Poetry Focus

Today’s word from the Nov/Dec 2018 Poets&Writers Magazine is Focus. This issue had a section called “Focus in on Literary Magazines” that included three articles: one on the dawn of digital submissions; one on magazine contracts; and one on increasing diverse representation.

My intense focus on poetry and poetry submissions for the first quarter of this year has revealed to me how scattered I’ve been in the past. I can see why I was only coming up with poems to post on here, leaving few unpublished poems to submit to journals when I was also working on short stories and novels. For the first time during NaPoWriMo, I have a file with unpublished drafts in it, and there are already seven poems in there.

So what’s working? How am I staying focused when I haven’t in the past?

It started with a rejection letter bingo card in the Writer’s Relief newsletter. I liked the idea of each of my rejection letters being a possible square on my bingo card. The idea got me submitting and when the rejection letters started coming in, putting stickers on that bingo card made me want to get more rejection letters, so I kept submitting. Those first rejection letters still held the familiar sting, but now, after my first bingo, yesterday’s rejection only made me think about where to send my next submissions.

The other thing that has changed that’s really helping is I found an online generative writing gathering called Friday Gatherings led by MK Chavez of the Ouroboros Writing Lab that I’m really enjoying. And yesterday I tried the Gotham Writers write-in. These zoom write-ins are really helping me generate work in a new way, and I’m excited by the results.

Retaking Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop is also keeping me focused and generating new, unpublished work, and the Portable MFA_{(assoc. link)} will keep me focused on poetry through to the end of May.

But mock events for the Writer’s Games are already starting this month. Will I be able to keep my poetry focus and write a couple short stories? Do I want to spend six of my weekends this summer writing short stories? I really enjoy the Writer’s Games, but the intensive short story competition will draw my focus from poetry.

I will stay completely focused on poetry this month. I will not even look at the Mock Events, but I have high hopes that by June I will have such a solid poetry practice that I will be able to split my focus for the Writers Games and have some fun with short stories on the weekends.

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo : “write a poem rooted in “weird wisdom,” by which we mean something objectively odd that someone told you once, and that has stuck with you ever since.”

PAD Challenge : Write a minimum poem.

Poetry Non-stop : The green envelope. For this poem ask yourself: “Why is the envelope green? What does that mean to you? Where has it come from and what does it say? What would you want it to say? Open it with us. And read it with us.”

Today’s Poem

This Green Envelope

Green is the real color of love
someone told me once.
I don’t remember why.
The color of money, envy,
the green M&M.
But this green envelope
is a mass-produced advertisement
disguised as a letter
addressed to my neighbor
in digitized handwriting.
Putting the envelope
in the correct box
is the bare minimum, but
we cannot expect that.
I walk the green envelope
down the street and slip
it into the void of the open slot.
Perhaps it is an advertisement
for something my neighbor
needs, but could not find.
This is my act of love.

See you tomorrow!