Have Words Will Travel

Yesterday I got my Fall/Winter 2008 copy of Nimrod in the mail, all glossy-covered, thick, smelling of paper and ink.  You know what I’m talking about.  Glorious.  It was even more glorious because it was the awards issue, where I expected to see my poem “Upon Cutting My Thumb While Reading Ariel,” which was a semi-finalist for the Pablo Naruda prize.  Plus, the poem had already been accepted by them for publication before I thought to enter it in the contest (which was their suggestion.)

So imagine my dismay when I eagerly scanned the table of contents to find nary a sign of my name.  It’s only two pages of contents, but I must have read those two pages seventeen times looking for my name.  Surely I’m just overlooking it, I thought, scanning more and more slowly.  As if I wouldn’t spot my own name, right?  My poem wasn’t anywhere in the book.  My stomach sank.

I was going to send a polite inquiry to the editor.  I sat down to type it up when it occurred to me that I should get my acceptance letter and make sure I was addressing the correct editor.  I dug it out of the file.  And right there, in paragraph three, it says, “Publication will be in the ‘Awards 30′ issue of October 2008, or, depending on space and appropriateness of material, one of our two 2009 issues.”

Oh.

While I’m relieved that my poem likely wasn’t lost or overlooked, I am disappointed.  I’ve been on pins and needles for months waiting for this one to arrive.  Now it’s another 6 or 12 months before I’ll see it in print.  Ah well.  The poet’s life is not one of immediate gratification, as this experience has so frustratingly reminded me.  You can bet, though, that even without the inclusion of my poem (ha) this issue of Nimrod will be a good one, and I’m looking quite forward to reading it.