Poetry...going...going...

Right after I post this I will be removing all the poetry work I posted for April's NaPoWriMo.  The sad fact is that I can't submit  poems for publication if they are posted here.  Having a poem on my blog is apparently considered 'prior publication' by most journals. 

I have long struggled with the issue of submitting poems for publication. Years ago, I went through periods of trying to get my work published.  I have many impersonal form rejections and a handful of personalized rejections that said,' mmmm, close...but not quite what we want.'  I even have two in that category from the New Yorker...one has a handwritten 'Sorry' at the bottom.  The other - my prize - says 'please send more.'  (Of course, I was young and unsure and felt like I'd sent them my best and sending 'more' that would be better seemed an impossibility. So I didn't.)

The last time I seriously sought publication was more than twenty years ago.  With the birth of Molly, my fourth child, I made a conscious decision to focus on mothering rather than writing and art.  Many women do both, but I knew that I couldn't.  For me,  I think it would have been frustrating and neither my children, my art, nor myself would have been well nurtured.

I'm not sorry I made that choice either.

And now, it's my time to be a poet and fiber artist.  While it's very freeing to just write without worrying about publishing, I find that more and more I'm thinking about publication, shows...getting Out There.

So. It may be a futile task, but I am going to consider the poems posted as my first drafts, take them down, rework them a bit and try to find new homes for them.

I'll let you know what happens!

Meanwhile, here's what Sophia wrote when she wanted to practice writing. Sure seems like a poem to me....

poemlove,  Sophia Hussey (2010)