This past weekend I attended the Winter Poetry and Prose Getaway, a fantastic weekend of writing workshops, readings, panel discussions, dancing and awesome people. This year (my 7th in attendance) I ventured into new waters by taking the fiction workshop, led by Richard K. Weems (due to Donna’s familiar and affectionate recollections of Gov school, it seems strange that he has a name other than “Weems”). The workshop, where I met the charming and talented Daniel Wallace, was excellent – several really great writers, all of whom made me feel safe and supported in this new territory. I started two separate pieces and think at least one of them may well be worthwhile. The weekend was also full of good food (Mexican on Saturday, a great bar burger on Sunday), drinks, friends, and yes, the aforementioned dancing (at which I am truly, truly terrible). And Monday morning, we wrapped the weekend up with a wonderfully moving celebration of the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which featured a performance by a local youth gospel choir. We closed the celebration by joining hands all around the room and singing “We Shall Overcome,” and I cannot explain just how much it affected me. Probably that’s another blog entry.

My dear friend and fellow poet David Bauman has created a lovely, lovely video of my poem “Wildflowers.” A simple presentation, the video features David’s reading of the poem. You can view it here.

If you want to see me reading, you can do that here – a video from the Collingswood Book Festival in October 2011, where I appeared as part of the Duo-ling Poets with excellent poet and ink black soul sister Anna Evans.

And finally, I received Reflex in the mail yesterday – we have just closed out Round 2, and are kicking off Round 3. You can see updates on the project here.