Today was the first full day of my final non-graduating residency in the Queens MFA program. As always, I arrived at campus earlier than I needed to but that gave me the opportunity to enjoy some beautiful weather while I chatted with other people in the program–particularly about why it is our course codes are CRW instead of ENG! (It is an applying for teaching jobs issue!)

My Seminar for today was on Shaping a Book of Poetry.  Wonderful class but it had my head going in so many directions as I was thinking about my thesis/manuscript that I was tempted to drive all the way home during lunch to get my thesis and look through it!

Our workshop discussion today was great and as always happens when AMP teaches I learn as much from critiquing other people as from when my own work will be critiqued tomorrow.

Before workshop I attended two of the graduating students seminars.  One was on avoiding the Pratfalls of Historical Fiction (or RESEARCH PEOPLE!) which was well presented and had a great resource handout and then a second seminar discussing the use of landscape/setting which was mainly on fiction but I could extrapolate to poetry, especially since a lot of my poetry has a definite landscape and/or desire for one.

There were graduate student readings tonight but I still had company here and all the readings were fiction for people I did not know so I opted out of that.  Tomorrow looks to be a long day with seminar, at least 2 graduating student seminars again, workshop and then I know several poets reading in the evening which could keep me on campus until well after 9pm.  Glad I did my critique write up in between seminar and workshop today.

I feel very relaxed this residency.  Even though I still feel I am stumbling when I try to have a conversation with professors, even when they are close in age to me I feel so Wayne’s World-I’m-not-worthy.

Now I’m itching to play with my thesis again How long can I restrain myself?