Well, it's that time of year again. Applications are now open for the 2020 Frost Place Conference on Poetry & Teaching. This year's conference features star poet-teachers Angela Narciso Torres and Didi Jackson; the optional Writing Intensive will be led by the renowned poet Major Jackson. Kerrin McCadden and I will be there all week, putting on our poetry song-and-dance show. Already, in just over 24 hours, we've gotten six applications . . . two of them from brand-new attendees. I have high hopes for a busy season! We do offer scholarships. You do not need to be an active classroom teacher or a working poet. Our arms are wide. So talk to me, please, if you have any questions or worries about applying.

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Yesterday was editing, and back-n-forth Frost Place talk, and bathroom scrubbing, and chocolate pudding, which is an A-1 comfort food: fun to make and fun to eat. Also, while you are stirring it, you can read a Dickens novel. If you are feeling low, make yourself some chocolate pudding.

Today, more of the same, minus the pudding and the scrubbing, plus a look at my embryo manuscript. I also hope to spend time with Rilke, and to go for a walk, but actual writing will be difficult. I don't have many unstructured spare and lonely hours in my near future. The desk is piled so high.

By the way, New Hampshire and southern Maine friends: I'll be leading a revision workshop for the Wheaton Writing Academy, held at the McConnell Center in  Dover on March 14. I believe the cost is $50. Let me know if you're interested, and I'll give you the contact of the person who is organizing it.