HAPPY NEW YEARS MUSE NEWS

Pumping Irony for 78 Years

Just a few days ago I learned something significant about one of my most loyal friends. The muse news came from the angio-catheterization dept, where I showed up for some video pics of that fist in my chest. This friend has served me well for three quarters of a century plus. It ensured that I crossed from one century to the next, indeed, it helped me cross from one millennia to the next. It was with me as the world evolved from analog to binary, from organic intelligence to artofficial intelligence.

My heart is a disaster waiting to happen. The diagram says it all. 100% blockage, 100% blockage, 85% blockage, 70% blockage, 50-70% blockage and 50% blockage. I have a consultation for Jan 23 with my cardiologist to schedule my open heart bypass surgery. So I wait and wonder, hearing my heartbeat in my ears every moment for the past two years after my eustachian tubes became permanently blocked. Is it comforting to hear one’s heartbeat for every moment of their life, yes, but it is boring.

So that is the news. The muse news is that this situation has interrupted the plans of POETCHRY. The target date of the grand unveiling for Friday, April 24 may not be met. I don’t know when the surgery will happen. If it happens after April 24, I will not be able to etch because my cardiologist advised me to keep my activities stress free. Damn. If the surgery happens before that date, I will be advised to take things easy for two or three weeks while healing. When I learn more things, I will be able to provide a more accurate assessment of when Picnic On Poetry will go fully forward.

I am well equipped to sit on my butt and keystroke to my heart’s content. This means I can receive poetry and prose and format it from text to laser text. Last years’ experience was novel in every regard, but with that I now possess the knowledge of how to format. This is the necessary prep work before the actual etching begins. So all the curators out there can continue to acquire poetry for the picnic tabletops and forward them to me.

All the tables this year have a maximum limit of ten poems each, and each poem not to be longer than 30 lines. In the first year POETCHRY accepted every poem received, which resulted in two tables of one theme to catch the overflow.