the lady of the poems

it occurred to me today that my poetic life over the past 3-4 years kind of fits the lord of the rings trilogy:

I - the fellowship of ITWS: my poem-a-day times at inside the writer's studio poetry board
II - the two lost years: as good as nothing happening between end of 2007 and end of 2009
III - the return of the muse: looks like "it" is back - whatever "it" is that makes me want to write, that makes me find the words, that channels my ideas. i am beginning to trust this/myself again, which is, well: terrific! :)


other news:

autralian open: justine henin lost her comeback grand slam to serena williams - no fairy tale ending there, but many flashes of brilliance. good to have her back. roger federer did it again ... andy murray just was no match for him.

i was unfaithful to my hairdresser. so far, no regrets.

i'm not surprised that my students seem to have given me some bug - i found out 2 hours ago that i have a temperature. this does not make me particularly happy.

i'm hooked on sarah blasko, it seems (song of the day - brilliant, brilliant cover version of a 1980s cold chisel song). and checking out clare & the reasons.


song of the day: flame trees by sarah blasko.

flued to my bed for a week

so the flu laid me low for a while - fever peaked at 39.5C (102F) tuesday night. so much for spending my last week off filing, preparing, cleaning, and socialising! the only one i socialised with, besides my hot water bottle sheep, was my fabulous nurse heinz, though i am sure he has seen me more entertaining than last week. i certainly hope so. *suddenly worried*

of course i could not go to the badeschiff for the obama inauguration party, but i was told that a hundred people asked for me (harold might have been exaggerating just a tad), and that it was a great night.

as soon as i was up to it, i started watching lots of the australian open, and i have seen some terrific matches, both women's and men's. i've been reading more neil gaiman (coraline, stardust) and david foster wallace. i have not written any new poetry, and photography was not quite as intriguing between the sweaty sheets as elsewhere.

it's back to work tomorrow - finally. nathan and hanna subbed for me yesterday and today respectively, and apparently i have a really nice group. i look forward to meeting them.

i've acquired tickets for two events later this year: accordion tribe @ konzerthaus in april, and bruce springsteen @ ernst happel stadium in july - i'll see the boss for the 4th time then!

and here's vienna's strongest baby girl - livia malina horowitz, second to none (except perhaps pippi longstocking):



song of the day: don't think twice it's alright by indigo girls & joan baez.

news

i'm really sad that my favourite female tennis player, justine henin, has announced her retirement. this really came as a surprise - henin had been ranked number 1 for over a year now, and she's only 25. i will miss her stunning backhand.


oh and just in case you are wondering about what is going on in austria: we do not all keep people locked up in our basements, nor do we normally (plan to) kill our entire families with an axe.


dress rehearsal for erotic reading tonight - we had one on tuesday, which was sooo much fun! i decided to have martin and/or sandro accompany three of my poems on guitar/sax. i really am looking forward to the reading, and i am also getting a bit nervous now ...

song of the day: smokers outside the hospital doors by the editors.

hanging in there

the last few days have been rather tough. i think i had some sort of nervous breakdown on friday. it's mainly my financial situation that's worrying me - the company i have been working for owes me around €6500 ($8500) by now, and - surprise surprise! - a girl has bills to pay. it's especially tough this year as i was out of work for three months from dec to feb. sure, the company has a reason: their client, the AMS (austrian public employment service), isn't paying them. it's only about 2 million euro. [insert sarcastic laugh here.] i was informed that the whole affair has been taken to the ministry and the AMS was supposed to pay the company 3 weeks ago - doesn't look like they did. the thing is, a teacher like me can't really do anything about it. the likes of me are the weakest links. bottom of the food chain. even if it's my account that's overdrawn. even if it's me who's charged interest for that overdraft. even if i did a bloody good job, even if i showed up at work when i was sick. i cannot even begin to express how angry i am.

the weather suits my mood, i've been sleeping badly, and i've been running a temperature for a couple of days now as well (probably all that stress). that meant that i could not go to see attwenger, a terrific austrian duo, last night with my friend sabine. :(

it's back to work on tuesday - ask me how motivated i am. yep. that much. and that's no good, because it is not the students' fault, and i always expect myself to give at least 100%.

the good news is: one acceptance note from eclectica (a collaboration piece), and one from cahoots magazine (two elements prose poems) - i had given up on them, because i sent the sub in february. i'll post the links when the poems are online.

justine henin won the us open again, she's been playing amazing tennis. austrian julian knowle won the men's doubles with his swedish partner simon aspelin - that is SOOO cool! tonight's final between roger federer and novak djokovic should be interesting.

i am getting addicted to the music challenge on facebook.com. colleen was right - it does take over your life, that site!

i've seen quite a bit of my friend gudrun and her boys lately - here are a few pics:







another song of the day: you suck by the murmurs.