A Little Slice of Confession Tuesday

Dear Reader: 

I know it's Thursday and I have missed the customary Tuesday Concession.  (hanging  head low)  I hope you will accept this late and tiny slice of my recent life.  It's been a week and 3 days since my last confession. 

It's also been one debate of 10 Democratic candidates for president last night  (another one with 10 more will be held tonight. It's been a Father's day since my last confession, and it has been a jumbling of many books that I am reading at the same time. (That's how everyone reads, right?) 

Summer is officially here and we have colorful plants blooming to show for it.  Cathy gets truly excited with plants in summer. I think she gets that from her grandmother - who was affectionately known as granny. When I leave in the morning or when I come home in the evening I am greeted by colorful unfolding nature before my eyes. I confess I love this. I love knowing that she loves gardening with flowers too.  By the way, we have tomatoes on our tomato plants (our one cash crop). 

I had a rejection of poems in a contest since my last confession.  I don't often dwell on rejections. I am sure this was a form one too. But it did happen to be the same place that  I once received a form rejection with a handwritten note that said,  "you were close."  But, I digress, the part of this rejection that caught my fancy was as follows... "We strongly believe that a poem's value is not determined by its publication, or by the selection or non-selection by a limited group of readers. The editors urge you to wholeheartedly reject this rejection, and send these poems out again and write some new poems, and sent them out too."  I confess this made me smile. 

Watching the Democratic candidates debate on the first night, left me feeling a little empty. Of what I saw I was most impressed with Senator Tulsi Gabbard, Julian Castro, and Cory Booker. Elizabeth Warren after a strong initial exchange sort of went to sleep. What she said was pretty much her normal stump speech I've heard countless times. The only negative was that she took a position on health care that would be unattainable as the way the laws are written now, hospitals would have to close their doors over authorized payment amounts. I suspect she would ultimately look for a fix for this but it did seem like a big gaff.  No one shined. I expect the bar will be higher tonight. 

Another confession, I am working on my annual Poet Crush list. (link to last year) It should be out this month, but I have read so much this past year, I am having to do a fair amount of weighing those being considered to keep it at 6. Hopefully sometime in July? Maybe, Hopefully. 

That's it for today~

Be safe and of much joy!

Confession Tuesday - Backhoe Edition

It's been a week since my last confession. A cooler week and I got a haircut and mowed the grass in the same week. The weather being what it's been it had been longer between yard mows then haircuts... I think.

Come along, it's confession time and I'm sure I have something I can confess.

Dear Reader:

Yesterday I was driving through the city when I pulled up behind two other cars at a stop light. Hearing the deep sound of gears engaging I saw on the passenger side of the car a big yellow monster taking up the better part of two lanes between myself and the curb. Said yellow monster was backing my direction while on the front end it was lifting a heavy metal plate from the asphalt. All of this was under the direction of a man who was talking on a cell phone in the drivers seat. I confess that my Capricorn sensibility cause me to utter out loud WTF is this dumb shit doing? Neither I our our car was harmed in the incident. All I can say today looking back was thank God he wasn't texting. People - this does not seem like a multi-tasking sort of job. As I drove away I said a prayer that no bad incidents occurred the rest of the day at this work site.

Monday night is one night where we especially enjoy the TV shows. Major Crimes and Perception being two shows we watch. It's a night Cathy (my wife) looks forward to watching TV. So last night was a most inopportune time for our cable to crash but it did.  Now I could I could see how some people could say make the best of it and do something like... read a good book. I confess I did not do that. I too look forward to Monday night TV not only because of the shows but because it's something we do together. So last night was a downer for both of us.  I confess we ended up going to bed earlier then normal.  By the way, tech support was unable to again get it running and we remain without it again tonight and it will be tomorrow before the service people can come out.

I probably should confess something related to writing so thinking back this week I guess there are a few things I can touch on about writing. One is that I am excited that  I am about to begin a six week mentoring session with an awesome poet. This will be the third fall I've done this and it is something I really need this fall. Personally I think this is the kind of thing every poet should plan to do once a year. I confess that if I had 6 books published and another one or two waiting in the wings I would think there is value in this. So yes, I confess that I am excited. I'm always a little anxious at the same time because your work is going to be under more scrutiny in the draft form.

Coming upon the last quarter of the year I always try and take an inventory of where I am in my writing. I confess this can be a humbling experience. So I've been thinking a lot about this year a lot these past few weeks.

And last- on an upbeat note of sorts. A rejection letter this week with a positive note,,,  It read in part, "Dear Michael,  thank you for submitting to XXXXX Journal. It was great to see your work in our reading line up again. We have carefully reviewed your submission. Although it was not selected for publication this time in our journal, we wanted to let you know that your poems XXXX and XXXXXX did make it to our final round of readings for their wonderful images and subject matter...."  I confess that if you are going to be rejected, that a pretty decent rejection.

More on Rejection

#links

When I think of rejection two things initially come to my mind... a child showing something to a parent, a teacher or some other adult that they are particularly wanting to share and being quickly dismissed. The other image that comes to my mind is s new salesperson at a sales meeting being told by a more experienced pro that being rejected in a sales pitch is just a part of the numbers. You must be rejected a certain amount of time before you make a sale.  

There seems like a very expansive divide between these two images. For starters there is no positive outcome for the rejected child. On the other hand, if you buy the goods (the argument the sales pro is making) at the sales meeting then you come to see that as unpleasant as it may be to hear no, it is an essential part of success. Yes, even the best Realtor, the top auto dealership, the biggest publishers are going to face rejection.  

