Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Strange In the Right Way

I consider much of my poetry to be odd, weird, strange.  I try to write about unusual things in unusual ways.  What the problem is is that my work is not fragmented enough in form; I use solid blocks of text, stanzas that don't break up into chaos.  Nothing that's elliptical, no cut off phrases, no fill in the blanks for the readers.  I would like to write in a more modern way, for example like a writer for Jubilat or Fence, but I'm apparently too tight.  Maybe in the end I'm a conventional poet, who isn't trying things that's any different from James Tate or Charles Simic.  If I wrote "autobiographical verse," more based in the real world, I might have more markets that would be interested in my work.  But I don't, or don't do that well.  Sometimes I think my writing is stuck in the middle of two poles and that makes publishing more difficult.  On the other hand, I may have my "distinctive voice," as a teacher once told me, and eventually that will get me through.  I wonder if anyone else struggles with the type of poetry they write and what they aspire to create (or at least would like to try).

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Waiting for the Rejections

I'm getting better at the rejection game.  I open my e-mail daily and one or two a week usually pop up.  It used to be a rejection could get me down for the whole day.  But now I'm taking them easier (at least right now).  In any case the point is to keep going, no matter what, and to take heart by "good rejections," of editors who have some kind words to say but can't quite accept the poems.  A really good journal had some nice things to say recently, so maybe that's what's getting me through the other rejections.  Some say surviving rejections is a big part of being a writer.  I don't know, maybe that's true.  At the moment I just keep writing, keep sending, and keep hoping for something good.