that would be very hard to turn down.  And so on.  So, please God, make this choice a clear one when the time comes!  (Which won't be until March or April).

And then to celebrate, I think I'll go to Europe in May.  I miss England something terrible, and Lieselotte studying abroad in Amsterdam, and my friends in Spain.  It is time.  We'll just have to see if I can afford it and if so, for how long.

with some of my friends at Second String

with my friend Drew at Second String

As a side note, I've been attending some fabulous Christmas parties lately and went to a milonga (Argentine tango dance) the other night which was so delightful, as I've been out of the tango scene for such a long time lately.  I'll attach a couple photos from Second String Santa - a charity party I go to each year.