To cross-pollinate, here's my status update from Facebook this morning: I feel like there should some kind of dramatic opening ceremony for The Summer of Sandy, like the Olympics. Hey, Universe, where's my military-precise marching band, my thousand dancing children, my parade of poets & writers? Where's my flaming arrow being shot over the heads of the audience and into a ball of flammable liquid that suddenly lights up the night sky?
From my last post, y'all know that I sent the book out on Thursday. I spent Friday continuing to whittle down the stacks of papers that had amassed on my desk in the last two months, some that simply needed filing, some rejections to record and file, and some articles I'd set aside to read later. Once I got down to the folders of poems I'd set out to submit in March...March!...I got busy and prepared a few submissions. Saturday/Sunday were spent celebrating my niece's graduation in Fayetteville, AR, and today, I returned to the submission process.
As a reminder, this is not as easy as picking up the poems and deciding where to send them. Inevitably, as I read over the poems and make decisions about which 3 - 5 poems I should group together, I come across minor revisions. Usually, I decide to snip a few more "flabby" words, often conjunctions, articles, or prepositions that aren't completely necessary. Here is where poetry stands out from prose. It's all about compression, at least for me. Then, when I start writing prose, things get all wordy again. In any case, this minor tweaking takes time. Also, now that I'm working on a series with a narrative arc, the grouping of the poems lets me see if I've been inconsistent with the narrative or, even if I haven't been, if this group presents too much confusion when taken out of context. All new things for me to cipher through.
Still, I'm making headway and I'm happy to know that the poems are circulating again. That two month downtime really leaves a gap in my communication with the poetry world and reminds me that I need to rededicate my efforts at a more balanced life when school rolls around again.
In the meantime, I've finished up one journal and opened up another in my 3 - 4 a.m. scribblings. This is exciting because when I get ready to draft (tomorrow I think), I'll have all this new material waiting for me. (WAHOO!) Here's a shot of the cover. As many of you know, I can't stand drafting on lined paper, so I bought eight of these soft cover, unlined pages journals when I found them at my local independent bookstore a few years ago. This one is the 7th of the eight. I must begin a new hunt!
4 comments:
Yay on getting your work out there, yay on new journals, yay on revision!
Thanks, Kathleen. YAY for friends like you!
That's a kingfisher, right? If it is, that's some good symbolism for you.
Hey, Q. This series of journals featured mostly birds from Asia. This one is a Little Green Bee-eater (so not a kingfisher, but a beefisher). Merops Orientalis from SE Asia & Pakistan. Here's the lovely description:
"Unlike most bee-eaters, Little Green Bee-eaters are often solitary nesters, making a tunnel in a sandy bank. the tunnel can run as much as 5 feet long and three to five eggs are laid on the bare ground in the cavity at the end of the tunnel."
Accuracy? Who knows. Pretty? Yes.
Cool.
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