a pause at the end of the year

It's true years are fictions of time, but only kind of. Because we are on a rock orbiting a star and that takes a certain amount of time. Markers are where we confront our role as namers. We don't make time; we notice light and dark. Our bodies are made of time: earth. The sun goes "up" and "down." We sleep and dream. Flowers say hello. The birds migrate. We change.

The ecosystem of a life changes, too. I've been in a new climate. There was sheltering in place so inside great sheets of ice could begin a sort of slippage. Shores emerged. It was very painful at times. I am very strong.

Since last posting, some things with the writing and poetry have helped keep me on the earth. Not washed away to the stars where it is good to go, but I worry -- what if I get lost and can't make it back? This year writing has been a tether to the terrestrial. I will not float away.

People read and wrote about After-Cave. Receiving this type of attention and love is such a gift.

• Review of After-Cave at Tarpaulin Sky by Nathan Hauke

• Review of After-Cave at Quaterly West by Brenda Sieczkowski

• Review of After-Cave at Mary Journal by Sarah Burant 

I also published some pieces that are very important to me.

"Field Notes on the Metafur", an essay on interspecies communication and feral poetics at Entropy. This is an expanded version of the talk I gave at Open Press in October. 

 I also was the featured writer for December at the excellent Aspasiology. I also published some poems there in response to Feng Sun Chen's study earlier in the year.

My chapbook, The Primitive Undreamed, was published as part of the 8th Dusie chapbook kollektiv, edited by the tireless and generous Rob McLennan. The Primitive Undreamed is an excerpt from  Sin in Wilderness.

I contributed to the super-cool epic poem BirdWolf at Entropy. 

I also published a poem "United States of Grief," at the 2016 Dusie Advent Calendar. 

Life is change. Sending Love: Michelle

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