Month: January 2018

Poetry Publication Goals — First, some good news

Lana 6 Comments

First the good news–my first poetry acceptance of 2018 to a very small local journal called North Coast Squid. The poem was one I have been working on a very long time and felt very attached to. I’m so glad to have it find a home with a local print journal. I’ve only lived in Oregon a little over a year, but I’ve felt the literary community was closed off to me. Now, it feels like one door has opened. Perhaps more will follow.

Squid-5-Cover (1)
I’d like to submit more poems this year than I did in 2017. My depression and angst over the state of our nation got the best of me last year. Not only didn’t I write much, I also didn’t send much out.

I do have a backlog of poems I’d like to get into circulation. Some are speculative, some political, some more autobiographical. I’m planning on having one day each month where I focus on getting poems out.

Wish me luck!

In Research Mode

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I’m in the research phase of writing poems for my next poetry collection.

My last 2 collections were written after a long sojourn into research:

Red Riding Hood’s Real Life

RedRidingHood

&

Four Quarters: an homage to T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets

4q

Right now, I am reading and taking notes, but not writing any poems. At least not yet.

Maybe that’s because the current book is kind of boring. I am still going to plod through it. Hope the next one will be better.

I don’t write all my poems this way. It’s only when I am working with a theme, especially one way above my head, that I do this.

This collection has a science theme.

Until I write a whole group of acceptable poems, I am going to be slapping myself on the forehead, saying, “Why do I torture myself this way?”

Maybe I like the challenge. And I do enjoy learning more about topics that interest me.

But sometimes the research phase is overwhelming.

 

 

2018 Poetry Goals

Lana Leave a comment

It’s been a long while since I kicked myself in the bum and said “Get to work.”

But I’m ready.

ECRGHN poetry word in mixed vintage metal type printing blocks over grunge wood

My 2018 poetry goal is to complete drafts of at least 3 poems a week.

Not 3 masterpieces. Just 3 drafts.

I’m giving myself permission to write crap if crap is all that comes out.

But if I allow myself to get out of the way and just write, the truth is, there is usually something salvageable there.

One way to get out of my own way and give myself permission to write is to do writing exercises.

Writing exercises have a wonderful way of short circuiting my critical voice, and taking me from “planning mode” into just writing in the moment.

Here’s to all of us writing more and more freely in 2018!