Off You Go

Today was a day of "busy work," preparing the new manuscript, In a World Made of Such Weather as This, for submission to four different presses. Like submitting to journals, this is a bit time consuming, as I pause to re-read submission guidelines and re-think whether my work fits with the publisher.

On a positive note, the first hour or so was taken up with reviewing the complete manuscript one more time, and I made a few changes with the order of four poems that I think really strengthen the core of the book. Also, as I was taking a last look at any poems that I'd marked with a ? for deletion, I felt that snap-click in my brain as I saw the revision that would save one particular poem. It was a drastic surgery. I excised the entire first half of the poem and then exploded the lines of the second half. As the whole thing settled back into place during the aftermath, I felt my gut calm into a feeling of surety. Very satisfying.

So, off you go, oh binder-clipped manuscripts of mine. Behave yourselves and make a good first impression.