Hello. Here I am. It’s after midnight here in NYC (and apparently five hours later wherever WordPress originates), but it’s still Monday in LA, so I think that counts.
January 4, 2010 is/was the 50th birthday of Michael Stipe, “enigmatic lead singer for the legendary rock group R.E.M.” (not sure where I’m quoting that from, but I know someone else has written it at some point). I was obsessed with R.E.M. and saw Stipe as a personal hero. I even tried to write a poem dedicated to him (groan!) and submitted it as part of my portfolio in an undergraduate writing workshop (forgive me, Prof. Flanagan!).
I have to say that I lost interest in the band after say, the fifth album, when they started to fill huge stadiums (stadia?) and their lyrics became more comprehensible. Sigh.
I’ve written elsewhere about the importance of music to my life in general, and my writing in particular. It seems appropriate that I start the week of blogging here with a musical reference.
I’m Amy Lemmon, and I am glad to be here. My first book-length collection of poems, Saint Nobody, was fabulously published in February 2009 by this very press. I have a blog of the same name, and another one I’ve started more recently about single parenting, spirituality, and perhaps some other stuff (on Another Blogging Site, shhhhh!). I’ve also been a guest blogger on the Best American Poetry blog a couple of times. I teach at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and live in one of the “outer boroughs” of NYC.
I’ll be musing here about writing, poetry, prose, the creative process, and probably a bunch of other stuff. It’s time for bed now, but I’ll see you again tomorrow. In the meantime, have a listen to one of my favorite R.E.M. songs, “Harborcoat” from their second album, Reckoning–not only are the lyrics typically hazy and obscure, but for part of the song two vocal lines overlap, blurring the words even more. Deliciously so, methinks.
