I hope this finds each one of you doing well, and having enjoyed the fall wherever it found you.
With the Holidays almost here, I realized an entry was (long) overdue. Many of you have emailed me over the last seven months, but since May, I have had little to no access to email, and so have had no chance to try to catch up with any of you until now. Thank you for the emails, and your efforts to keep in touch with me. I apologize for the long delay, and ask for your patience as I try to wade through the 7 months of back-logged emails in my two inboxes. Bear with me! I'm getting there, but wanted to offer a quick update before the holiday season is upon us.
This past summer, I served as Poet-In-Residence at The Harwood Museum in Taos, New Mexcio, where I worked on my next collection of poems. I had planned to return to Penn State for the Fall semester but upon my return, found myself unexpectedly having to leave my position at the university due to ongoing health challenges from injuries I sustained in the car accident I had in May of 2004. For the last two years, I had tried to manage healing from those injuries, along with fulltime teaching and some limited activism work, but by this fall, I was no longer able to meet the demands of the fulltime teaching. I realized then, in discussion with my doctors, that I had to make my heath the priority, and so needed to leave the Penn State position after being there since 1999. Although I was disappointed to leave teaching, and the students who inspired me to keep teaching, I realized that my health had to come first.
So, I have spent the last several months focused on getting stronger, and working, as my health permitted, on the next book of poems, as well as collaborating with acclaimed photographer Lenny Foster on two projects. Lenny and I are working on a book and a 2007 calendar, combining his photographs with new poems of mine, many written during the last couple of months after leaving Penn State. Check back again for updates on the calendar, as well as (finally!) updates to the site. New poems, new pictures, new gigs and a new direction, which will become obvious after you read a new poem or two. There have been big and unexpected changes in my life, and yet, I remind myself daily: Change is GOOD.
This Thanksgiving, I hope your life offers you many things and people for whom to be grateful.
ALL PEACE. DORA
