Third Place!

Our local Poetry Society had the Awards Banquet for our annual contest last night. It went well. Our club president played host, and we held the event in the banquet room at a local restaurant. It became abundantly clear that only a handful of people entered into different categories, for only about the same ten people kept winning over and over again. I only entered four categories, and had one winner, so that should teach me a lesson.

Next year will be different. I will enter all of the categories, and then we’ll see what happens! BUT, I am grateful for what I won.

I won third place in the Grand Prix category. The Grand Prix was only open to members, so it was direct competition. It is the top award. Basically, it’s any poem, any style, any length. I was honored to get third place. The competition was stiff.

Listening to the topic of these other poets, it is obvious that my school of thought and most of theirs are on different pages. Kentucky and nature seem to be the general and most popular themes and topics of the club members. The topics of mine are varied, but usually, relatively introspective. That could be because of my age. I’m younger and less mature as many of the other poets, and immaturity and selfishness usually run hand in hand.

I will publish this poem as soon as I submit my new manuscript for this APR book prize. I do this because the poem is in the competing chapbook. It’s the 26th. I pretty much needed to get it off today. Tomorrow will have to do, and just hope for the best!

Rejection!

Well, it’s October 20, 2005, and I still don’t have my manuscript sent off to all the competitions. Part of the problem with these competitions is that they have a fee to pay in order to compete. It’s usually $25. Well, I think I might be able to squeeze in two, but that’s about it. If I could, I’d send in 10 or more. BUT, I’d have to make all those copies, ship them to their destination, pay the entrance fee, and THEN wait to be rejected. I can take the rejection. I have been nothing but rejected at this point. But that’s okay. I only submitted stuff about 10 times. I mean, I’m just getting started.

Our Awards Banquet for our local Poetry Society is this coming Tuesday. I’m eager to find out if I won anything! I hope to, but the competition is tough. We have some really good poets competing. Only half of the categories can accommodate free verse. The rest are things like Cinquain, Rondeau, Sonnets, and the like. That’s okay by me. I am confident in my ability to make technically perfect bound verse. It’s just that every once in a while, the forced rhyme is REALLY forced; and that’s not good. One can really tell when it’s forced, and I can’t stand it.

What I do for structured poetry, is I write the line, what I want to say, and then work it until it fits. I match it syllable by syllable, foot by foot, and rhyme by rhyme. I love it! I would like to see a surge in classical form. BUT, I don’t think that is going to happen. With rap, and slam, and the popularity of prose poetry right now, I don’t see that happening.

It’s funny. Sometimes I want to make my mark in poetry history, and other times I’m perfectly happy with the local scene. It’s all in the mood. I think that I like the local feel of a working poet, not seeking to be the next Walt Whitman (not that anybody could be the next WW), then other times, I have like this huge ego. I think if I joined a critical writing group, I’d probably get brought down a peg. I sure many, many people would hate what I do. But I think I already new that, because I keep getting rejected.

Oh but to TRY is victory! Submitting, for me, is a victory in itself. I hate being rejected. I’ve always hated it. Who doesn’t? But slowly, my mind set is starting to change. I read somewhere that the more rejections you get, the closer you are to getting published.

Not that I write to get published… I don’t! But a little recognition would be fantastic! I hope to have some new poetry next time I post… We’ll see.

Rhyme or Reason?

Well, by exploring this web site - http://www.aprweb.org/issues/current/ - I can see that prose poetry is still what is popular. As I said I want to do this book contest; problem is that I have a bunch of rhyme stuff. I enjoy rhyme and think that it should not be extricated in poetry. The methods of the standard types of poetry (Sonnets, Rondeau, Limerick, etc.) require rhyme. I look at what is getting published, and there seems to be a rejection of standard form. It’s curious, for what I can tell is that some people believe that if it rhymes, it is poetry. Others seem to reject rhyme as legitimate modern verse. I like this, “Poets at Work” publication because most of what is in there is traditional rhyme and meter; set form. Yet, I also love to read what is being published in journals like the American Poetry Review. Some of what I read in APR, to me looks like a great deal of aimless pretension rambling on with some hidden purpose, only to be known to the poet. It has an appearance of reason, but yet, it seems like some of it is just crap. NOW, don’t get me wrong! I’m a newcomer to this industry, I don’t have a formal education (so you MUST put little weight in what I say), and all I know is what I have taught myself. I have studied poetry and fiction in college, but that was 15 years ago. Besides, after my illness set in, I haven't retained very much anyway. But I have done a great deal of research on the history of English and American poetry (well, at least some, I think that the volume is a matter of perspective), and so I think I can form some what of an opinion. And that being said, what I see of what is being published, is not so great. I have read some great poetry that has been put out in the past 100, 50, 20, and even 5 years! I mean, life changing. But I also surf the net for poetry, online poetry magazines, and poetry magazines with websites, and read, a lot. I’m just not impressed. I also must tell you that I think 75% of what I have written is crap also. That doesn’t mean I won’t try to get it published. Oh, I will, I assure you. So, it’s not a case of superiority. No, not quite. It just seems that for all of what is out there, there is very little truly SUPERIOR stuff. It also might be unfair of me to even compare one persons work to another, then make a judgment. I mean, I don’t really want to be compared against anybody else. I want to be seen for what I am doing, as a poet in itself.


But, I have something else to say concerning Free Verse. I think that writing in Form, and having it be really good, is hard work. I mean, it takes hard work to write a really compassionate Cinquain, or Sonnet (either English or Italian), or HEXADUAD! It takes time, and effort. It takes a great deal of forethought. I can greater grab my intended expression better in Free Verse, but that is only because I am undisciplined in writing true form. I think it can be easier, or even indulge laziness on the poets part to write only Free Verse, and even defend it as the only reasonable form for the contemporary poet. Don’t get me wrong, I like writing in Free Verse! And at times, I too prefer it. But when I read Shakespeare, or Browning, I get totally inspired. Perhaps I need to read more Emerson, Whitman, and whoever? Maybe I should indulge in their writing, and gain a greater respect for the genius that Free Verse can bring?

And so my search for the literary balance continues. Perhaps as I continue to read, read, and read some more, I will gain greater insight into this vast dilemma that I face.

Book Contest

Somebody sent me a publication called Poets at Work. It is the September/October issue. This made at home publication is packed with poetry. I mean from cover to cover. In the front cover, the editor says that if you don’t create a venue for people to be published, then writers will give up. From what I can tell, he publishes just about everybody who sends stuff in. You can sponsor contest, add little snippets, and subscribe. I’m almost through the whole issue.

The thing I like about it, is that is has no pretension at all. I mean, I have been sending in poetry to various poetry magazines, reviews, and publications, and have received nothing but rejection. Well, I guess I have been expecting that (because of all the interviews I have read from other poets). So many of these publications are extremely selective, and that is their right. That kind of makes it more cool when you get selected to be printed. But in truth, there is a certain amount of pretension there.

What I am interested in, is the American Poetry Review book contest. The official title is The American Poetry Review /Honickman First Book Prize in Poetry (http://www.aprweb.org/bookprize/bookprize.shtml). If you remember, I was tossing the idea of doing a selected chapbook to sell at the homecoming last August. I am most definitely doing that for this contest. It needs to be 48 pages. That’s not a problem. The problem with Back from Dreamland (yet to be published) is that it is so ready for Self Publishing, which I would have to make serious changes to it in order to enter it into this contest. SO, I am going to dismantle Back from Dreamland, and rearrange some of that poetry, and mix it with some new stuff. It’ll be great. I have till the end the month to get it in, so I should be able to do it.