i get to live with this

On Writing to Authors You Love

I'll probably be posting every day in April as a means of coping with my procrastination. Writing a poem every day is a hard job. Or as Derrick Brown says in a Brett-Elizabeth-Jenkins approved comma splice-type thing, "Poetry is a tough racket, the bastard child of the arts."

On an unrelated note, if I were a rapper, my rap name would be Comma Splice.

I currently have 18 outstanding submissions. Which is to say, my submissions are both outstanding (awesome!) and outstanding (waiting to be read).

Another noteworthy news item, but first a back story. In February my husband & I went to a Coffee House Press event in Minneapolis to meet some of the staff & drink sake (okay, mostly to drink sake), though we did meet some interesting people. Most of the people there were associated with Coffee House Press in some way or other, and they were awed by the fact that we had come based on an article Will read on the Huffington Post. A few clicks in cyber space and we found they had an event that week, so we went. While there, we won a drawing for 7 of their poetry books & one of their fiction books.

After reading the fiction book, Netsuke, by Rikki Ducornet, Will wrote & sent her a letter saying he liked the book. Today he received a letter back in the mail, addressed upside-down, handwriting almost as indecipherable as Will's own, with a nice little drawing on the page. The letter is now resting on our refrigerator door.




It reminds me of the time in high school that my friend Amanda wrote to Chuck Palahniuk, and he sent her back a whole box of goodies including, if I remember correctly, a hand-beaded necklace that said "Amanda + Chucky P."

My point? Write enthusiastic letters to authors you admire or whose books you enjoy. It doesn't happen often, and they will be delighted to get your letter. And you might even get something neat in return.

Here's This

I heard my neighbor singing a pirate song this morning at 7:30.

So, there's that.

Truth Bombs From My Mind Grapes

I say this in total seriousness, and you know it because I'm in the face of constant rejection (form letters this morning from both AGNI & the Nashville Review):

I would rather spend my whole life writing poetry and getting form rejections than spend my life not writing poetry or getting form rejections. So I guess this means I'm going to keep at it.

With that in mind, tomorrow is the first day of April, which means National Poetry Writing Month. So you should probably keep at it, too.

I Thought I Made This Up

But like every other awesome thing, somebody else had already invented it. But I did think enough to make this picture, so you're welcome.

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)