Submitting New Work: Wahoo!

71º ~ another blissful spring day lingering past its time here in central Arkansas, the cats and I enjoy open windows and gentle breezes filled with birdsong

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!