Welcome to where I am, where my kitchen's always messy, a pot's (or a poet) always about to boil over, a dog is always begging to be fed. Drafts of poems on the counter. Windows filled with leaves. Wind. Clouds moving over the mountains. If you like poetry, books, and music--especially dog howls when a siren unwinds down the hill-- you'll like it here.


MY NEW AUTHOR'S SITE, KATHRYNSTRIPLINGBYER.COM, THAT I MYSELF SET UP THROUGH WEEBLY.COM, IS NOW UP. I HAD FUN CREATING THIS SITE AND WOULD RECOMMEND WEEBLY.COM TO ANYONE INTERESTED IN SETTING UP A WEBSITE. I INVITE YOU TO VISIT MY NEW SITE TO KEEP UP WITH EVENTS RELATED TO MY NEW BOOK.


MY NC POET LAUREATE BLOG, MY LAUREATE'S LASSO, WILL REMAIN UP AS AN ARCHIVE OF NC POETS, GRADES K-INFINITY! I INVITE YOU TO VISIT WHEN YOU FEEL THE NEED TO READ SOME GOOD POEMS.

VISIT MY NEW BLOG, MOUNTAIN WOMAN, WHERE YOU WILL FIND UPDATES ON WHAT'S HAPPENING IN MY KITCHEN, IN THE ENVIRONMENT, IN MY IMAGINATION, IN MY GARDEN, AND AMONG MY MOUNTAIN WOMEN FRIENDS.




Thursday, January 22, 2009

MY OFFICE: Creative Chaos?

Or simply chaos? On a snowy day I walked into my office (so-called) and thought CHAOS! I soothed myself by remembering that creative people are supposed to be slobs, papers everywhere, books scattered over the floor, old cups of coffee growing mold on the surface.

I looked up and saw my flying pig. When pigs fly---well, there he was, so maybe there was hope after all.



And there was an old photo of my friend, novelist Lee Smith, with a yellowing poem clipped from some magazine or other so many years I can't remember what it was.




Over my desk, a water-stained photograph of Meryl Streep in a tree, when she was in THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN. Remember that movie and the novel that spawned it?
You will not see what lies beneath!



And over the center of my desk, a framed Georgia O'Keeffe, giving me a scolding look. Clean up this mess!



To my left, over my bulletin board, I saw Mother Earth, holding the animals in her hands, eyes closed as if in prayer.
I found this at a flea market in Georgia and immediately knew I had to have it. Just looking at it inspires me to me hope that someday soon I will have an office I can easily walk across and in which I can find whatever I need.



Tomorrow, my bulletin board! I know you will be waiting breathlessly to see what's been thumbtacked there for years!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

You would laugh at my bulletin board. Its actually tidy, with each piece of paper or momento carefully placed in the best aesthetic way possible. That's what happens when OCD and creativity collide.

Lynn ... said...

Wow ... I'm amazed. You described my desk perfectly ... all the way down to the moldy coffee cup that I keep forgetting to take back to the kitchen. *ugh* Anyway ... I am SUCH a Georgia O'Keeffe fan and have that SAME picture of her in my kitchen, which is done in her poppy prints!

I keep saying I'm going to clean things up a little, but how would I ever find stuff if I did?

Anyway ... the rest of the house is so clean you can eat off the floors. So, when people start coming upstairs to eat at my desk, THEN I'll think seriously about cleaning it off!

Love your blog!

Kathryn Stripling Byer said...

When OCD anc creativity collide. I think that's a book, Jessica. Or a thesis. or something. Grab it our I'll steal it!
Just be ready to see my bulletin board tomorrw.
nothing is carefully placed, eveyrthing is in transit, it's all a work in progress, which sonds so reasurring.
Well, lynn, when you clean, can cant find thngs, and when you don;t, you can't find things. I feel hopless. I wish I could say everythng else is clean, but with 5 dogs that stay in a lot in cold weather, there's no way, baby, that folks would won't to eat off the floors! I am going to start advertising for a cleaning woman who can take the worst a house throws at you! And we won;t go there.......

Kathryn Stripling Byer said...

sorry for mistkes in last comment, Lynn; Im writing in bed and getting sleepy and my fingers keep hitting all the wrong keyd@

DeadMule said...

Is your "office' in your house, Kathryn?

Oh, I forgot to tell you I come up as deadmule because my gmail is associated with me being poetry editor for the Mule.

Helen

Kathryn Stripling Byer said...

Helen, yes, it's in the house, which means that a lot of stuff just gets thrown in there out of the way of the dogs and the rest of us. I added it on some years ago as a sunroom/office. It's a great space but ....it needs some good OCD organizing!

Kathryn Stripling Byer said...

P.S., Helen, I'm hoping to feature some zines on my lau. site and am thinking Dead Mule should be one. I have Cave Wall lined up for next week--I hope.

Glenda Council Beall said...

As I watch a Public TV show on Change Your Brain, I am reading this post. My home office downstairs has become such a horror, I decided to put a desk in my bedroom to handle "personal mail" only.
Now I have doubled my problem. I have chaos upstairs and downstairs and I never know whether to look in the mess on my upstairs desk or in the downstairs disaster.
I tell my husband that writers are known for messy offices. We are more creative, I tell him, if we aren't obsessed with cleanliness. Now he won't even look for anything downstairs where I have two desks, several file cabinets, and a table set up for the overflow.
Help! I'm drowning in paper and no one can save me but myself.

Lynn ... said...

*laughing* Okay, I JUST now found your comment back to me and had a good hearty laugh! I wrote that BEFORE my Pomeranian (or Pomeraniac) started shedding. No WAY would anyone eat off our floors at this point, unless they don't mind little fluffs of white dog hair perched atop their macaroni like a garnish! :0)

PS ... Something came over me and I DID clean off my desk a few weeks ago. Sadly though, something ELSE came over me shortly after, and now it's a mess again. *sigh*