winter, work, and writing

winter made a quite impressive comeback for a week - but it's looking better today. vienna got the tiniest bit of snow, but lots of sleet, rain, wind, and very little sun; the west and south got tons of snow though. ugh. we changed to daylight savings time last night, so it'll be dark at 6.15 when i wake up, but pleasant in the evenings.

things are going okay here. some days are better than others, i am glad i am busy, and very grateful for my friends, those wonderful creatures.

work's been good, my students did well in their first two ECDL exams, and the feedback has been good, too. it's quite exhausting, because with the first group, there is the pressure of having to get everything done in so little time, and to prepare them for the tests; and the second group are almost all beginners and need a lot of attention and help, so there is barely a moment for me to relax, to sit down and not talk for five minutes. but i am happy to be working. things are suddenly looking really good for the rest of the year - who would have thought. it's 99% sure that i am going back to my former workplace for a full-day class from mid-april to end of may, and then from mid-june to mid-december i have been offered classes at the place where i am now. there will always be breaks in between, and that's good. so whoever had their fingers crossed for me - thank you, it worked. :)

i went to see julian barnes reading from his novel arthur & george. he said some rather witty and amusing things afterwards, in reply to questions from his audience. :)

"unlike sex, you never know when a novel is finished."

when asked whether/how he observed people and how he worked these observations into the novel, his characters, he replied by using the metaphor of a sponge soaking everything up, but then cut himself short, asking the audience to forget what he just said, because "it's not like a sponge at all, is it? it's more like ... like a compost heap. you let it sit and it rots down ..."

i am still not writing. chasing words around my head, but they always slip through the net. some day soon, i'm sure.

my poem Sonnenizio on a Line from Neruda can now be read at Autumn Sky Poetry - terrific issue btw.

and i just had an acceptance note from (the poetry)worm - they'll be publishing my poem how much ground would a groundhog hog, if a groundhog could hog ground. i have lost count how many times they've chosen my work ... *G*

i've been re-reading some giuseppe ungaretti - let me share one of the poems with you:

Vanity

Suddenly
the lucid
awesome
vastness
is high
above the rubble

And the man
bent
over the sun-
shocked
water
finds
he's a shadow

Rocked and
gently
broken

(translation: Andrew Frisardi)

* * * * *

Vanità

D'improvviso
è alto
sulle macerie
il limpido
stupore
dell'immensità

E l'uomo
curvato
sull'acqua
sorpresa
dal sole
si rinviene
un'ombra

Cullata e
piano
franta

song of the day: louis, louis by teitur.