Some Thoughts on "Generations" Poem

Last night, I finally finished the poem I was working on. Like a lot of the stuff I have been writing recently, it got to be this long-ish poem divided into smaller sub-sections. I don't think I will call them a "series of poems," because other than the first two, I don't think they will make much sense if read separately. So, the very way they have been written demands a kind of sequential reading.Now, the whole thing is done, at least the first draft, I was thinking, the main patriarch character of the poem needs to be developed a little bit more. For example, why do I call him Parrot King? Of course, there is a kind of fairytalish feeling in that, but the way it stands now, that fairy-talish feeling doesn't lend much to anything else. Similarly, there is a need to expand on the relationship between the narrator and the Parrot King a little bit more. There are hints within the poem of the Parrot King's paternity, but the emotional world still remains largely un-explored. I guess, everything doesn't need to be squeezed into one single poem, and possibly some of the stuff that I think this poem is lacking, can definitely go into the Cartographer's Daughter poem that I have been thinking about for a while. But still, there are certain things, I am feeling, that need to be addressed right within the body of this poem. But, for now, I can rest, and send it out to my "first reader," and see what he says!

I have been feeling this urge to go back to prose for a while now.So, I think, beginning today, I will re-visit the story I have put up for Beth Ann Bauman's workshop. The second one, that is. "A Phuchka for Bindudi." I have received some good feedback for that one, and I think, I do have some thoughts on how to tweak certain parts of it. And of course, then there are certain other parts that just need to be newly written and added to the main story. I am beginning to feel excited about it! But, then, there is also this niggling thought, that I should really be working on my dissertation now! This is it about me--I never could figure out this whole thing about being timely, and doing things on time. But for now, I will just settle on emailing the poem to some of my readers, and then working on the story!