Gordon Prize for Poetry

So ... my poem won the Gordon Prize for Poetry ....

Personally, I would have thought I'd have a much better chance at the prose fiction, but first runner up for that one and first re: poetry... both writing credits, which are never a bad thing.

This was the winning poem:

The sky is pinks and purples

with streaks of grayish blue;

reflected colours in the water moving

steadily towards the shore

disturbed only by the splash

of the large fish that taunts us daily

jumping always in the same area

of the lake, causing large ripples,

and attracting the attention

of the more adventurous of the ducks

that feed around their favourite dock

while the kingfisher watches from his post

on the wheel at the top of our boat winch

and the crane moves stealthily along the shore

leading with his long, slender neck

past the neighbour's golf course lawn

towards our own unkempt buffer zone

as the sky turns darker than

the unnatural pink of the water

before it fades into pink grey darkness

behind the high pitched whine of the frogs

and the swooping flight of the bats

who have decided that the sun

has signaled dinnertime.

And so ends another semester....

Well, it's over.... and now - aside from one more core English course which I'm supposed to take over the summer (except there are none offered during the summer through Laurentian, and my academic advisor doesn't answer her email so I can't sign up for an online one) I'm supposedly off to Laurentian Sudbury for fourth year. So far I am not impressed!

Has taken way too many emails to try to sort out what the requirements are re: the Honours Essay proposal I need to submit (and get approved) so that I don't have to go up to Sudbury more than once/week. Had to ask repeatedly to find out who could supervise - finally got an answer today but don't know if the prof I want to work with qualifies and she hasn't answered my email either. Was also told that I have to make sure that my topic is not being covered in any of the Honours Seminars which are being offered ...so fine... logical thing to do would be to go look at what is being offered - special topics chosen by the prof - that's all the info I could find... emailed Sudbury again and asked how one knows - told to email the prof - so back I go through the courses again. Emailing profs would be a lot easier if they had been assigned. They haven't.

I gave up - for today, anyway.

Did manage to sign up for the one course I absolutely have to take up there - it sucks - the only section that is a three hour block is Monday night - ends at 9 p.m.
Hardly an ideal time to have to be heading back on a three hour drive. And to further irritate me, almost all of their courses are offered in 1.5 hour sessions 2x/week. Monday/Wednesday or Tues/Thursday. I am NOT driving 6 hours for a 1.5 hour class. I had hoped I'd be able to get 2 courses on the same day ... 6 hours of class ...would make the drive more worthwhile. Was even willing to stay overnight one day/week if I could take courses Monday afternoon/Tuesday morning... but they don't offer ANYTHING that works. Nothing. Nada! It SUCKS. Very poor planning, if you ask me. There was only one other course that could have worked - but its full. Go figure.

At the moment, I'm not so sure that I want anything to do with any of this crap. Kicking myself for not having at least looked into whether I could transfer to York for fourth year. I wonder if its too late?