First Meeting w/Thesis Chair

Here is what I learned:

• One week prior to my thesis reading (April 27), I need to submit an approved draft (i.e., read and approved by each member of my committee with a sign-off from the chair) to the graduate school. That's Friday, April 18.
• That means I have to get a final-ish version to my committee members by Monday, March 31. That means I have 5 weeks to work something out. Ack.
• Chair recommends I consider cutting 9 of the poems because they are tonally out-of-sync with the rest. I agree with this assessment. But what am I going to do with the 9 outcasts? I guess I'll just have to send them to reform school. Or gut them for spare parts.
• Chair recommends I lay out all the poems on the floor in different iterations to find out where there are resonances, affinities, tonalities, etc.
• I write in two modes: lyric "I" and descriptive/narrative. These modes are difficult to reconcile in terms of sequencing. Do I revise toward one or the other or support the integrity of individual poems despite their refusal to assimilate?

I'm going to a cabin in the woods this weekend, ostensibly to reconnect with my partner, but mostly to have a heart-to-heart with my pile of thesis. Work through our disagreements. Hash out the ways we've been hurt. Find a way to love each other again.