August all but slipped away, and now, it’s half-way into September. I’m just now coming up for air after the major transition between summer and the full-throttle school year. My wife and I are both teachers, so the change in rhythm for our whole family challenges us.

Our son, J, transitioned from a small, in-home daycare to a public preschool this year. He’s digging school, but sometimes I have to bribe him to get out the door by 7:45am. He wants more time in his pajamas. (Don’t we all!)

I’m teaching four online classes at CU Denver, 94 students in all. When the first round of major papers comes in, I will be holed up in my office for weeks. For now, at least, I’m finding time to write and revise a little every day and am being patient with my work—trusting that good things will happen if I stay engaged in the writing process.

To truly disorient myself in the name of creativity, I’m taking an 8-week poetry workshop at Lighthouse Writers Workshop. I’m learning that I have a lot to learn about reading and writing poetry and am so thankful for the chance to expand my knowledge and experiment with form.

This week, I was tasked with writing a poem that hands one word down from each previous line. I wrote a 10-line lyric poem about infertility.  I was so surprised by the nine words that repeated in the final poem: loaded, white, set, body, hands, count, time, wait, and gun. Since I’m accustomed to writing narrative, constraint helps me think outside the prose box and into a more poetic, surprise-filled space. It’s exhilarating to write something so starkly different from anything that came before.

Even with all of fall’s demands, the constant rush of life–shuttling J to school, swimming, and gymnastics; taking writing workshops; and teaching, I feel happy and lucky to get to pursue a creative life & be a mom.

Thanks for reading.

With Gratitude–

Nicole