Have Words Will Travel

Every time I post here, I feel like I should apologize for not posting in so long.  But most of the time, if I’m not posting, I’m writing and/or submitting and/or reading, so it’s all for the cause.  Besides, is anyone actually reading this?  I didn’t think so.  (Ha.)

Anyway, since my last post, I’ve been busy…you guessed it: writing, submitting, and reading.  Also, hosting out-of-town guests, which is always fun.  A couple of days ago I finally came up with an ending for a poem that was really giving me a hard time, so I was able to slip it into its assigned spot in my manuscript and get that baby mailed out to a contest I’ve been wanting to enter for a couple of years.  And postmarked it three weeks before the deadline — go me!

My manuscript has changed so much since its original version as my thesis.  Like many theses, I would guess, it was a big rush at the end and I had to shove in almost everything I had that was remotely suitable in order to graduate on time.  So, although it passed all the readers and I got my MFA, it wasn’t something I was particularly ready to send out.  I had a poet friend look at it and got some great feedback from her, most of which echoed what my gut had been telling me (those guts, they can be very perceptive you know), but I still wasn’t sure exactly how to make it sing.  I wrote a few new poems that I really liked, which enabled me to remove some of the weaker ones, which was a good start.  And then one morning while I was drying my hair, I realized there was one particular poem that absolutely HAD to be at the beginning.  Once I’d figured that out, the rest of it pretty much fell into place with the re-ordering.  And although it probably still isn’t perfect (is any manuscript perfect?) it’s something I’m proud of, and I think is worthy of submission.  And I believe it makes much more of an impact the way it stands now.  All of which just goes to show that a writer’s subconscious knows these things, and sometimes you just have to be quiet and listen for it.

In other news, the new Poet Lore is finally out and there I am on page 34.   All I can say is, WOW, what a thrill!  Granted, it’s my first really good print publication, and therefore extra exciting, but does it ever get old?  I’m thinking perhaps not.  Funny thing is, they published one of my least favorite poems.  What’s that all about?  I guess a writer is not always the best judge of her own work?  Or taste is subjective?  Something like that…ha.

Now that the summer is well and truly over, I am determined to make it to more readings, both in the city and here in New Jersey.  I’ve been wrapped up in other things, but it’s important to me to support my fellow poets, and I really enjoy hearing other people read and discovering new voices that I love.  I think I will need to set a goal to get it done, though.  Perhaps two per month?  It’s tough with three kids and a husband traveling every other week.  Woe is me.

Today I was reading on the message boards for my MFA alma mater that it might be a good idea to have a Facebook page for the purposes of publicizing yourself in the literary community.  I agree to an extent.  I mean, I do have literary contacts as “friends” on my Facebook page, but my page is only visible to those whom I have “friended” so I’m not convinced it’s a great publicity tool.   Perhaps it’s possible to make one’s Facebook page public to all — I don’t know.

It seems to me that a better place to out oneself as a literary citizen is on a site like Goodreads.  After all, Goodreads is presumably frequented by literary types who like to read, right?   Turns out Goodreads is a good site for literary networking.  Tonight I received a message via Goodreads from the editor of Gently Read Literature, a newish-but-impressive lit-blog.  He asked if I would consider submitting a review of a poetry collection I’d recently read and done a two-sentence review of on Goodreads.  I’m assuming that he asked not because the two sentences I’d spit out immediately upon finishing the book, but because he (here’s where you fellow starving writers should pay attention) CLICKED THROUGH TO THIS BLOG and beheld my brilliant…ummm…off-the-cuff blathering about…uuuhh…whatever.  And realized that an MFA makes me qualified to write a halfway coherent review.  Well, we’ll see if he posts it.  Because his site really does obviously publish a high standard of content and I think you should go over there right this minute and read some reviews and find a book that sounds like something you would really dig.  I mean, we all need to do our part to support the cause of poetry and literature, yes?  And there are so many amaaaazing poets out there who aren’t being read because the general public is seriously missing out.  Don’t be the General Public.

Also?  Check back there on December 1st.  If I live up to the promise of this blog and my [*insert snooty voice*] literary degree, there will be one kick-ass review of a certain newly-released collection that pretty much everyone in the world should read or else they’ll be MISSING OUT.  (Don’t miss out.)

Thanks, Daniel, for the shot.  And for calling me “aces.”