Black Warrior : Rejection (I think)
Received an envelope of returning poems today. Stamped Birmingham AL but no note, not even a post-it. I keep a record of all submissions, and those poems were posted to Black Warrior August 5th.
So only two more 'batches' out there - waiting to hear from Malahat and the CBC Literary Awards. I might also have a poem sent in to the December IBPC.
Missed the deadline for the 'movement' poem in the Guardian challenge. Too bad, but just couldn't find inspiration. Went through all my old stuff too, nothing about movement. Lots of visuals and audio, but no movement.
No movement in the old poetic cavern these days. Hope the rest of you are doing a bit better. As an astrologer, I can quote Mercury retrograde and/or Saturn retrograde in Leo. Mostly what astrology does for me is whisper "this too shall pass". So I'm doing the hands on stuff, christmas gifts, scrapbooking and I'm making money too. It's all good.
Missing my poetic life though! Missing it like someone on a trip, yearning for the homeward journey.
So only two more 'batches' out there - waiting to hear from Malahat and the CBC Literary Awards. I might also have a poem sent in to the December IBPC.
Missed the deadline for the 'movement' poem in the Guardian challenge. Too bad, but just couldn't find inspiration. Went through all my old stuff too, nothing about movement. Lots of visuals and audio, but no movement.
No movement in the old poetic cavern these days. Hope the rest of you are doing a bit better. As an astrologer, I can quote Mercury retrograde and/or Saturn retrograde in Leo. Mostly what astrology does for me is whisper "this too shall pass". So I'm doing the hands on stuff, christmas gifts, scrapbooking and I'm making money too. It's all good.
Missing my poetic life though! Missing it like someone on a trip, yearning for the homeward journey.
posted by Squamish Writers Group at 4:17 PM
6 Comments:
I find that jotting down vagrant thoughts can be helpful during a dry spell. Sometime later I try to work the fragments together into a whole. The jottings can be as simple as two words whose sound I like together. Also, it can be a great time to read other poetry and literary criticism. William Stafford's books on writing can be particularly encouraging.
I'm reading a biography of Byron now, but I've also been jumping around reading some literary criticism and other poetry. Luckily, I'm still averaging a couple poems a week. One of the things I allow myself is to have uneven quality (something learned from Stafford.) So I keep up the writing habit, and if something doesn't quite come off, that's ok, I move on to the next thing.
My favorite line from Stafford goes something like: if you're having writer's block, just lower your standards and keep on writing.
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Thanks Bob, it's true - the point is to just keep the writing practice up. I'm not doing very well at that. I've always enjoyed participating on A Poem A Day boards - have you tried that? There's a good one over on Blueline. There's also one on The Writers Studio.
Stafford sounds like a good book. I do enjoy reading books about the art of writing. I read Ted Kooser last month and it was quite inspiring! Which of Stafford's books did that quote come from?
Always enjoy your visits Bob
Although Stafford seems to have averaged a poem a day, that's a bit too much for me right now. Two a week feels right for the time being.
The Stafford books I've read are:
Writing the Australian Crawl
You Must Revise Your Life
Crossing Unmarked Snow
The quote is in one or more of those. I think they're all worthwhile, but I think I liked Crossing Unmarked Snow the best. I've yet to read my copy of The Answers Are Inside the Mountains, but I'm looking forward to it.
Here's another tip. Sometimes you can browse poetic forms and find something you'd like to try. Trying to fill the form can motivate creative ideas. For instance, the last two years I've written a sestina sometime around the Xmas holiday. So I'm thinking of making a tradition and writing another sestina during my Xmas time off this year.
Here's the URL for an essay by William Stafford on writing. I'd make it a link but I don't think links don't get correctly formed in comments.
http://www.ualr.edu/~rmburns/RB/staffor.html
Sorry, a double negative there.
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