Despite a (presently continuing — ugh) encounter with a stomach virus (I swear, my body must feel about viruses the way I felt about stickers or My Little Pony dolls as a child — it seems to never get enough of them, even if it’s just gotten one), my time at home has left me rejuvenated, refreshed, and feeling more solid, sure-footed, and squared away than I have in a long time. And I’m also beginning to feel Poems simmer up to the surface: slowly but surely, they’re returning. This is the way the Witch Project has worked: I research, I find myself in a flurry of writing, I stop, I research, and then the flurry again, only this time with a brand new perspective. I’m starting to see this almost as a prism, as if each time I stop and start again, I’ve turned the prism and am looking at everything — the trials, the villagers, theological concerns, the life and death of the witch — from a different angle. This time, it looks that I’ll be approaching the poems with the idea of The Other in mind. It seems an important thing: how one can so easily be labeled as Other, as Not What We Want, and how that can be it, absolutely, no further questions, no persuasion otherwise, need not apply.

Taking a new look at my work is, as always, rejuvenating, but I think perhaps I am feeling rejuvenated mostly because of my artist-in-residence work. My second residency, this one at Fews Alternative School, where I teach the Writing Our Stories curriculum through the Alabama Writers’ Forum, began this Wednesday. I was nervous, as I always am when stepping into a classroom for the first time as teacher — especially someone else’s classroom! — but my nerves were quickly settled. Fews is an amazing school, and the faculty and administration show a devotion and dedication to their students and to education that is, to say the least, impressive and inspiring. Though nothing could be more impressive and inspiring than the students themselves — though I think they were, at first, a bit suspicious of me, they seemed to warm up after a little while, and the work they produced! Absolutely amazing. I cannot wait to work with them again, and consider myself incredibly lucky to have been given this chance.

I’ve been thinking a lot about change, how, perhaps, the most important part of it is just being ready, and being patient enough to wait.

Now, back to the end-of-Spring-Break-grind, and to Diet Coke and Saltines (sorry, no-sugar diet, but a bowl of asparagus and quinoa pasta probably wouldn’t make my stomach happy now), and to the witches, and class plans, and, probably, some reality television — I missed the season finale of Scott Baio, and have been trying to catch it, in order to get my rage on.

Incidentally: my photograph is lying to you. I cut off six and a half inches of my hair, and have some Serious Bangs.