I TELL YOU THE TRUTH

Kids know things. They know fish
like water better than air. They can wear
tiny hats. They know how to look small

and shy under great naked oak trees.
They can make the sound of a siren.
Sometimes I will inexplicably catch them

looking up, as if for an answer.
They can close their hands around door knobs;
some can turn and open. They know

in order to get more, you must first
have nothing. This they also know
how to do: have nothing.

Stupid Hope

I had acute something the matter/ with me.

(J. Shinder)

Woodpeckers

Did you know that most woodpeckers are monogamous & stay together over the course of many seasons? Some stay together their entire short lives.

Most woodpecker courtships begin in deep winter. How glad it makes me that something can begin in winter & endure.

1 Year, 100 Rejections

My good friend Tanya Jarrett had this idea, not me. But a great idea anyway: to try and get 100 rejections within the span of one year. We started on September 1st, and the idea is to send out good poems (not crappy limericks I wrote in college), and continue to write poems during the year.

I can say that submitting is a huge pain for me, even electronic submissions. I have to sit down and commit a few hours to actually creating documents for each place I'm submitting, refamiliarize myself with submission guidelines, and then fill out forms or write emails and cover letters.

I usually have more fun doing this if I know I ought to be doing something else, like being at work.

As of today, I have 46 rejections so far this year. Zero acceptances. But here's hoping at least one will come this year. If not, I can always print out my rejections and papier-mâché the kitchen table, or a small hut.

National Poetry Writing Month

April is approaching. This means I should stop being lazy and start writing some poems. Will you be taking part in National Poetry Writing Month? Let me know. This crap requires a support group.

I'm approaching 100 poems so far for the year. Most of them are garbage, but I figure I have to get the garbage poems out of the way so I can write some good ones.

Also, I got a personal rejection letter from the New Yorker. Not a stunning one, but it did have the word "admirable" in it, so I'm considering listing this on my resume.

A Jenkins-Braun Production

I'm really bad at blogging

I'm really bad at blogging, but you love me for other reasons.

The same things, over and over.

Write poem, throw out poem. Write poem, cross out most of poem, throw out poem. Write poem, keep poem. Throw out poem later.

But this year I will write and keep 365 poems until the end of the year, at which point I can throw out any desired number of them.

Write poem, keep poem. Write poem, keep poem.