Thursday, May 04, 2006

Flip

Two, or maybe three, poems accepted today, which is very good, though I'm unclear on that third poem, whether or not they want it or want to suggest some revisions before they'll take it. I'm always open to that: it's a real gift to know your work has been read so closely. Of course, I say all that before saying I decided against some suggestions the editor had for the second poem, which they wanted whether or not the changes were made. Good editors have in the past made lots of suggestions I went with; for my book, I got something like 7 pages of notes and only refused one, which had to do with a comma. The rest were gold. But in this case I felt like it was how I wanted it to be.

And I felt awful saying no! Like I was refusing a gift. Or chocolate. Which is something crazy people do.

As for the first poem, it's funny: when I finished writing it, I really despaired; I showed it to a friend, saying it was a crappy poem. Strange how your own vision is , or can be, clouded at times.

Not that publishing a poem is any certain measure of validation; I've published bad poems before, too often, in fact. But what can you do? Write the next one.

Still, I think this one is, after all, a pretty good poem.

***

I've been in a funk.

4 comments:

Alison Stine said...

Ha, ha! Your layout sucks!

(just kidding)

Congrats on the po-acceptance!

:)
Ali

Paul said...

My layout is the worst!

cK said...

Oh, Paul. Maybe you'd feel less funkish (not to be confused with funky or funkadelic) if you removed that extra space you put after the comma in the line: "...how your own vision is , or can be, clouded..."

I'm just sayin'.

Agreed on the feedback thing. WAY too many writers are pisspoor about working with the material. They want a one-shot deal and praise praise praise. That's always welcomed, yeah, but let's keep at it, you know? Yeah, you know.

Happy days, kid.
-cK

Anonymous said...

Heya.
If you haven't checked your hotmail in a while,
then do so.

Basically, I was seeing if you want to hang out with me and that rebecca girl (who just so happens to be in todays paper, Metro)

Tues. is right out.
Mon,Wed-Thurs, Fri between 3-6PM on Fri.

We've got the WHO
all we need is
What
Where
When?