Just got back from mailing my Alberta Foundation for the Arts writing project grant application, in itself a huge accomplishment for me. I've been thinking about applying for writing grants for years (or at least for the few years in the past many years that I haven't been disqualified by attending university full-time), but I've never been able to conceive and describe a coherent writing project. I tend to write without any preconceptions, and then look back at what I've written to see if any themes/similarities/ convergences can be teased out through editing. So I've found it difficult to propose a project before writing and even more difficult to explain why a project should be funded.

The project I applied for is probably a long shot. I think most funding organizations evaluate applications with a certain mindset that includes certain buzzwords, and I have no idea what the AFA's buzzwords are. I tried to focus on themes that are very particular to Alberta, and even moreso to Calgary - hell, I even mentioned the prairies a couple of times - but I'm not really sure if that's what they want. Oh well, I'm just glad I actually tried, for once.

Here's one of the poems my application depends on:

Is this Desire?

Claw’s manic retraction means a long fall, tumbling and rafting, borne aloft and lilt. The chump weighs heft, tittles a thrust, a glisten of spittle signals excitable sheen. Chump pockets knives, rusted bolts, flat cans – roadside ravages glimmer sure salvages the chump thumbs hungrily.