I’ll be spending the next month at an artists’ colony – four much-needed weeks in the woods, mostly off-the-grid, before teaching again in July.  So: I’ll see you all on the other side!

At The Millions today, this month’s Post-40 Bloomer, poet Spencer Reece. (Actually, this is April’s feature, but it took me longer than I’d expected to write, so it’s only posting today.)  Take a look – Reece’s story is exemplary of the post-40 bloomer, I think, in all its life-living, art-making richness.

One thing I did not manage to cover in my piece is the fact that James Franco, when he was a film student at Yale, approached Reece, who was a Divinity student there at the same time, about making a short film based on Reece’s poem “The Clerk’s Tale.” I was focusing so much on studying Reece’s poetry, that I decided not to watch the film; I thought it would take my mind in a completely different direction I didn’t want to go.

But, in case you’re interested, here’s a synopsis and some stills, from Cannes, where the film was a closing night feature.

Classes ended last Thursday, a week full of evening events, and now… it’s taking some time to “come down.”  Shifting gears from teaching to writing — from teaching to anything — requires some brain-clearing, and I wish it was faster, but it just ain’t.  Believe me, if sex/drugs/rocknroll worked in this regard, I’d be all in.  But alas… Yesterday was shell-shock (manifest in over-eating and a TV marathon, ugh).  Today, a good long walk, some gardening, and — what seems to work  best of all — laughter.

I am speaking of the White House Correspondents’ dinner, which took place last night.  If you know me, you know that I am in love with the President, and especially his comedic talents.  (It’s all in the delivery, as they say; the President makes jokes work that could easily crash and burn.)  Jimmy Kimmell  was damn good as well: I don’t know if it’s his style or if he was nervous, but he blew threw joke after joke, barely noticing how they were received, which I found pretty effective. Laugh with me, friends.  It’s good for the soul, good for the mind, good for art.

The Polish edition of Long for This World.  Anyone happen to read Polish?

Lots of good stuff going on this week in NYC, wish I could get to all of it:

First Person Plural: new reading series in Harlem, at Shrine World Music, 2271 Adam Clayton Powell Blvd, 7pm, Monday 4/23.  Featuring: Ed Park, Tiphanie Yanique, and Bathsheba Doran.

Celebrate Poetry @ Housing Works Bookstore Cafe: w/ Phillip Levine, Tracy K. Smith, Saeed Jones, and Karolina Manko. A joint event of Knopf + tumblr.  Also Monday 4/23 @ 7pm, 126 Crosby Street.

A Tribute to Philip Larkin:   co-sponsored by the Poetry Society of America and Cooper Union.  Tuesday 4/24 at Cooper Union, 7pm, The Great Hall, 7 East 7th Street.  Readings by Meena Alexander, Archie Burnett, Billy Collins, James Fenton, Jonathan Galassi, Deborah Garrison, Adam Gopnik, Eamon Grennan, Mary Karr, Nick Laird, J.D. McClatchy, D. Nurkse, Katha Pollitt, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Saskia Hamilton, Vijay Seshadri, Paul Simon, Zadie Smith, and Andrew Sullivan.  With live jazz performances.

WomenTalkFeminism (WTF) Panel Discussion at Columbia: “Selling Identity,” a discussion of how aspects of a writer’s identity–gender,race, ethnicity, and sexuality–are used to market a book and how these identity markers can limit or expand a book’s appeal to a wider demographic of readers. With editor Christopher Jackson,VIDA founder Cate Marvin, poet Amy King, and author Tiphanie Yanique. Wed 4/25, 8pm, 413 Dodge Hall.