Friday, January 13, 2006

Alive and Well

For those of you who are concerned about my well-being, I'm alive. It's just very wet out here (it's been raining for 26 straight days), and I've been thinking a lot about my commute as well as a new quarter of classes.

If you're curious, I'm teaching another introduction to poetry class as well as an advanced seminar on poetry for undergrads. So I've been very busy on a MWF teaching schedule and when I'm home, I do a lot of school prep and a heck of a lot of vegetating and a lot of dog-running (sloshing?).

I've got some tenure-track paper work I need to be getting on shortly, and I've got some grant applications I'm preparing. Meanwhile I'm still sending poems out, so I've not entirely fallen off the face of the poetry planet.

I'm currently reading a book called Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies , by Jared Diamond, and it's absolutely fascinating.

For poetry and for the classes I'm teaching, I'm reading Leadbelly, by Tyehimba Jess, Here, Bullet, by Brian Turner, Lampblack & Ash by Simone Muench, Eat Quite Everything You See by Leslie Adrienne Miller, Voluntary Servitude by Mark Wunderlich, and Quipo by Arthur Sze.

So my plate is full. If you don't hear much from me, don't take it personally. I'm here and I'm still checking out your blogs and all that you do because I care. :D

10 comments:

Ivy said...

Don't drown in the rain! :-)

carbonator said...

glad a see a sign of life. . . look, he lifted a finger!

Suzanne said...

Hey, You!

C. Dale said...

Guns Germs and Steel is an amazing book. I couldn't put it down. Glad to hear you are still alive!

Kathang Pinay2 said...

Hi, Oliver -
good luck on the tenuretrack...and after Guns, Germs...read Collapse.
stay dry,
leny

Artichoke Heart said...

Yay! Oliver's still here! Glad to know you're doing okay, despite being overwhelmed with excessive rain. Will definitely check out some of those titles, too.

Artichoke Heart said...

P.S. -- My Grad Po workshop read your book last semester and everyone loved it.

Oliver de la Paz said...

Thanks all! Yes, I'm alive, just very very busy. It's been quite an adjustment, moving from the East Coast back to the West Coast. Lots of things have changed about this place since I last lived here. For one, traffic!

Anyway, thanks for the posts, I'll try not to be a stranger!

poet-scholar-professor-type said...

hey big o!

i'm on the road so here's cheers from boulder....

and smooches...see you in austin soon?

lv,
ruth-e

Patrick said...

Good to hear from you, Ollie. Regards to Mer.

P