sending out

This is big news. For a couple years, I had almost nothing out there. There are several reasons. First, I was busy with a baby. Second, I had the great fortune to acquire a mentor. He looked at my entire oeuvre, and then I went back to the drawing board. So, instead of having around 60 poems ready to send out, I had 4.

I’m making slow progress on revising and writing new stuff, but it’s happening. I now have 25 poems ready for circulation. For the last six months, they’ve all been out there. And, I took the audacious step last week of sending simultaneous submissions (only to places that accept them of course), so I upped my odds ten fold.

nice rejection letters

I got a couple good rejection letters. Believe me, I know what the bad ones look like. They are smaller than a notecard, and they say “The editors wish you luck placing your work elsewhere.” The next step up is a form letter with some handwritten scrawl on it like “good luck” or “thanks” proof that a real person was there. The ones I got this month were “these poems show obvious merit, but. . .” I’ve been going around saying “obvious merit” to myself and feeling quite fine.

acceptance

But then today, an acceptance! My first poetry acceptance in a year! The Hampden-Sydney Poetry Journal. It’s been around 33 years. Last issue had David Wagoner and Marge Piercy, really big names in poetry. And I get to hang out with the likes of them. Yippee!