I mentioned in my last post that January had been intensely difficult, but the weeks since then became even more harrowing. My dad had a heart attack and has been sedated in the ICU with all sorts of tubes keeping him alive. This week, I had the scariest asthma attack of my life and was diagnosed with pneumonia. Yesterday, my son injured his foot in PE and is now on crutches. And, of course, the entire political situation in the US gets more absurd and awful each day.

But just yesterday, my dad was finally able to wake up enough to nod in response to questions and squeeze hands when asked. That feels like a miracle.

I’ve had to miss or cancel many poetry-related things so far this year, but I’ve also had several lovely poetry-related things happen: I had two poems each accepted in the new journals Villain Era and Jackdaw Review, and I was invited to contribute to a really cool project called The Creative Process. Today, I get to read at the first event for the MAW Reading Series, which is run by students in our new M.A. in Writing program. I’ve been writing new things alongside my students during exercises in my writing classes.

Somehow, in the midst of so much bad, there is still creativity, newness, and good.