Possible Thesis Titles

Titles are pretty much the last thing I should be worried about. But, simply put, I have no idea what to call the 20-or-so poems that make up my thesis. My chair looks at me funny every time I make a new suggestion. Kind of like she thinks I'm stupid or something. Possibly because I'd like nothing better than to call it "Whitney Houston," but I don't have the money to purchase the copyright.

So here's a list of titles that have been suggested to me or that I've come up with all by myself. Some serious, some not. I've decided to put it up for a vote.

1. Gut-sad Suck
2. Industrial Follicle
3. Ochre's Retinue
4. Regular Hours at the Conservatory
5. Imaginary Thaw
6. No Fruit
7. No Bananas, Yes
8. The Waxless So-Ons
9. Pull My Finger
10. I Love to Watch You Leave
11. A Haven is a Leaving
12. Leave
13. Whitney Houston (I'll be taking donations to pay Ms. Houston for the privilege of using her name)

I'm editing my thesis, I promise

T-3 weeks until thesis must go to second readers. Cue odd feeling of detachment from all of your poems sitting there on the floor. You feel unable to verify you've actually written these words on the page. You're not sure if you should really be writing haiku, since editing takes you straight to "less is more" land and won't let you go. Poems once sprawling, unwieldy, adventurous, (and perhaps misguided) are now paired, sliced and diced from the direction of the Internal Critic.

Ah, but there is hope: spatial organization of poems makes for a lovely carpet.

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.