tieranosaur

As promised, Cameron Conaway has posted some of my poems on his site at The Examiner.  I didn't know which he would pick, as I think I sent him 5 or 6 and he selected.  There are three posted.  I guess it's more of a feature than a review, but that doesn't matter, it's still awesome.

Here's the link!  Go read and enjoy.

Last autumn sometime I was surfing around r/poetry when I came across a post by a man named Cameron Conaway.  He said he was a professional poetry reviewer and writer for The Examiner, among his other involvements in teaching English and Shakespeare at Ottawa University and English Composition on the Everest websites.  Mr. Conaway then went on to say he wanted to do a series called Everyday Poets, and invited submissions.

I submitted, and he responded and said he'd love to feature some of my poems.  Tentative time was September of this year, which is now only a couple of weeks away.  I've kept quiet about this because it was so far in the future, and because I'm nervous.  I mean, I assume he wouldn't ask to feature my poems if they were terrible just so he could destroy me, but this will be my first professional review.  I've been published before, in a chapter book at the University of Calgary about 10 years ago, and in a couple anthologies put out by companies I no longer remember the name of - I've got one of the books lying around somewhere...

This is why I started the Youtube channel where I read my poems aloud, and why I've been trying to do more there, and post more here.  I tend not to listen to my own videos because I hate the sound of my voice so much, even though people have said before that I have a sexy voice, it still bothers me, so hopefully they're not that awful.

I haven't been writing a lot lately, I've been working too much and haven't had time for that leisure, though I suppose I could find the inspiration if I looked, I've honestly not even been thinking about it.

Anyways.  I will let you know when the review is published, it could still be a month or so, but I thought maybe I could generate some anticipation and such.

I feel like a whiny, sappy romantic emo teenager when I think about reading some of my less hate-filled poems.  I look at them and think, dude, that's lame.  I don't wanna read that one, it's cheesy and full of lovey-dovey bullshit.

I will at some point, maybe, but for now, I'm just reading the ones that don't make me want to choke with disgust.

My main style is free verse, which sometimes confuses me and makes me think I'm just reading prose.  I'm experimenting with irregular rhymes, internal rhymes and other fun poetry things like alliteration and imagery.

Also, I'm sorry for the somewhat bad sound and the mouse clicks that you hear while I scroll and read.  Hopefully it's not too distracting...

I've had my new laptop for about a month now and creating some videos is on my To Do list, now I've got a decent webcam.  I hope to be able to read some of my poetry and hopefully post links here, somewhere/somehow I'll post the links in the poem's descriptions when I get them done.  If that doesn't work out, check out my channel for all the videos.

I've been delaying on this for a few reasons... my busy life, my jobs, my apathy and my anxiety over other things I can't control, all are keeping me from posting.  Also, I hate my voice.  Many people have told me it's sexy and I just can't seem to agree.  Plus, you know, it's video, so then you'd have to see me and everything.  I'm such a dork, I don't want you to see me.  I'd make a terrible celebrity.

Anyways, I guess there's no choice for it but to do it, so hold on to your butts.

Nov 25: Order internet service from Telus for new apartment.  Told it would be 4 - 6 weeks for my new laptop to get here.

Dec 3: Move in to new apartment.

Dec 4: Installer guy comes by, hooks up phone and interwebs.  YEY!

Dec 23: 4 weeks from order.  Get excited about having new laptop.

Dec 25: Receive first Telus bill.  Didn't open it because I didn't have money right then.

Dec 27: Begin checking mailbox daily to see if there's a notice of delivery attempt whilst I have been at work.

Dec 29: 5 weeks, no biggie.  Christmas and all that, causing delays.

Jan 4: 6 weeks less a day.  No laptop.  Phone Telus, sign in to online account whilst on hold.  Notice that first bill is at $0.00 and says no payment needed.  Er?  K.  Telus agent comes on phone and says that my services were never ordered in the first place and she doesn't know why I have phone and internet.  I haven't been paying for them, obviously, and my laptop was never ordered.  Despair ensues.  She was very helpful and kind, apologized profusely and was understanding as I explained my frustrations at not having my new laptop in my hands.

My current laptop's newest trick is deciding it doesn't want to be connected to the power cord anymore and disconnecting.  Even when it hasn't been moved or touched at all in any way, the power cord will lose connection.  Oh, and the battery only has about 5 minutes of life in it, it's been dead for years, and so it has to be on AC power all the time.  On top of the myriad other things wrong with it (that I didn't rant to her about), like how the USB ports are dying and despite all that I still have to use one for a mouse because the touchpad doesn't work right, either.  Also, it can take up to 2 minutes to open a window for any program.  Two.  Gods-be-damned.  Minutes.  It's amazing I'm still alive and haven't chewed off my own lips in anger.

So, long and short of it, I have to wait up to another 4 weeks for my laptop.  She put a rush on it and ordered it, but there's no more of a 'rush' than 4 weeks.  I will be phoning weekly to make sure it's on its way.

On a poetical note, I've been writing a bit, but nothing good enough to share, yet.