As I get the comps reading done (finally, entirely finished with one list and only three books to go), and in the midst of the MMLA revision process, an idea for the dissertation has leapt into my ragged head: my walk to work.
It goes like this: if I'm struggling toward ecopoetry, and I'm convinced that place and placedness is part of the process and product, then I should take on my place a little more deeply. When thinking about how to narrow down the entire Great Plains, I began to think about what I know most intimately. That would be my walk to and from campus. Twice a day. Every day. Five days a week. I pass some of the oldest houses in the city as well as the place where the first cabin was built. I pass the capital building and the offices of the state government. I work at the largest university in the state. And I walk past and around all of this in rain, snow and clear days. Before dawn and after sundown. In wind and in fog. I see seasons pass--including the mating and migration seasons. Plants sprout, bud out--volunteers, wild and cultivated--they bloom, go to seed, dry up and turn to compost.
Right. So I've been hitting the stacks for history and science books.
But first, the MMLA.
Comments