Life as a Squirrel

I first encountered the Squirrel Hill Poetry Workshop in 2002, in the early days of my return to creative writing after a flameout precipitated (in part) by my choice of creative writing as a college major. In those days, the group still met at the Squirrel Hill library. I sat in on a session with a nice bunch of people, and would have joined then, but the membership roster was full.

About a decade later, I was invited to share nuts with the Squirrels at CC Mellor Memorial Library. My life and relationship to writing had changed a lot over the years; in retrospect, the timing worked out well.

Among my most cherished nuts is a prompt that Rosaly devised, spontaneously, in one workshop. Shirley and Nancy were discussing an art opening they had recently attended; one of the paintings was titled "Going Back for Wonder Woman." Shirley passed around her phone showing the image. Its title struck us all so much that Rosaly suggested we use it as a prompt. I spent the next year and a half working on the first draft of a poem with that title.

My fellow Squirrels, of course, saw most if not all of the working drafts. They not only gave me the inspiration, but patiently acted as a sounding board when I brought the poem to workshop again and again.

On the occasion of the Squirrel Hill Poetry Workshop's 40th anniversary, I'm dedicating and turning over this issue of Uppagus to them. Hope you enjoy!

I had an inordinate amount of fun designing this flier for a 2014 Squirrels reading.