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A couple weeks ago, not long after I wrote my second poem about Hurricane Katrina, a high school English teacher emailed me and asked permission to use my poem to help her students write their own responses to the tragedy. They studied it, discussed it, and the students did write their own poems after reading mine. I am very, very honored that someone would be so moved by my writing that they want to use it to inspire young people to be creative. That's a great compliment for any writer. I don't write as a profession or to gain notoriety, but just to be creative. If someone likes what I write, then that's awesome, but it's not the only reason I write poetry or anything else. I was suprised and humbled that the teacher wanted her students to read MY poetry when they could be studying the works of the truly great poets. I've been published in newspapers several times, but I think this is the pinnacle of my writing career thus far.

In other news, I can say for certain that I'd only live on the Gulf coast if I was forced. Hurricane Rita is now a level FIVE storm and promises to cause even more damage and destruction. New Orleans may be flooded once again (thankfully with far fewer people still there) and that is something I was worried about all along.

What gives? These are really crazy times we're living in now. Do you think global warming has something to do with this? That's definitely something to think about. I do think it's quite interesting that, throughout history, man has felt the urge to live by the water even considering the destructive power water can have. We all know the dangers of living by the sea, any sea, but yet the sea is where many of us in America choose to live. I'm thinking that, in the future, there will be a great migration from the coastal areas to places further inland. Non-coastal areas have their own dangers, but perhaps fewer and less destructive dangers than the dangers of the ocean.