Okay – no one said it would be easy – BUT it is time for a breath break! John is home and doing well – still not back to normal, but getting there. Car will probably be fixed on Monday and meanwhile we have a loaner.

     I am actually putting together a book (not for the first time) and I still find this a crazy ride – I am never sure of  theme (or lack thereof) so it is often a surprise when it eventually comes together – much like a poem, I suppose. Haven’t gotten to the surprise yet – so all is still up for grabs.  This makes for an interestingly icky feeling. That last is a poetic term for who the heck knows; so bite the bullet and go for it.  Anyone who has hints, suggestions, helps for pulling a manuscript together – PLEASE share them with me.

     Meanwhile great readings continue. If you are not on Peter Murphy’s email list of readings – or NJ Poetry Calendar – or one of  the other sources of information - check them out (I know I have not listed even most of them – if you know of others please let me know!!).

     If you have the same weird sense of  humor that we have – or have been forced to have – you will laugh and not be surprised that I spent the beginning of September in the hospital (where else?). Had congestive heart failure – sounds worse than it is, but it did have all the assorted doctors running around and keeping me in ICU and CCU for a week. Now I have lost 20 pounds (YEA!!!) and am in Physical Therapy for lower back and hip. Just so the health world can continue to spin – John will be going in on the 26th for the gallbladder surgery. We will be very glad to see 2010!!!

     This has been a great month for poetry (check the web site for info on upcoming readings – edisonliteraryreview.org). Linda Radice, Jessica deKoninck, Gloria Healy, Lois Harrod – were all great; Q and D poets reading – as usual full of wonderful poems; ELR reading at South Brunswick Library coming up in Nov. as well as readings by BJ Ward, Laura Boss, Tony Gruenewald, Tammy Paolino and Laurie Granieri all coming up in the next few weeks!!! – a real poetic feast.

     Edison Literary Review Volume 8 is  now available – see web site  to order – or come to the reading November 15th at 2PM in South Brunswick Library. We are now reading for Volume 9 -  the submission guidelines can be found – where else – on the web site..

      Got home from the cruise to Bermuda yesterday. Missed the hurricane – thank God – did have some rough seas the last day. The whole family was there 13 of us, 8 adults and 5 kids ranging from almost 8 to almost 17. Good weather, little rain but since they spent most of their time in the pool or hot tubs they didn’t really care. Posted pix on facebook if you are connected.  It was the first cruise for most of them – and all agreed they will try one again.

     The cabin was all decorated for our anniversary – thanks to Priscilla and John Leo and one night we returned to the cabin to find it strewn with rose petals!!  Okay!!!

     This has been one GREAT Anniversary! And I have dragged it out for almost a year.

     ELR will be in the mail by next week – it looks really good and there are some wonderful poems it this issue.

     I guess I am not totally bummed – there has been some “sorta”  sun between showers.  My flowers will not bloom without sun – 2 petunias and lots of geranium leaves – if you look hard one bud, definitely not blooming!

     Grandsons here last night (ages eleven and almost eight) for a sleepover – told stories on the porch in the candle light and their stories were really good! They have one foot in the “what’s in my head comes out of my mouth”  stage and the other in the other in that filter induced stage we seem hell bent to instill in kids with our current education system.  Somehow they were able to share their imaginations and the only filter was one of  correcting grammar.  Wow! – Quite a night! (Would that I got this level of creativity in some of the submissions we get!)

     It has been a great summer of poetry so far – checkout Barron’s Poets’ Wednesday, Middletown Public Library’s Last Thursday and a new reading at Frank’s Cafe in Red Bank.  Also, Tony Greuenewald’s new book “The Secret History of New Jersey” is out – available on Amazon.

     John’s surgery will be after we get back from the Cruise.  Whole family (13 of us) are off to Bermuda on a 5 day cruise – we are all excited from the youngest to oldest. It should really be a great time!!!!! Angel will fly in from SF the Sunday before and spend the week with us and her cousins – feels like a long time since we saw her.

     I swear the ELR will be at the printer before we go – gave the final corrections to Tony this afternoon.  Even have most of the backlog of submissions up to date – I am happy!

     It has been really too wet and all this gray makes me sad and lethargic.  And it has been wet!  Every time I think the yard cannot get soggier – it does get soggier.  So, I put all my summer stuff out in the house -turquoise and shells and tea lights in sand. Maybe that will work.

     John will go in for the gall bladder stuff  the end of July (leaving about 2 weeks to recuperate before the cruise) if we can get all the doctors together and happy – I am looking  forward to the time when all this gets to be funny.

     Poetry is winding down for the summer and has been really good of  late – good features and the opens have brought out some fine, young, new voices. Dave Roscos and Tom O were at Barron’s last night – a real blast from the past .  If you are old enough to remember the Melody Bar in the 80’s where it was smoked filled, LOUD, no mike so you had to shout and you were good or out – BUT if someone remembered the title of what you read or a line (even a word or two) of your poem – it was a poetic ego high for days. Dave and Tom started the reading there.

     Tuesday at Carriage House reading in Fanwood – Joe Weil and BJ Ward  are featured.  Again, two of  the  wonderful poets who were (and are)  so generous with their time and help to so many young poets and were so instrumental to my growth as a writer.  Come out and hear them!!!

     It feels great to be writing again – which I am – so hearing all these great poet voices who meant so  much to me is quite a thrill!!

