This past spring, I expressed some fears that I wouldn't be able to keep up with my weekly blogcast due to various complications. Specifically, I was serving Federal jury duty, and I had started back with my online graduate school classes. Well, that didn't happen. Here's why. First, I got a conformation email two weeks ago that my jury service had ended. Still haven't gotten a letter, though. I actually knew about my service even earlier, at my previous call-in. I heard that there were no other cases on the docket until after my service had ended. In fact, I only got called in twice. I don't know if that is typical or because of the pandemic, but I'm glad that I wasn't called in more. I didn't have to serve either time. In fact, I was one of the first jurors eliminated each time. Frankly, I'm not sure how well of a juror I would've been. At least my duty has been fulfilled. I'm just sorry for those jurors who missed their first call-in. They still have another six months to serve. If they received their summons the same time I did, then this means that they will have been on call for over two years before their terms end. On the other front, my classes weren't as hard to deal with as I thought. My summer course went quickly, but not to the point where I had to make any drastic changes with my time. I don't think I will be taking another accelerated course any time soon, though. This fall, I took two more courses. The first was Early Dramatic Literature. I had to read one, usually short, play each week; write a brief essay on it; respond to another person's essay; and write a major paper for the final. The paper was the hardest part. I was having a difficult time finding works to cite. I also had to rewrite the conclusion multiple times. I still wasn't completely satisfied with it. My other class was Advance Poetry Writing. For the class, I was supposed to have eight to ten chapter tests for the textbook, write four pairs of poems with at least eight lines, workshop everyone else's poems, and turn in a portfolio of four poems ready for journal submission. The class didn't turn out that way. First, many in the class had a hard time getting the textbook. Even I had to go through the college book store, and I wasn't able to get a used book. I had to spend twenty plus dollars more on new. Then, the chapter tests were late starting due to not everyone having their books. When the first test became available, it had a duplicated question. The third test was a little late. Then, the tests stopped. They were going to be put up all at once so that those who could read ahead could take them when they had the time, but the tests never came and the professor ultimately declared that the remaining tests would not be taken. This means I spent extra money on a book that I would not need, featuring examples from poets I never heard of. And, I discovered a mistake, at least it seems that way to me. As for the poetry submissions, the first group took a little long for everyone to finish. One person submitted theirs after the deadline, and I never got to look over those poems. I only realized this fact this morning. The second workshop session took extra long, as there were multiple submissions after the deadline. Because of this, the third submission was reduced to only one-poem-needed and submitted before Thanksgiving. The workshop session is taking place over finals week. I uploaded my responses to the last group, along with those for two others who submitted after the deadline, this morning. I was doing the last response on the site, after I discovered their lateness. As to the portfolio, there hasn't been any news or links to turn one it or how the poems should be presented. If there's nothing up by this afternoon, I will have to send a message to see what to do. I'm guessing that this part of the class has been reduced as well, since many students won't have their last responses by the last day of finals and not everyone will have had the minimum four poems workshopped. I find it a shame, especially since I found the experience quite easy. It only took my about twenty to thirty minutes to compose a poem, once inspiration hit, and another thirty minutes to type them up, editing as I typed. Each one was different, and they have been posted on my literary blog. Gong over the poems of others wasn't so easy. Some of the choices weren't the ones I would have made. I was pretty much the only one who went beyond free verse, including a sonnet(!?!?) for my last submission. I don't want to say that some of the poems were bad, but there were a few I saw that might not have made it to a literary journal. While I don't consider myself a poet primarily, I have to say that I enjoyed the work and found it very satisfying. As of right now, I might be taking another semester off, as the opportunities for spring a bleak. Still, my blog has survived and is ready for another year.
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