Forthcoming in 34 Orchard Fall Edition

 COMING NOVEMBER 10 - FALL EDITION

I am excited to announce that my new poem "Lost and Found" has found a home. Further, I am thrilled because I believe it is one that truly appreciates it. After all, isn't that what every writer wants for his or her work?

~0~

The Journal is 34 Orchard. My poem will appear in the Fall issue release date November 10, 2021.

Kristi Petersen Schoonover, Editor as 34 Orchard writes, "What I love about "Lost & Found" is, on a surface level, its universal message- we've all had days like this. Yet, in the end, it gets turned around, and, on a deeper level, speaks to healing. It's also entertaining and has a little bit of a sense of fun amid the darkness. In Short, "Lost & Found" is exactly what lives at 34 Orchard--visceral work, that illustrates the dark reality of our world; those internal things we cannot talk about. but we all know exist. I believe this piece is going to reach someone, and if you reach at least one person with your fiction, then you've done you job as a writer.

So excited to join the 34 Orchard family

Acceptance - Yeah!

Just a quick note to say I'm excited that my poem Ambiguity has been accepted for a fall publication date.  More, later.

Two Orphan Poems Find Homes

I never cease to be excited when I get news that poems I've written have been offered new homes. You send these out into the world... a big world that has lots of other orphan poems to pick and choose from so when the word comes I just get silly happy.

• I Listen to My Cereal
• I Stole Your Voice 

These two are going to the same home for publication in mid-March.  Yeah!

Feel Good Delivered By E-Mail

It's been an exceptionally good weekend for me with two different venues accepting a total of three poems. I think from now on I'd like my acceptances in bunches please.

I know we can't always have what we want but  it really feels good to get several poems accepted over two days as opposed to several rejection letters over two days.

This is just another example of my Submission Saturday venture paying dividends.

Worked on some re-writes today. I'm trying to put together about three more pieces that need some fine tuning so that they can be ready  for prime time too.

Good News....

I like good news... it's the best kind.  Clear out of the blue yesterday I was scrolling down my e-mail on my Blackberry and realized a acceptance e-mail had arrived earlier in the day that I missed. Another poem finds a home. Yeah!

Diligence Pays Off

In writing diligence is a word that needs to be added to the formula often offered as a key to success - read often, write often and rewrite. Add to that diligence as it relates to submitting. Dresser drawers of poem drafts are not the typical recipe for achieving publication. Yes, it worked for Emily Dickinson, but she didn't live to see the success.

Last night I received an acceptance letter on one of my submissions. I have a piece that will be appearing in Right Hand Pointing in April. I enjoy Right hand Pointing, not because they have accepted work of mine before, but because the editor, Dale Wisely almost always pulls together work that really interests me.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have more submissions to plan.

Good News

This afternoon, as I'm getting ready for a Poetry Reading... I check my e-mail from my phone and the following pops up as new mail....

Hi Michael,

I am pleased to tell you that your poems 'The Face of Mount Rushmore' and 'She's Acryllic' have been selected to appear in the next issue of 'Cats with Thumbs'


This should appear in Mid-May.

This is the kind of e-mail I like...    More please!  More often!!! 

Stats update

Time for me to take mental note of what I have and haven't achieved so far over the past 12 months.

Pending responses: 11
Submissions sent last 12 months: 47
Submissions sent this month: 2
Acceptance ratio: 10.71 %

Another Month - where has it gone?

mood: upbeat
listening to: Even The Nights Are Better / Air Supply

Where has the month gone already? I'd like it to slow down a bit (after tomorrow would be fine) Weekends, ah... something to live for.

Here's my 12 month summation of submissions / outcomes. Unfortunately I've run a rash of rejections the last couple of weeks. This too will end.

Pending responses: 9

Submissions sent last 12 months: 48

Submissions sent this month: 5

Acceptance ratio: 11.32 %

Vacation day... yeah!

Mood: uneasy
Listening to: nothing

As of today, this is my past 12 month results report:

Pending responses: 14
Submissions sent last 12 months: 45
Submissions sent this month: 2
Acceptance ratio: 13.33 %

A few recent rejections has cut into my acceptance ratio, but not to worry. Just keep plugging away.

I looked at my biorhythms chart for the month and it looks like the 29th of January everything comes to an optimum point. Physical, emotional and intellectual. We'll see how my writing progresses between now and the end of the month.

Our local poetry society chapter meeting last night was really good. Most everyone had material of their own to share and we had a new visiting guest who blew us away with his work.

We picked up my oldest daughter at the airport this morning. She's here to visit through Saturday. She and youngest daughter will then fly back to Phoenix together, for which I am already feeling sad. It is nice to have all the kids in town over my birthday (Thursday) and I've taken vacation days today and tomorrow.

Final 12 month review of the year

Statistics totals reflect last 12 months from this date: 12-31-07

Pending responses: 18
Submissions sent last 12 months: 43
Submissions sent this month: 10
Acceptance ratio: 15.38 %

Happy New Year Everyone!

May 2008 be filled with much inspiration ~ writing ~ and publication to you all!

The past twelve months....

Three rejections today... Que Sera, Sera.

On that note, a survey of my past 12 month activity....

• Pending responses: 11
• Submissions sent last 12 months: 40
• Submissions sent this month: 2
• Acceptance ratio: 15.79 %

Affirmation: I will do more over the next 12 months!

