From Desert to Great Lakes

and back again--from Michigan to Utah--two such distinct and distant places, separated not only by an enormous mountain range and 1,500 miles but by landscapes so different that it's a shock that takes some months for me to absorb each time I make this trek (they say it takes a couple of months just for your blood to acclimate, which says nothing of the head and the heart). In any case, back to Utah this August it is, and we'll live on this ranch (which is like a dream in some ways, since I've always imagined myself on a ranch with several animals, one or more of which would definitely be a horse because there's a nine-year-old that won't let go inside of me), and I'll be starting a new position as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of English--Poetry at Snow College. I'm terrified and excited and wondering if change will ever be a lesser factor in my life.

I realize that change is one of the only certainties in life (D&T aside), but I feel a bit like a pinball. I can only imagine how my son feels, even if he says he feels fine about everything because he's bothered by nothing. It's so strange to juggle gratitude with uncertainty. And, being me, to balance worry with faith.

This weekend we celebrated Flanagan's first birthday and Mother's Day, and it occurs to me how much mothering a puppy really is like raising a toddler (albeit a 58lb. toddler who can run away really, really fast). I've said it before, but it really is so true that this puppy has, in so many ways, saved my life just by needing me this winter, and it's been such a pleasure to see him grow and learn and love us. If we came back to MI only to find him, the trip was worth it.

Also, big thanks to John Hoppenthaler at Connotations Press for publishing these poems, the first of which is included in Errata, and the other two from the new manuscript tether. And again to Crazyhorse editors for including me in this lovely issue, to Gulf Coast editors, for including me in this lovely issue, and again to Sundress Publications and A.E. Stallings for including my poem "Careo" in the Best of the Net Anthology 2013.

Through the darkness of this winter, the light of spring.

xo,
LF