I did what I hoped to do yesterday: I finished the difficult editing project; I did the grocery shopping; I took a little time off from working; I went to bed early. So even though I'm back on the clock today, I'm feeling reasonably well rested, more or less ready to pitch forward into the waves.

Today's class will be a generative-writing session based around Keats's notion of negative capability. We'll be reading poems, talking about poems, writing poems, sharing poems. As workdays go, it should be a good one. My only worry is my eyes: they are not in top condition after that emergency editing intervention, and Zoom is always hard on them. I hope I can blink my way through.

[By the way, this class is full, but I've still got two openings in my November 9-10 "Revision Intensive" weekend. Maybe you'd like to be there too?]

This morning I want to ease myself into writing and talking space . . . these few words to you, a slow cup of coffee, a small undemanding walk, a shower, a bit of housework : filling firewood boxes, folding laundry, sweeping the kitchen floor : reading through the day's centerpiece poems, shaping thoughts, sharpening pencils, settling into the unknown . . . 

The coming days and weeks are a tumble of work--readings, classes, editing--but today I will try to stay in the now: just these hours, just these poems, just these people.

That in itself can be hard work.