No-Comfort Zone Challenge two weeks ending May 6th

Posted on May 6, 2012 by quillfyre

Brook Farm circa 1891, farmhouse was a part of the Shadowbrook Estate, Lenox,MA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Just realized that I am a week behind on my posting for the No-Comfort Challenge! So, last time my goal was to work towards prepping for Massachusetts, and that has been my prime focus. I started to pack last night, only to realize it was much too soon. Unless I want to go barefoot for the next week.

My feet would not be very happy about that. So, I have assembled most of the things but final packing will be later in the week.My challenge there will be not to overpack.

My GPS is programmed, my driving directions are printed out along with reservation info etc. A few errands to run in regard to supplies and stuff, and US $. Will likely do that early in the week. The more I can focus on that stuff, the less time I have to worry about the actual trip. I can still feel the low-level anxiety cranking in the background though. I am trying to ignore it, as I know it won’t die until I actually arrive in Lenox. I have no worries so far about the trip back!

And I just love these two old images I found, both of the place where we will be staying, Brook Farm Inn, and the woodprint of Lenox!

View of Lenox, MA; from an 1839 woodprint by John Warner Barber, published in Massachusetts Historical Collections, 1839. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For the poetry part of it, I am about halfway through the critiques for the other poets. A new batch has just arrived, so I still have three poets to review. I spent all day Friday on that (finally! I kept putting it off…) So I think I am doing okay for time.

So, what about my submitting project? Nothing new on the litmag front, but I did submit five poems to the Poetic Asides challenge that ended April 30. Did that right away last Monday. But I won’t be thinking much about any of that for the next two weeks. My main upcoming challenge is keeping up my confidence that I can make this trip and that nothing will go wrong. I won’t get sick, I won’t get lost. Oh, and I won’t have a car accident.

Oh, and meanwhile, Tuesday night I find out about my short-listed poem in the CAA National Capital Writing Contest. Carol

No-Comfort Zone Week Ending April 23, 2012

Posted on April 22, 2012 by quillfyre

Well, this was a busy but successful week. I attended two meetings on Monday, a lunch appointment on Tuesday and a much-anticipated and dreaded doctor’s appointment on Wednesday. But it appears I must have been doing something right on the health score, as my tests showed improved numbers. This is kidney-related, so has been an ongoing concern for several years now, and a complex one to deal with as far a diet goes.

What else? Well, on Friday I sent off my very first non-contest related submission to a national literary magazine. With some help from my friend Claudia. I promised her that it would be for this first one only, just to get me past the initial block. So that’s done. This week I am prepping for the Massachusetts workshop. Good news there too, as my brother will be back in town to cat-sit and house-sit etc. Have to admit though that the maps look rather confusing. Thank goodness for GPS.

I managed yesterday to catch up on both poetry challenges. But today I must clean up my desk so I can start the next batch of paper piles. My goal for the week to come is to work on Massachusetts-related “homework” and to pull together all the info I want to have on hand about the trip, the inn, and the workshop. And my travel lists. Only three weeks away now!

We’ll be staying here: http://brookfarm.com/ which is where most of the workshop will be held, but we will also take in some local sites. See below. The Mount was Edith Wharton’s residence, Steepletop was Edna St. Vincent Millay‘s. And I must mention our leader/instructor, James Arthur. James is a American-Canadian poet, writer, teacher, who grew up in Toronto but who now lives in the U.S. He was the instructor for the Stanford online 10-week poetry course that I took back in the fall of 2010. Two of the other students from that class will also be attending, so we will finally all get a chance to meet in person!

Pics of two places we’ll be visiting while in Lenox: Edith Wharton‘s Estate The Mount, Lenox (our last day workshop will be held here)

The Mount, 2006 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Alternative view of the front of The Mount, former home of Edith Wharton, in Lenox, Massachusetts. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Main house at Steepletop Farm, home of Edna St. Vincent Millay (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NO-Comfort Zone Week ending April 16

Posted on April 16, 2012 by quillfyre

This week I challenged myself to drive to a Tree Reading Series Masterclass, a poetry workshop being held about an hour away but across the provincial border to Quebec.

Portage Bridge Ottawa Canada (Wikipedia)

I am not sure why this caused me concern, except that it was the first time I’d go all by myself, and there are some tricky twists and turns to get into Quebec. Ottawa and Gatineau are separated by the Ottawa River. There are several bridges, each with their own challenges as one tries to find the route to Val-des-Monts.

Rural Val-des-Monts, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And then, once there, to offer up poems for critique not only to fellow poets, both friends and strangers, but also with the editor of one of Canada’s most prominent literary magazines. This would be John Barton of the Malahat Review. Once again, though, my concerns were quickly put to rest as we all settled in to the work at hand. Our retreat was at the marvelous Lilipad just north of Val-des-Monts, hosted graciously by Lise Rochefort and Adrian Jones. Lise and Adrian (who spent his birthday yesterday doing this: Happy Birthday, again, Adrian!) prepared the marvelous food for the group and the space for us to work. The setting too is lovely, right on the lake, where spring is just starting to share daffodils with us.

But I must say that the knowledge John Barton shared with us, and the quick and easy rapport among the poets far outshines the daffodils, bright yellow as they may have been! Thanks to everyone for making this a great weekend for my birthday and for National Poetry Month!

Carol A. Stephen

Carol

No-Comfort Zone Week Ending April 8

Posted on April 8, 2012 by quillfyre

This week, I have made some progress on personal issues and I’m feeling a bit more optimistic about things in general. I am also realizing that I have been putting a lot of pressure on myself with unrealistic expectations. Not a new thing, but new for me to accepting that I don’t really need to do many of these things that I am being self-critical about. It is a liberating feeling. I still have a lot of work to do on attitude, but it’s starting to go the right way. Success in the No-Comfort Zone is not always what we started out for it to be!

This week I am preparing for the Quebec workshop, which takes place next weekend. Nervous about it, yes. The instructor is a very well-known Canadian poet, and editor of one of the major national journals. But so were the first two, Barry Dempster and Roo Borson. I learned a lot from both.

Looking forward to the opportunity, then, to work with John Barton.

Carol A. Stephen

Quillfyre

Aspiring to poet

Tag Archives: No-Comfort Zone

No-Comfort Zone Challenge two weeks ending May 6th

No-Comfort Zone Week Ending April 23, 2012

NO-Comfort Zone Week ending April 16

No-Comfort Zone Week Ending April 8

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