I’ve knocked out 20 submission packets, either for snail mail or online submission, with 10 or so left to go. I’ve been at the computer for more than a few hours and I can’t go on with the process today. My eyes seem unable to focus and my neck & lower back are beginning to twinge. Nothing like computer fatigue to inspire one to do the laundry and the dishes.

Bon voyage, little poems.

This morning I’ve been organizing a new wave of submissions. I didn’t keep up with this over the summer, so I’ve got quite a towering stack to send out. The organizing part is the hardest as I first check through the magazines to be sure they haven’t changed their submission guidelines and then spend quite a bit of time matching up poems to journals. I really do try to heed the rule of reading back issues (or at least reading table of content lists) before sending in work.

Now, the poems are matched with the journals and I get to begin the labor-intensive act of actually sending the poems out into the world with both eagerness and anxiety.

Just read about a blog that Google/Blogger deleted without warning because it detected malware. Yesterday, I had a couple of weird comments pop up, which I promptly deleted permanently. Now, to protect myself, I just backed up this blog, and I also turned on comment moderation. For my faithful followers, please know I trust and look forward to your comments.

Ok, I’ve just been reading through the manuscript and pulling out phrases, ideas, etc. for the title, and I’m looking for reactions to the list. The book contains poems about the dead post-burial, poems about being alive in a mortal body, a brief section of more autobiographical poems that deal with the loss of something: trust/faith/etc. within the family, and poems that recognize we are all wounded in some way. Many of the poems are informed by my Midwestern roots, which result in silence surrounding these topics and a serious fascination with all things weather-related.

Here’s the list:

Glacial Elegies (the current title)
Why the Wind
Prairie Requiem
A World Made of Such Weather as This
What We Learn to Bury

Please leave a comment if you have any opinion at all about these titles or alternate suggestions.

I’m thinking the now-not-so-new manuscript needs a different title.

I’m thinking Glacial Elegies might only apply to one section in the newly reorganized vision.

I’m thinking I ought to use section numbers instead of section titles.

I’m thinking what if I’m wrong and the collection won’t hold together.

I’m thinking I don’t have a clue and I’m trying to be invigorated by the opportunity rather than scared witless.

Yesterday, a draft of a new poem that feels promising.

Today, another new draft but unsure of the promise. Then, a revision session with a handful of poems that managed to emerge in June.

A new teaching schedule designed to allow a better balance with my writing world.

A squawking bird accompanies me and tortures our inside-only cats.

I got home from running errands this morning to find a poetry jackpot in my mailbox. First, a copy of The Real Warnings by Rhett Iseman Trull, editor of Cave Wall. Rhett is the winner of the 2008 Anhinga Prize, so we are birds of a feather. The book is fresh off the presses and, as always, the production is awesome. While I’ve only had a chance to read a few poems, this promises to be a delight! Reach out and support Rhett and Anhinga by buying this book.

Also, I received the four chapbooks I’d ordered from Cinematheque Press last week. The four books are: Little Visceral Carnival by Philip Jenks & Simone Muench, What Sucks Us In Will Surely Swallow Us Whole by Ada Limón, Until the Lantern’s Shaky Song by Joshua Marie Wilkinson, and In a World of Ideas, I Feel No Particular Loyalty by Adam Clay.

As some of you know, I went to grad school with Adam Clay and am a huge fan of his work. Ada Limón is a new favorite of mine, and I’ve loved Simone Muench since I read Lampblack & Ash. I’ll be interested in the collaboration with Philip Jenks, someone I haven’t read before. I’ve followed some of Joshua Marie Wilkinson’s work online and am looking forward to reading a collection all at once. Cinematheque Press sells the books individually or as a package, and since this was such an awesome grouping, I went for the deal. I also received their “cool square button” and stickers of the book covers.

Looks like I’ll be doing a bit of reading today. Woo Hoo!!!

I am returned from the abyss of July. We are back at school, preparing for classes to begin next week, and I’m feeling positive about my schedule and my resolve.

I am still searching for my next obsession. I’ve written all the elegies I have in me for the moment, and while Glacial Elegies did not get picked up in the last round of manuscript submissions, I still believe in its strengths as a collection. I do plan on resubmitting this year, after yet another round of tinkering. I wrote a handful of poems in June that feel like they might make it through the revision process and on to the submitting process, but no overwhelming need to write has swamped me of late. I am doing my best to keep coming to the page, to keep opening myself to the world. At the moment much of what I’m writing is forced, but I trust the process.

If anyone is still checking in here, I have a new poem up at Free Verse. Happy to be there alongside friend and fellow U of Arkansas alum, Adam Clay. Enjoy!

I am hoping to resume blogging in earnest by August 10th.

Dawn Tefft, a poetry co-editor of cream city review, emailed to accept the poem “Prairie Innocent.” The editors accepted with a condition of some specific revisions. This is not the first time this has happened, although it is a rare occurrence for me. To date, I have not rejected any specific revisions an editor or editors have requested. In fact, in each case, I have found the poem stronger for the changes, even if at first I resisted the new rendering. Another heartfelt thanks for all the journal/magazine editors who take the time to do what they do best.