Because I'm not busy enough as it is...

I joined a Coursera course. Modern & Contemporary Poetry. Exactly--the same one I joined last year and ended up abandoning. Because I was too busy.

If you've been following this blog, specially the Accountability Reports herein, you're probably scratching your head. What is this woman doing? Doesn't she have enough on her plate with trying to finish editing that damn novel, with the Pure Slush 2014 project?

Yes. Yes, she does.



But here's the thing. Writing is about delving deep, right? Cutting to the marrow, putting your arm down all the way to the elbow in the muck of the human soul and fishing out a bit of radiant sea-glass. Dissecting one's emotions. One's psyche. One's most hidden fears, deficiencies, embarrassments.

One does not do that by staying in one's comfort zone.

And besides. This isn't just about loading myself with "stuff" to do. Poetry--especially modern poetry, the experimental and subversive--is the gateway to better literary fiction. There, as in poetry, the "how" is more important than the "what". Form over substance.

Perhaps this is, finally, the end of my detox from the corporate law world.

If editing the novel and finishing the Pure Slush project is my Iron Man, the ModPo course is the five hundred daily crunches, the protein shake, the cardio workout. It is, too, the no-alcohol, early-nights regime. It is discipline. It is training.

You've been warned. My blog posts might become (even more) sporadic. Or I might post several times a day: five-page essays on three words, maybe just one.

I hope you'll stop by every now and then to check up on me. Or, if poetry isn't your cup of tea, at least wish me success from afar :)