[Carolyn Moore]

Sixteen months ago I began posting and responding at Eratosphere, then vanished when fisticuffs with cancer took over my life. I was down flat most of 2012 but am in remission now and hope to participate here again. Neuropathy remaining in several fingers means that I type many, many mistakes. It will take me longer to correct this post than to write it, so I'm self-conscious about my many typos and don't even email friends as much as I'd like to. Though the fog of "chemo-brain" is clearing, I don't catch all flubs even when I read my words over and over and over. Thus I will return here slowly, as I recover my fingers and my confidence in them.

All was not the proverbial gloom-and-doom for my poetry in 2012. Though I couldn't sit up for very long and thus didn't write new poems, I was able to send out finished work. Several poems found new homes (even honors), and two collections did as well. My ms. The Seven Deadlies was chosen as the first chapbook published by the delightfully quirky journal, Interrobang?!. My book-length ms., What Euclid's Third Axiom Neglects To Mention about Circles, won the White Pine Poetry Press Prize and will be published this fall.

The latter contains the only poem I posted here, "Adopting a Gorgon: One Parent's Experience." It did not find much favor since I am striving toward a 21st Century blank verse which certainly seems strange to traditionalists (though my b.v. follows strict yet eclectic rules). Still, that poem ended up a favorite of the book's editor. I'm guessing I incorporated suggestions made here!

So this is a belated thanks to all who helped guide that poem. And I want people here to know that a poet can disappear for other reasons than getting in a huff over intelligent critiquing. Thanks again--'hope to see you at the poetry barricades!