Mental Meanderings

First Official Poetry Submission

Ok, so I just clicked send on my first official poetry submission. That's right, other than my few stints with poetry.com I've never really attempted to have anyone publish my poetry. I submitted a flash fiction a couple of years ago that was firmly rejected (rightfully so) and I've had a couple of articles published but I've never really promoted my poetry.

Today, about thirty minutes ago, I clicked the send button on my first submission and I'm still fretting over it. I've researched the market. I've studied the do's and don'ts about cover letters, I've admired my poem and think it's pretty darn good and perfect for the magazine I submitted it to. Of course, even as prepared as I am I'll fret for the 2-4 weeks before I find out the outcome. I can't help but wonder if I've presented myself professionally or if I sound particularly clueless. Will my subject line pre-empt me into the trashcan. Will my opening acknowledgement, the letter, the bio, or the poem make me worthy of a rejection slip?

It's strange but the more I think about all the little nuances that could effect the outcome the more I come to realize that none of it really matters at all. No matter what the outcome I'm still the same person in pretty much exactly the same place as I was an hour ago, five minutes ago, tomorrow, a week from now, or a month from now. Getting published or rejected by this one little magazine over a poem that took me a few hours to write isn't really a big deal.

The truth is I never planned to publish any of my poetry. I'm a novelist who is dabbling in seeing if I can earn a cup of coffee from my poetry hobby. I could use the cups of coffee I earn from poetry to tide me over the year minimum it'll take to get paid for The Flight of Torque. I'm not expecting anything life changing to happen from submitting my work. Although perhaps with all the poetry rejections I'm bound to start piling up I'll grow a thicker skin and be able to handle it when my books start getting rejected. Of course, I doubt that, the time and energy and significance I give my books puts them in a whole other ball park. lol

Now I say goodbye to "Can I, Mommy?" at least for the next few weeks and I move onto other things. Actually, having said that I've been thinking about seeing if I could develop "Can I, Mommy?" into a children's book. It could work beautifully as one instead of a poem. That's another reason I'm not really concerned if the magazine accepts it or not. Either way I could develop it into a children's book if I decide to.

I do have to make sure I keep writing FoT and I've been working hard with the "Invalid Item"  as well as my "Invalid Item"  and of course writing more of my own poetry and entering contests. *chuckles* Again, just my writing accomplishments. *blushes* I really have been busy and productive lately. *grins* Of course, again, it's almost midnight and I still have things to get done before I can crash to sleep so I better run.