Cherry Blossom Review

I'm thrilled that the editors at Cherry Blossom Review chose to publish some of my poems in the inaugural issue! Here's the link:

http://cherryblossomreview.webs.com/pattersonsep10.htm

For about the past year, I've been finding increasing refuge in writing poetry. I've been having some success! You can read some of my work at:

http://darkladypoetry.com/Dayna-Patterson.html

http://sol-magazine-projects.org/
(Click on Spring 2010 edition)

A couple of my poems are forthcoming in Sunstone Magazine and Exponent II.

A Wee Glimpse

I'm in Utah, and I've just discovered while toying around on my Dad's computer, that he scanned in the pictures I took while studying abroad in Ireland. I took them before the days of digital cameras, so I've never posted them online before. Here are some of my faves. University of Ulster campus in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. Cliffs in Donegal. A window of Dunluce Castle. Holyrood Abbey. A small windy street in Edinburgh. St. Patrick's Church in downtown Coleraine. Enjoy!

Introduction: Being the Beginning of the Blog

I'm sitting in my grad school apartment. Maddie is babbling her prelanguage at my side and hubby Charles is on the couch with a book. Lily sleeps in an adjacent room. There are boxes--20? 25?--stacked along the whitewashed cinder block walls. I am thrilled about leaving this space, or rather lack of space, but I will miss dear friends. Hence the blog. Most of them are wives of grad students, like I have been for the past five years. Five years. It seems like a long time. And this will be our fifth move. We're leaving for Nacogdoches (Nacowhat? Nacowhere?), east Texas in six days. That's where Charlie landed a job, at Stephen F. Austin State University, and frankly with the economy the way it is, I am in a state of bliss that we have a job and a beautiful house that we'll be renting, all waiting for us. The future is looking good, and I feel almost guilty relishing our blessings when neighbors and friends, also graduating, are moving in with their three or four kids to their parents' houses till they can find work. The teaching load at SFA will be heavy for Charlie (four classes per semester), and the town is small and somewhat isolated. No more Austin traffic, but also no more Austin convenience. No more book signings at The Book People where I recently got to hear Kathi Appelt talk about her Newbery Honor book, The Underneath. Nacogdoches has a Walmart, a couple of grocery stores, and the saddest (no really, the saddest) mall a person ever did see. But it's beautiful. There are towering loblolly pines and oaks that make me feel like I'm in the mountains, although the coast is only a couple hours away. Isn't that a great word, by the way? Loblolly. Just saying it makes me happy. That and pumpernickel.
But I digress. This blog is also for family, most of whom are in the mountains of northern Utah. When I describe Cache Valley I feel like I am making it up, like such a place couldn't really exist except in stories. But there really is a city in a beautiful valley that is surrounded by a ring of mountains. Every direction you turn, you will see mountains. The Wellsvilles are my favorite, perhaps because I can picture them backlit by a handful of hold-your-breath sunsets and I-almost-wish-I-were-inside lightning storms. I miss Logan. I will always miss Logan. I spent the first 18 years of my life there, and most of my family lives there, so it will always feel like home. When I go back and the post office has a facelift and my dad looks a little more like my grandpa and my grandpa looks a little closer to saying farewell, see you in the next life, well, then I feel cheated, like home should stay the same. My husband moved around as a kid, so Logan doesn't have the same magnetism for him. I think one of the reasons I like Nacogdoches, though, is because it makes me think of mountains even though there are none, and mountains make me feel at home.
This is turning into a novel, as my husband now brings to my attention. Lily is asleep no longer and Maddie is quickly dispersing her toys in our cramped living space. Maybe this blog thing isn't so bad. I said a lot of things I've been meaning to put down somewhere. I hope this will help me keep in touch with friends and family, and I hope it will also serve as a creative outlet for me as a person who has studied literature all her life and aspires to be a writer, as well as a mother.