ADVENTURES OF THE BOOKENDED MUSE

ADVENTURES OF THE BOOKENDED MUSE

I’m bookended this week.

Today (Sunday), the Word Up! county-wide poetry contest for high schoolers

tickled my Muse and made me smile to the brim.

This coming Tuesday night, an inspiring reading/reception at the Hoover Library

will tickle me again, this time with a joyous mishmash of poets, authors, artists and

photographers, all celebrating their work in the pages of the new issue of

Birmingham Arts Journal (y’all come! 6pm).

What’s in it for me, these two energizing events designed to make us all

want to tell our stories with zeal?

Well, each event is mandatory for me. I’m the annual emcee for one and the

quarterly editor/emcee for the other. The commitments themselves keep me

focused, keep me attending. If I were not on the program, my interest would

likely trail off, replaced by some new endeavor. The best way to keep myself

involved with any enterprise is to make an ironclad promise that holds me

responsible for the outcome.

My dad’s old-fashioned but never-really-out-of-fashion work ethic was

passed on to me.

If you encourage me to participate in something or other, my natural inertia

will probably prevent me from following through, since it’s easier to go home

after work and collapse into a meditative but sluggish heap. The good news

is that once I’m signed on and responsible, I’ll likely carry on with dedication

and zeal. This is good for me, since it keeps me from finding excuses to disappear.

This particular weekly column, then, is something I’ve promised my Muse and my

Self to continue ad almost-infinitum and, looking back, I realize I’ve been writing it

for way more than 25 years.

Yep, even when my weekly commentary was seen by a mere 400 bookdealers in

four countries, I always produced it. Then, when it started appearing in various small

newsletters and magazines around the region, even more folks had a chance to read

it—at least I think they did. Then came books that reprinted some of the columns.

And, for the past two or three years, many hundreds more are exposed to them through

the internet via blog, blast, tweet, facebook, website, links, etc.

My bookends are always driving me. Behind me is one deadline, before me is another,

and at this moment, while writing this, one deadline is encompassing me.

Thus proving that my Muse is really just Me

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