Productivity!

I am a terribly slow writer of poems. Months and months go by and I don’t write anything at all. So, imagine my surprise to have gone on a retreat this past weekend and written four poems! Four! Two are definite keepers, and two are on the fence, but are at least good starts. That’s a miracle, for me. Encouraged, I finally worked up the courage to see how many poems I have toward a new book manuscript. I’ve avoided conducting such an inventory, for fear that the number would be discouragingly low. I found that I have 33! That’s more than halfway there. Much better than I expected.

The four new poems are for my Minnesota State Arts Board grant project–the Incantation Bowls project (click for info)–and the bowls are also in production.  In the photo below, a student assistant to  my collaborator Tiffany Besonen works on assembly.  So exciting to see this thing that Tiffany I dreamed up actually beginning to exist!

LouAnn Muhm is the recipient of an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is funded, in part, by the Minnesota State Legislature from the State’s arts and cultural heritage fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on Nov. 4, 2008.