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here's some good news that's old news to my facebook friends: i'm going back to the macdowell colony this winter/ spring.

*insert wild happiness here*

i can't tell you how much i need this. i need to leave arizona. like now. ha. it's my home, but i don't belong here.

goodbye, saguaros. hello, snow.

i've been spending a lot of time online looking up macdowell blog posts and pics. yeah, yeah: i've been there before. in fact, it was my first colony. but i still get a rush reading about the experiences of others.

i love these pics. i don't remember chickens at macdowell. i'm going to name one after a certain blogger. then demand to eat that chicken all by myself!

*insert wild happiness here*

but this will be the best part of my upcoming residency: i will sit down at my desk and work on new poems. i will not revise old poems. i will not tweak my first manuscript.

i'm ready to move on.

i have to move on.

my second project, a book-length sequence, is crying out for attention. lines and images are coming to me fast and furious. i already have a new notebook full of stuff.

at macdowell, i will enlarge the music in my poems, i will write a leaner, more muscular line.

i will break my old writing habits.

i will explore new (to me) poetic tools.

i will surprise myself.

i will become a better poet.