No Bellies Just Yet

In four more days you will actually be able to see photos of the infamous bday bellydancing bash. We filled ours, but no one shook theirs. I got this really cool certificate written in Arabic which I will hang in my office and try to pass it off as a degree in Middle Eastern Literature. Tenure track, here I come!

The new issue of Runes Review came yesterday along with plenty of birthday cards and well wishes. Funny, my horoscope predicted all of that, that people would get in touch and that I would realize how many people's lives I've touched. My students have been writing about the humanity within us all---that universal connectedness we feel to each other. I think poetry is a forum that opens our eyes to opening our hearts and minds to others. One student wrote in one of her poems that Creative Writing was her favorite class. That really makes me smile b/c I've felt off this semester. Perhaps due to the Monday Friday schedule. People are still recovering from their weekends and then by Friday they have already started them. Funny, last week we wrote about time...Nonetheless, I'm impressed at the talent I have and I frequently tell people who ask about my teaching how wonderful my students are. And I'm getting back to that elated feeling of doing something that really matters. Sometimes I question the importance of language--does it resonate for others as much as it does for me and how can/does writing change the world. As I get older, I don't want to lose my optimism. Today one of my students wrote a poem in which one of the images was a child walking on the beach, falling, and getting back up and the sheer joy in that. How simple and exquisite to get so much pleasure from the body--how something simple can keep us entertained. It makes me want to grab an ice cream cone and sit outside before I meet J for our tryst at Indebleu. I've been in this office all day...

except to get a sandwich. I really dig avocados on sandwiches. And I really dig how much everyone did for my birthday. I've felt quite a bit of love lately and I want to thank you all for being there, sending cards, picking out presents, sending love and good wishes. The older you get (ha ha, upper 20's, eat that), the more you realize what really matters. Do something that touches someone else this weekend. Seek meaning in the simple. The sky is lighter, the clouds roll past the windows of Rome hall and for a minute I took it all in before heading back to my office to breathe and to find the language like the last beams of afternoon light, before night falls on this sleepy town.