There will be a display of members' work spaces

...at the SWG conference this year. I emailed some pics of my work space this afternoon to be included in the Power Point presentation. Anyhow, I thought I'd post a few pics of what my office looks like today as a way of responding to SMS's comment on a previous post.

So here I am at my desk after we got home from having coffee at the Orange Toad.


In front of me is a poem that I've been working on and a notebook in which the first draft of another poem waits to be put on the computer. (Never mind the four little brown ceramic bunnies in front of the phone.) Above that, just under the monitor, is a moleskine and under that is CNQ 71. To the right of the monitor are my dictionaries and beside them is a thesaurus that I never use. In the pile to the right is John Metcalf's An Aesthetic Underground, which I just finished reading. Under that is the latest issue of Freelance, which I've almost finished, a bunch of poems that I've been editing, a couple issues of Scientific American that I've been reading, and on the bottom is the manuscript of my upcoming book.

On the wall above the desk is a piece by Cara Winsor Hehir.

To my left is a bulletin board with a number of poems-in-progress. Above the poems are a few superhero cards from my pop culture mentor, a Frank & Ernest cartoon about procrastination that H clipped out and gave to me, and a quote from George Bernard Shaw. Beneath the quote you can see the top of "The Penguin of Death" card, also from my pop culture mentor. On the bottom right of the bulletin board is a quick ink sketch of the cat's sister, who died a few years back. She used to sit on the bookcases and watch me work.

In front of the bulletin board is the printer, on top of which is the pile of books from the US writer, and the letter that accompanied them. I've been reading my eyes out so I can return the books to him. As you can see, many of them are lengthy. The printer sits on a two-drawer filing cabinet where I keep current material. The other filing cabinets are downstairs.

In the bookcase to the right of my desk I keep material I don't want to misplace. Most of it applies in one way or another to what I'm currently working on. On the top shelf behind the lamp is a stuffed spider given to me by Paula Jane. Spiders are central to the book that I'm working on now. Under the stuffed spider is a black box stuffed with correspondence. The little orange thing sticking out of the box is a finger puppet. A tiger. On the far right of the second shelf is a pile of books that I borrowed from Tracy. On the third shelf beside the binders is an unruly pile of stuff that needs sorting and filing. The bottom shelf is where I keep supplies and other binders.

Behind me is a wall of bookcases.


I couldn't get them all in, but you get the idea.