Dear Professor Weatherby,
You were one of the toughest and, by far, the most fearsome of the English department crew. Other students joked you clicked your heels when you turned corners. Professor Sullivan once said you took a swim in the Gulf and the sharks were afraid of you. You made students cry, regularly. You were outstanding.
It was such a small moment for you I’m sure, but after class one day you listened to me go on about inventing my own poetic form. You listened to me jabber on in my excitement and creative rush, (I’m sure I had turned bright red by the breathless second sentence). You listened to me, and after, you leaned in and said, “That’s what makes you a poet.”
I carry your words in my pocket to this day for when I doubt my craft. Such a small moment, but to me, it lights the way. Thank you.
-M.
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Published by M. Ashley
I am an essayist and poet. My work has been rejected by some of the finest journals in America. Fortunately, it also gets accepted from time to time and has appeared in equally fine journals such as Word Riot, Inlandia, Brew City Magazine, and SageWoman, among others.. In 2002, I won the Academy of American Poets Prize for Vanderbilt University.
For no good reason, I possess an unnecessarily dark humor which is why being third generation California Inland Empirian delights me so. My gods are weird. I once won $350 for writing a smartassed essay on “why the wise use of water is important in my daily life”. I am undoubtedly the Greek god Hermes’ special snowflake. I’m pretty sure I got into college via a series of fortuitous clerical errors.
When I had to grow up and get a real job, I decided against it and stayed a writer. I have worked many odd—and I mean odd—jobs to support my habit: PR writer for country music hopefuls, resume massager, WalMart fitting room attendant and switchboard operator, and telephone psychic, just to name a few.
I am also albino. That's why my psychic gifts are so strong. I traded in my pigment for magical foresight, because that's how it works. It gets all technical. Trust me. That's totally how it works.
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M. N. Ashley 