Surprise! Yes, there is a correlation between publication and submission...

November sounds so unequivocally late in the year. Past the point of doing things over or differently. If you didn't join a Christmas club at your bank, it's too late for this year. And it you didn't apply yourself as diligently as you planned at writing, well it would likely take a stroke of magic to rectify that now. The same holds true for submissions of work.

I think this is the first year that I have truly satisfied myself with my submission efforts. That is not to say that I will slack off in November and December. No, I believe I can push my satisfaction level and perhaps my acceptances even higher.

I'm not really sure why or how it has come about that I have motivated myself as well as I have, but I think it has in fact had a bit of a habit forming aspect to it. While I don't have any idea how many pieces of work other poets shuffle off in search of new homes each year, I have come away with some concept of quantity with one poet / blogger and that is IVY. It follows that her successes with publishing have also seemed to be reflective of a very liberal amount of submission activity. It has been in fact quite inspiring to follow her exploits over the past three years or so that I have read her blog. I know there are other good examples out there of poets who are regularly achieving success with the exposure their work is getting. To all that have been enjoying good years, I say may 2008 be even better. To others who aren't quite there yet I say aim high next year and good luck!

Missing with my change up

It seems like I'm writing a lot of stuff these last few days that I am not at all happy with. Some with a few delectable lines, but overall I am not happy with the continuity of thought in the pieces. I feel a bit like a pitcher who's three best pitches are a breaking ball, a fast ball and a change up. I can throw one of them well, but the other two are off. Oh, I can still throw them, but location control is just not right. So, I can go through the motions of pitching, but I'm not winning. I know it just a matter of connecting mechanics and mind set. Still, being close is only effective if you are lobbing hand grenades, not throwing pitches, and certainly now writing poetry. Enough with the baseball analogy.


Are any of you familiar with Writing Poems by Robert Wallace, Jack Davis, and Michelle Boisseau? It's a text book I've been wanting and I ordered a used copy today. Michelle Boisseau is on the staff at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. I've heard her read, read some of her work and have a friend who in the program there with her. I've been impressed with her and heard good things from others about her.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I am so glad it is Friday. The weather seems improved today. It had been rainy - dreary here for several days and that coupled with the normal time of the year has left me feeling down. It's the SAD time these days.

Taking an inventory of the last twelve months of my publication efforts, I've made 35 submissions. Nine are pending responses. I've made 6 submissions so far this month. Overall, for the past twelve months, my acceptance ratio: 19.35 % - for which I am not at all disappointed. I only wish I had more stuff out there. Ah yes, a goal for this weekend.

Where's the Beef?

Wow.... That's some big beef jerky!

Weekend is over. I succeeded in sending out more submissions as I had planed.

This morning, I was pleased to learn that a submission of a poem I wrote earlier this year but had never sent out till now has found a home! So there's the beef!

I'm reading Breakfast Served Any Time All Day- Essays on Poetry New and Selected by Donald Hall. There is some wonderful stuff in here. There are things in it that you feel as you read them you must have known because deep down they seem like truisms... yet at the same time they are new to you. I'll have more to say on some of these things later.

I have enjoyed the Indians / Yankees series. Some really exciting baseball. I have to say I'm pulling for the Indians in this series. Go Tribe!

Hazzah!

Another acceptance today, a poem that is at least a year and a half old. For some reason I've been hitting the mark with some of my older work lately. Perhaps I am just getting better at picking the right venue. Who knows?

long-haired sylvia looking for her ted....

What a gratifying way to start your Monday morning. You open you email and read:

"Thanks for submitting these. I'm happy to accept them. They will do nicely in the next issue... I hope these won't be the last I'll see from you"

I am so easily amused. I enjoy looking to see what kinds of searches bring people to this site. As I have reported in the past, there are some truly interesting things that pop up. Among the greats is this first timer that came up today:

• long-haired sylvia looking for her ted

followed by some others that often reoccur or at least come up in similar fashion...

• published superhero poem (multiple times)
• nude super heroes (multiple times)
• super hero poem
• i am a superhero quote
• superhero poems (multiple times)
• when life gets you down superhero quotes
• question of interview of super hero
• a superhero of kansas
• meaning of earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with god (don't ask me, I just report these)

So there are a few and I am sure you begin to realize as I have the common theme of superhero resurfacing over and over. In the past I've has some other interesting variations of Stick Poet. Thinks like beating poets with sticks, sticky poets, poet superheros, stick people poets... it goes on.

These searchers must be terribly disappointed not to find super hero poems here. I have never written one. Though I have been tempted, I have resisted. Perhaps feeling too close to the subject. So just for fun... ( remember I am easily amused) consider this a call for poems about a superhero. Not any superhero mind you, but "Stick Poet" superhero.

For the next week, e-mail me your best effort at a Stick Poet Superhero poem. I promise I'll post them all on here ( the good, the bad, and the ugly) and then you can all vote on the best one. In the end, those who keep coming here in search of super hero poems will at last feel there Google searches are not have been in vain.

Yeah!!!!

I almost missed an e-mail that went to my spam folder yesterday, a portion of it follows:


"Good News! I am pleased greatly by your poem "Beautiful Music" and shall publish it... Unfortunately, "Playing Solitaire" and "Freedom Summer Redux" pleased me insufficiently, and will thusly need find homes elsewhere."

Rejections are much more palatable when they are accompanied with acceptances.