     Diane is a GEM!!  The festival on the 17th was quite wonderful. Stacey Balkun and Zach Lichtmann, reading for ELR, were wonderful – new voices for many of the people there.  It is great when we are exposed to the young and fresh new writers, and these two did a good job of bringing their new voices to us.  Thanks to both of you! There are pictures of the event posted on my face book page.

     Diane’s Poetry Party on Sunday at the Huddle Inn – lots of fun. There were many poets there I had never heard before and that  always makes for a fun time.  Stayed for dinner afterward at the Inn –   had a great hamburger and much good conversation.

     The humor reading at Middletown Library last Thursday – with John, Tony Greunewald, Bob McKenty and Bob Rosenbloom – was very funny!! What more can you ask of a Humor Night!?!

     Don’t miss the Carriage House Reading this month (June 16) – B J Ward and Joe Weil – ok this is a WOW reading.

     On the personal front – we see the surgeon tomorrow and will find out then when John will have the surgery to have the gall bladder removed.  As of now, he is doing very well, feels great and just can’t wait for this to all be over – boy, do I second that!!!

    Hope we will see you all at the Magazine Festival on Sunday, May 17 at the West Caldwell Library from 1 to 5.  So many fine magazines to  look at and to buy and editors to talk to. It is always a wonderful event with time to see old friends and to make some new ones. Check Diane Lockward’s blog for more details.

    We have two readers for ELR who may  be new to you:

           Stacey Balkun, a new Rutgers grad, that I first met 4 years ago when she placed first in a contest we were running.

         Zach Lichtmann a young teacher I heard read at a poetry party last year.

Both are fine poets and you should enjoy their work as well as all the other poets who will be reading on Sunday.

     John is feeling better – thank you all for your prayers and good wishes . We are waiting now to coordinate the cardiologist, gastro guys -one here and one in NYC who did the procedure, surgeon, primary doctor, OR, hospital room and  an assortment of  others, so that they can remove the stone, stent and gall bladder.  Hopefully this will happen soon – John who is always patient, it turns out is not so patient as a patient. Perhaps because he has been one so seldom and this, he has found, is frustrating.

     I look forward to seeing many of you on Sunday. I am going to take pix and I will put them here on the blog as soon as I can.

    Ok, all you who bet I’d be back in a week – you lose!!! But do I ever have the excuse of all excuses! Went to NYC for the reunion (which was great at least during the couple of hours I got to spend there). The night before, we went to dinner in a great little French restaurant and John said he had chest pain – this is not good since the angioplasty is barely two months old! He finally stopped saying “I’m fine” and let the nice men take him in the ambulance to Roosevelt Hospital. They found that he had a gall stone, was septic, infection everywhere, jaundice, couldn’t do surgery because of the blood thinners he still used after the angioplasty. FYI:  scenes in an emergency room beat any tv show ever made – this city does have a million stories (and  I suppose poems) and they all play out in the early morning hours of a Saturday in the ER !

    They finally took John to a room and sent me to the hotel around 5AM. Did make the reunion luncheon, in between phone calls to and from hospital. After 50 years, college girls – even the best of us – are, shall we say, older – yet somehow the same .  Many of them I would have known if I saw them on the street.

    They all went home – I went to the hospital. Monday they put a stent on the stone that was blocking a duct. It was a tricky procedure and several times it was touch and go – doctor said he almost lost him at one point. Spent rest of the week clearing up the infections, getting the blood counts where they belonged, renal functions functioning. Lots of doctors – seldom saw the same one twice which made continuity of information impossible and occasionally not too logical!

    We had driven into the city! I do NOT drive in the city! Our oldest daughter drove the car back to New Jersey and both the girls were there almost every day which was quite wonderful for me!!  John was discharged on Friday – one week after he had gone in – and we came home today.  It really is good to be home.  Thanks to everyone who sent good wishes and prayers – they were much appreciated. 

    Told you I had a good excuse!! 

    I was sorry I had to  miss the Last Thursday reading – but John is reading next month (with Tony Gruenewald, Bob Rosenbloom and Bob McKinty) so maybe you can catch him then. Also check out Diane Lockward’s blog for information about the Magazine Festival on May 17 at West Caldwell Library for 1 to 5.  Really great readers. Edison Literary Review will be having Stacey Balkun and Zach Lichtmann read for us.  If you want to try the bet thing again, I hope to post more about them and the Festival itself next week.

     Okay – been a while. I don’t know why I don’t get here and update the post. It is fun and I love the comments, but somehow it  is always too late or I am too tired or just life…

     I have been doing the poem-a-day for National Poetry Month. I think I like prompts – they do push me to write – but I am struggling. It really took until about half way through before I was writing anything even save-able. There are a couple I will keep working on.  I am going to read a couple of them when I read at Middletown (Last Thursday reading at the Middletown Library).  We’ll see what kind of response they get.  

     Another new electronic thing—–my son is updating the web site (edisonliteraryreview.org) to web 2.0. Don’t ask, I have only a vague idea, but sounds and looks good. He will be doing this update over the weekend, so I will get back to you with the results. I am looking forward to it, I do like new things.

     This weekend we are going to my 50th College (St. Joseph’s College, Brooklyn) reunion. I’ve only been to one of the alumnae luncheons in the past 50 years – so this will be interesting. This makes me feel older than my Golden Anniversary. Somehow I did not think I was very young when I got married (which was before I graduated from college since I finished college in 3 1/2 years) but I thought I was very young in college – therefore 50 years later makes me feel OLD.  Just think about it, it does make sense after a little thought.  Will report back next week.

     This is the second time I said I would write again next week – we’ll see – any bets??