Maritime News

In other news, I am keeping busy, too busy! Last night I was elected to the Board of Directors of the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum, in Havre de Grace, Maryland. "Where Bay Life Begins" is the new slogan which will be implemented throughout the course of the upcoming capital campaign. The capital campaign will complete the pavilion on the grounds, creating exhibit, storage, and rental space, enabling the Chesapeake Wooden Boat School to move downstairs in the main building and the first floor be expanded entirely into exhibits and additional features, such as a library/resource room, offices, handicap elevator, etc.

So far the museum is a cute little museum, very inexpensive whose dominant features is the wooden boat school that restores and builds wooden boats. The wooden boat program is widely recognized for its excellence. Other notable features are the sustainable landscaping and its nearness to other nautical features, including the Concord Point Lighthouse and Lighthousekeeper's house, the Decoy Museum, and Havre de Grace Promenade. Plans will include the replacement of the wooden dock that was washed away by Hurricane Isabel.

Since I am in the process of changing careers from what I used to do into museum management, especially development and fundraising, it's quite exciting to be a member of the board during this time period. And since I am also a local with a passion for the history of the Chesapeake Bay, a degree in history, and experience in non-profit, educational development, with a passion for wooden boats... It was a natural fit.

If you have any interest in maritime history, Maryland, or the Chesapeake Bay, or just to win brownie points with me, please visit the website of the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum and become a member or donor! We will love you for it.

Up until this point in my blog I have concentrated principally on poetry and will continue to do so, but I believe very much in poetry of place and now that I've covered the history and development of tanka/waka/kyoka (see archives, especially the earliest ones), look for more poetry of place and maritime information to be interspersed among the modern tanka posts.

~K~

Ships and Poetry

10 more days to the deadline for Fire Pearls. I hope I don't get a bunch of last minute submissions, but if they do, I hope they're fabuolous. Cutting has been difficult. So much good stuff has been sent that I'm well over the original plan for 300 poems. Nonetheless, all poets have been advised regarding their first cuts, and the draft is in good shape.

Due to the amount of time it takes a new book to work its way into the distribution channels, I want to have the manuscript in the printer's hands as quickly after the deadline as possible. I put in about thirty hours this weekend on the book, and the draft has been sent a dear friend who is a Very Famous Tanka Poet to read and write the cover blurb.

It's also important to get as much done now as possible as I have a job interview with an historic wooden ship whose name I won't mention. I'm dissatisfied with my current job, so I sent out feelers last week to see if any of the regional marine museums and historic sailing ships have jobs available. And lo, one does! So on Tuesday I go for an interview. I am crossing my fingers and hoping it works out. If it does, I'll be commuting much further, working longer hours, earning more, and having to learn a new job -- right at the Fire Pearls deadline.

Which is my why I busted my butt this weekend to see that Fire Pearls is shipshape. I don't miss deadlines and I don't do sloppy work. I plan ahead and get things done in advance and allow for contigencies. While this is the first poetry book I've done, I have previous experience as a small press and alternative press editor. I've published more than a dozen books and chapbooks. All is good.