Personal update

What's happening? Well, it's spring and as it has been for the last 7 springs, I am training for a bike race. This takes up a lot of my time but also, it makes me sleepy. My usual writing time - 10-midnight - is now spent sleeping. Sigh. It also takes up a lot of 'work' time so I am cramming money-generating stuff into every spare moment. Plus - news - a brother has bought me a plane ticket to Bermuda! where we will join another brother at his new home and lay our bodies on sand for a while, or should I say lie around on the sand awhile (cool, I'm actually starting to understand that word). To accomplish this trip, I'm having to scramble financially - as well as complete two large projects before the 22nd. A fantastic opportunity to see my family in an exotic wonderland, I'm looking forward to it. Who knows, maybe I'll actually write poetry there and it won't have words in it like rain, river, bear, or mountain. And one last thing - a kitten. Wow, who knew how much time and attention something so small and fluffy can require!

Our new poetry workshop, THE WATERS, is doing well. Please drop in and toss a poem or two into the waters. The more the merrier, we're looking for activity. Driftwood, rocks, bullwhip kelp.

Not so wonderful on the publishing front. I have some good friends, however, who insist my poems are publishable so I shall continue. Truth, I've lost the burning need to see them in print. Just writing them, tossing them into the workshops, and then tucking them away seems enough these days. Here's the nut. I've seen what is being published in many current journals and it isn't the kind of stuff I write. My poems are simple. Simple comes and goes. I'm sure the poems will find their way into a book someday. They have a life of their own, you know. It's not up to me once they're done.

I like contests, however. The promise of a prize is too enticing!

And speaking of contests, the IBPC has been revived. Read David Ayers' update here.

Frank Wilson of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote in his Sunday article on Online Poetry: A Thriving Community wrote -

I didn't pay any attention to this until last fall, when I agreed to judge the Interboard Poetry Community's online poetry competition for October. Managing editor Gina Bryson e-mailed me about three dozen poems culled from God-knows-how-many submissions.

Choosing three winners turned out to be harder than I anticipated, because just about all of the poems had obvious merit. This wasn't doggerel, or prose arbitrarily divided into lines. There was real word-music on display, fresh imagery, and genuine sentiment. I ended up reading through the whole batch several times and going with the three that more than any others stuck in my head.

Something else stuck in my head: the notion that poetry online might be worth looking into. In my head is where the notion stayed until last month, when I posted something on my blog (http://booksinq.blogspot.com/) about it and invited interested parties to weigh in.

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Be sure to stop by Frank's website and leave your comments or click on the article link above and leave comments there.

Poet and friend Arlene Ang has asked to publish one of my Poem A Day pieces in

Poems Niederngasse Marginalia Section , in conjunction with Blueline, present selections from Perfect Day for Poetry, the forum where the challenge to write a poem a day for 30 days (and beyond) is excruciating, but exhilarating.

This will be my fourth poem in that section.

So finally, an update - here are submissions that have receive no response as of today:

Writers Digest Contest : Sent May 13, three poems.
Burnside Review : Sent April 16, 5 poems
Octopus Chapbook Contest : Sent April 13, 27 poems
Comstock Review : Sent Mar 2, 5 poems
New Quarterly : Sent Jan 20, 4 poems
Prairiefire Press : Sent Jan 20, 4 poems

Also, a fellow offered to help with a manuscript, sometime in February, and although I have written back twice, have not heard since. I still have good hopes for this person, however - he's well linked to a local publisher of poetry books.

Oh! Forgot to mention. I signed a contract this week for a book of cartoons, to be published in time for Christmas. Yay

Jude