Kelli Agodon who has a litany of publication credits, awards, grants won, etc. address her recent rejection blues in a both light hearted (she rarely fails to amuse moi) and yet thoughtful blog post earlier today. I don't know any writer, poet, or artist of any kind that doesn't relish accolades. Conversely, a rejection slip to a writer can be a very personal thing because it is often the cost of putting yourself out there. I've been through my share of slumps. After a flurry of acceptances one year I went the whole next year and then some with one rejection letter after another. It can feed doubt in yourself, in the very endeavor you have been undertaking.  

Kelli has reminded me something I really should be constantly aware of. In some of these dry spells I have actually reached points where I've asked myself why I even do this... why don't I just quit right now? So far when each of these negative thoughts have entered my mind I have in fact issued my own rejection and refused to quit. Is it the prize we write for or is it to flush out something on paper that takes guts? Is it publication credits or the birth of our art on a page?

I'm pretty sure I will sometime in the future swear off writing again - and yet very likely keep on keeping on. I think it's just something writers do. They don't have a choice.

Poet's Mailbag

This week the mail man brought several writing related items...  My recollection is a subscription advertisement for the Writer's Chronicle and a flyer with upcoming classes at the Writers Place.  Seems there may have been something else.

Yesterday, I received the first rejection letter of the year. It was electronic but contained a personal note that read," Dear Michael, I just wanted you to know that your poems made it to the final round of consideration. Sorry to say no this time. Do try us again during our fall reading period..."   If you are going to get a rejection letter there is a certain comfort in knowing your work stayed alive in the consideration for a while. Seriously - it helps to look at your submission and think what if anything you might have done different or consider perhaps a different journal as a better fit. In this particular case I did feel good about this particular submission. You know how sometimes you send something out and for days later you have regrets...  this one never was that way.

Anyway, may the postman and e-mail bring good news in the week ahead!

What's Going On...

Two days in a row - here to blog. I've been lax / busy, call it what you will lately and haven done good to average 2-3 posts a week in recent months. So I guess this is what we'd call a streak!


Yesterday I had a rejection letter for four poems I had sent out.  This morning, three more went out in submission.  Another submission will likely go out later today. I'm trying to (and succeeding) maintain a much more aggressive submission schedule this year.


Poetic Happenings around the Internet:


Saturn's may have hidden seas by Christine Klocek-Lim appears in Astropoetica


A new trend in the internal civil unrest in the Middle East is Arab on Arab violence. Nobel Peace Prize winner Hanan Ashrawi’s poetry paints a picture  of the contemporary unrest.


This poetry is not an ornament to the uprising — it is its soundtrack and also composes a significant part of the action itself...

They go out - they come back. Poems looking for homes

I've been busy reforming my ways this year submitting to four different journals so far.  Significant because I have come to dislike this part of writing over the past couple of years. 

Things are looking up! Yesterday, I received the following rejection e-mail from one of my submission groupings of poems:

Some nice lines in there, Michael, especially in Mount Rushmore. Overall, they didn't seem right for XXXXXX   Review. We have decided to pass this time.

...We appreciate you considering us submission-worthy. Please wait at least a week before submitting again.

Best,

Poetry Buzz

• Kudos to Jayne Pupek for her poem Speculation which is appearing in Juked. I'm impatiently awaiting another book of poetry by Jayne. Hint, hint!
• See why Eileen Tabios is Happy as a Cop with a donut. click here
• A Rejection Sticker? click here

Subs & Rejects

Submissions / Rejections Statistics

• Pending responses: 11
• Submissions sent last 12 months: 51
• Submissions sent this month: 3
• Acceptance ratio: 10.00 %

Picture shot inside local Bass Pro shop

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 %

From Spam

mood:calm
listening to: Now And Forever / Air Supply

Ah... it's always good to check your spam mail now and then... realized tonight I had a rejection on the 12th.

"Thank you very much for your poetic submission to XXXXXX. I enjoyed reading your poetry, but will not be accepting any of these for publication." Then the usual pitch to submit again.

Just think, I was nearly unknowingly rejected... now I feel so much better.

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!

Latest 12 month Update

Pending responses: 16
Submissions sent last 12 months: 46
Submissions sent this month: 8
Acceptance ratio: 15.38 %

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!

Ten Reasons Rejection Letters Aren't All That Bad

1. They are much preferred over bills.
2. They are tangible confirmation in the existence of life forms elsewhere.
3. You can wallpaper your room with them.
4. In a pinch they can be used as backup for toilet paper.
5. They remind us to recycle our work elsewhere.
6. You can write new drafts on the back of them.
7. They can help demonstrate to the IRS that your writing was not profitable this year.
8. In large quantities, they may establish you as an authority on rejection, which gives you the basis for writing a profitable book on the subject.
9. Mementos for the grandchildren
10. They are like a losing lottery ticket they you didn't have to buy.

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.

Rain, Rain Go Away...

The rain has been without relentless here in The Kansas City area and I feel like one soggy poet.

After a creative streak during the past week, I cooled off a bit over the weekend. Coincidentally I was the recipient of a rejection letter on Saturday, but that didn't dampen my already saturated spirits. I still have a few things out and I'm ready to recycle the poems that came back without a home.

First Manuscript Report for 2007

Yesterday I had 5 manuscripts rejected. Alas, 4 more went out today.

Outstanding submission remaining at end of year 8
less rejections through 1-12-07 -5
new submissions through 1-12-06 + 4
-----------
Outstanding manuscripts currently 7