New poem online, etc.

Wow, it's been a few days since my last post.  Time does move at a different pace (both slower and faster) with a kid in the picture ... It's been fun, though -- a lot more fun, in general, than the earlier months, although the early days have their magic, too, but since A. got mobile and her personality started really emerging, it's been a blast -- OK, not a 24/7 blast; there's still plenty of drudgery inherent in parenthood and stuff like "alone time" and "sleep" that I still remember wistfully, but the little girl is so much fun.  She's very different from her mother -- vivacious and, shockingly, athletic.  I had talked early and walked just on time, was calm and quiet, and later serious.  She's a little ball of energy, mischief and affection, walked early and is still working on the talking (I don't think she has much interest in working on the calm and quiet, but that's OK.  She makes me smile.  It's going to be a crazy but fun ride with this one...)

Anyway, in poetry news, here's a new one in the fabulous journal KIN:  http://wearekin.org/author/jekihlstrom/precambrian

May

May has been a good month, in general and literary-wise.  I finally launched the belated 10th issue of Melusine, which you can see here. It has been a long haul with this issue, but I'm really happy with it.

And earlier, a poem of mine appeared in Ghost Ocean Magazine's 12th issue.  

Writing is still happening.  Poems are still flowing.  Other people's exciting work is still being edited.  Yay for that.

And my daughter is still kind of darn cute, if I may say so.  Cute is as cute does, and she does cute, too.  She has a sweet but fearless little personality.  When she smiles with her four little teeth (and two more on the way) I can barely stand it.  She is also a budding artist, again from a very biased opinion, but I couldn't resist featuring her first two efforts (with help from daddy) in my Melusine editorial here.

What I've Been Doing Lately

1. Taking care of the baby.
2. Taking care of the baby and going a little stir-crazy, although still crazy about the baby... It will get easier in the spring, or so I'm telling myself.
3. Had a poem accepted for the next issue of Ghost Ocean Magazine, which was awesome news.
4. Wrote two poems today, which, believe me, is not normal for the past six months.  But I've written five poems since the baby was born, which is more than I expected to write.
5. Considering submitting to a chapbook contest -- kind of last-minute, as I wasn't sure I had enough poems for a second chapbook and was just going to focus on the full-length manuscript, but I think I actually might, so why not?
6. Working on the Spring, formerly Winter, formerly Fall/Winter issue of Melusine, which is now slated for [redacted rather than revised due to a bad track record in predicting launch dates ;]  But the issue is coming along, little by little...

Last Year's Resolution

Well, finally I kept them all, 100 percent of 'em.  OK, there was only one, and I kept it.  Boy, did I ever.

Resolution '12

Although, honestly speaking, I only kept it in some senses.  I didn't completely change everything.  One of the less welcome side effects of parenthood is that it seems to shine a harsher light on all one's hidden and not-so-hidden flaws, as if one's self-esteem was particularly high to begin with.  I sometimes wonder how I ever fooled myself into thinking I was ever competent at anything.  So needless to say, I have been writing and submitting less lately.  Mostly that's about finding the time, though.

So there are a boatload of things I could resolve about this year; it's difficult to pick just one.  There seem to be two categories:  things I suck at (which is a mammoth category) and things I am OK/fairly good at.  So I'd like to shorten the first list a bit but also put more work into the stuff in the latter one, because frankly I'll never be a Renaissance woman, and I need to choose where to put my energy.  The exception there would be trying to reach out to people more and contribute more despite inhibition/social anxiety/tendency to be bad at articulating nonwritten language/sheer laziness.  That's always on the list, but it's the one thing that's always worth continuing to work at, no matter how little progress I seem to make.

On that soberly prudent note, happy new year.