honorable mention

my Work of Breathing poetry book was in the top 8 for the Able Muse award

as much as winning would be great, honorable mention is not so bad.

thinking about the hundreds and hundreds (I assume even a small press gets quite a few submissions?), getting to the top 8 tells me my book is probably just about THERE –it might be a matter or rearrangement or the judge’s particular taste.

besides, this book is very precious to me, particularly precious being about my daughter Kit, so I’m in no rush and feeling awful choosey about where I send it in the first place.

I also don’t really have any doubts about it. I read a lot of poetry, and I think (my own emotions about it aside) that it is a good book. Not everyone’s cup of tea…fairly dark…but I think the quality is there.

over the summer, (of course after I’d sent it off a few places) I gave it a big rearrange (cut a few poems, added a few poems), and I think it was the polish it needed.

Anyway, I never get very itchy with a book until I have another book finished and then I’m sending out two (though I know many poets who do have more than one manuscript out at a time), and while I can see that another manuscript is starting to glob together, that is a long ways off.