Compartment 14B
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Waxing poetic. 2007-09-19 - 9:46 a.m. Many people do not know this (though some of the readers here do), but I’m technically a “published poet”. I put in the quotation marks because it was one poem that was accepted and published in one literary magazine. And I wasn’t even paid for it. This magazine was set up as a means of generating money for charity so all the profit it makes, over and above paying its overhead, gets donated back to the community. I’m not sure if it accepts submissions by men but I know its target is the women’s community and the recipients of its largess are typically organizations such as women’s shelters. That all having been said, however, they do receive quite a lot of submissions from all over the place, so I was pretty pleased to be included. Am I bringing this up to brag? Well, maybe a little bit. Mostly though, it’s because I’m contemplating entering a couple of poems in a contest and am trying to hash through my feelings about entering and perhaps get up the nerve to actually enter. I don’t post poetry here, as a rule – it’s one of the things I compartmentalize, hence the new name of the journal. I don’t really think of myself as a poet or my writing as poetry, actually. When I submitted my piece to the magazine I didn’t think of it as a poem, just a piece of writing in which I tried to capture a particular moment. It was only after hearing other people describe my piece as a poem that I realized it probably was. And I have to say, it’s probably my strongest piece so I’m sorry that previous publication makes it ineligible for entry into this particular contest. So, I’ve written a few others, and I can’t post them here even if I wanted to ‘cause I’m afraid that would constitute being published, even if it’s self-publishing and only a very small audience would see them. What I’m wrestling with is: do I enter any of them? Do I write more and pick the best couple? Are any of them good enough? Would anything I write be good enough? I tend to write simple, short poems and the judge's poetry is full of images like chili-pepper flames and snakes striking. Do I just let it lie until it’s too late because if I don’t put myself out there I don’t have to worry about the reception my stuff gets? I know that if you don’t play you can’t win, but nor can you lose.
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