odds and ends and writer's block

Life.

Well, life is slowly settling back to a normal pace. All of the anxiety, sadness and anger that I had been feeling over the past several months has ever so slowly begun to evaporate.

I’ve been focusing my energy on creative pursuits, not the least of which is co-editing a new project by Walter Ruhlmann, founder and editor of mgv2publishing. The project is scheduled for an October release, and I don’t want to say too very much about it now, but I will say that I am looking extremely forward to seeing the final product and showcasing some wonderful new poetry by poets who the world should really get to know better.

The Poetry Superhighway Poetry Contest is still going strong. The amount of raw poetic talent out there in Internet land is staggering. I’m still loving the whole “being a judge in a poetry contest” thing. If you’re thinking about entering the contest, you definitely should! A dollar per poem is not too shabby when compared to contests that charge $15 or $20 reading fees.

In a week or so, I will be flying off to Oregon to participate in the Poets On The Coast writing retreat hosted by poets Kelli Russell-Agodon and Susan Rich. Hopefully, this retreat will be the grease I need to loosen the jaws of the writer’s block that has latched on to me in recent weeks.

Writer’s block. Does it even really exist? I just feel…empty, lately.

Of course, I have felt this way before, and the “stuck” feeling has always passed. I’m crossing my fingers for relief of my creative constipation.

So, what do you do to combat the dreaded “writer’s block”? Do you believe it exists? How do you deal with that “stuck” feeling?