Posted on by Laura Lee

Fourteen Pieces of Writing Out for Submission and…

woman-typing-writing-windows   Thirteen poems and one piece of nonfiction are “out” for consideration.  I’ve submitted to established literary journals as well as journals about to publish their FIRST issue!

My goal, however, is to read and write more.  That’s how I can learn and grow as a writer and a person, I believe.  While it’s fun to submit, it can overtake the important activities of actually reading good literature and writing more.

Do you find submitting pieces of writing helps your writing or hinders it?

Good luck to those who are submitting!  I’ll keep posting links to new sites I find.  I have found the “Discover” feature of Submittable.com to be helpful in finding new (to me) sites, and then those sites lead to more sites.

Thanks for reading.

Laura Lee

Posted on by Laura Lee

Some (not so?) random thoughts

thinking    A kinder atmosphere in my world with the teachers out for summer.  It’s just nice to know good people are out there. And I know such good teacher colleagues and friends.

*~*~*~

I would have returned the email, even between terms.  Yes, I judge her for not replying.  Yes, I know she wasn’t being paid to check emails between terms.

But I would have. And I always did.

Because of being like that, so hyper-vigilant, I will never relax.  I have never relaxed.  Always on.  Retirement would kill me.

*~*~*~

Some people are multi-talented in music and art and writing.  It’s amazing.  It’s great to see.

 

*~*~*~

I wish I’d thanked my parents for moving us from a middle-class existence in a high-crime area to a poor existence in a much safer one.  I never thanked them, but rather blamed them for making us poor by moving.  I am ashamed I didn’t appreciate how much better a safe life would be for all of us, and especially for someone as sensitive as I am.  I am decades too late for they have died, but I wish I could tell them: “Thank you for this sacrifice.”

*~*~*~

One of the joys of being a highly sensitive person is that I can find great joy in simple beauties, actions, sounds, smells, sights. To me, nothing is simple, and I am grateful for all beauty of person or nature.

Because I am off-the-chart highly sensitive, I also find life to be greatly complicated and difficult at times, exhausting often.

A gift and a curse, but I don’t know how to be otherwise.

Someone laughed at me chuckling over ducks recently, but that’s all right.  It was delightful to hear them quacking and see them flying overhead on an otherwise cool and quiet spring afternoon.

That’s me, sometimes flying, often quacking. Never graceful, but often feeling grace.

*~*~*~

This aging is a hoot.  I remember things so clearly that turn out to be decades ago.

 

*~*~*~

Kindness matters.  I would advise against ambition over compassion.  In the long run, if we are human, we need each other more than another thing.  Yes, that’s a privileged point of view, for many struggle to survive, and I’ve been there.  When I was struggling so hard just to keep a roof over my head, I was all ambition.

But after survival, and during survival, I do believe compassion is paramount.

 

*~*~*~

What’s with so few people reading poetry? Language is so magical and poetry the most possessed!

*~*~*

I like the free photo/ image I found from pexels.com more than anything I have created.  Talk about evocative!

*~*~*~

In my dreams, I can paint.  And sing.  And dance.  Also in my dreams, I awaken and realize I cannot do any of those.

*~*~*~

Just some random (or not) thoughts on a lovely quiet and cool late spring evening before the riot of summer heat sets in.

Laura Lee

 

 

 

 

Posted on by Laura Lee

Poetry is making a comeback? NPR discusses the NEA study

 

gray scale photography of typewriter        As I wrote earlier and as this article declares, “In half a decade, the number of U.S. adults who are reading poetry has nearly doubled.” Read all about it on the NPR (National Public Radio) site, where they quote from the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) study here: Poetry is making a comeback

If a comeback, not even 12% of Americans reading poetry is a paltry figure to me.  How can poetry not be a part of so many lives? And do we even have 12% of Americans buying/ supporting poets and poetry?

I’m not sure about that.  I’d love to see America support its poets and truly embrace poetry, but we have a long way to go.

 

Posted on by Laura Lee

Foundry (Literary Journal), a mini-review

journal  As promised, I’ll keep posting links to sites I find interesting, important, or both.

A dear friend introduced me to Foundry Journal online, and I was impressed with the superb poems and beautiful presentation of the site.  I read the poetry of love, nature, politics, and more.  I saw carefully selected images that enhance the site.  If you love poetry, why not go there?

It’s obvious Foundry loves poetry and has found fine poets to publish.

From their site:

About

 

Poems are manufactured objects — the intangible cast into forms. ​Foundry showcases poems crafted by writers at all stages of their practice. We are interested in poems as made things, and we are interested in their making. 

Poems published in Foundry have been awarded a Pushcart Prize, selected for Bettering American Poetry, and featured on Verse Daily.

Posted on by Laura Lee

Submitted three poems today (hate to let them go–what’s wrong with me?)

coffee-smartphone-desk-pen    So we write to be published, right?  Erm… sometimes.  I submitted three poems today to a journal a dear friend recommended, and it hurt to let them go.  What’s wrong with me?

I have heard you need to kill your darlings or something similar, meaning don’t hold on to the art… share it.  I have to believe I will write more, I will write poems as good or better.

Yet I’m not sure I believe that, and I remember why I wrote each poem.

So I sent three poems I believe are good as poems, but that didn’t punch me to let go.

I’ve never felt this way about fiction or nonfiction; perhaps it’s the compressed nature of poetry that packs this type of punch?

We shall see; I read many poems in this journal, and they are good! I would be lucky to be included.

Do you ever feel “too close” to something you have written or created?

Posted on by Laura Lee

On sharing poetry and losing ownership of your poems

SMALL HEART BOOKS POETRY        I write mostly poetry, although this blog has gotten me to write more nonfiction.  That’s a good thing.  I do share many poems in their rough draft stages on my Facebook page, but I have a closed site and limit the views even there.  However, I don’t post my poetry here on my website/ blog just yet.

Why? I’ve submitted poetry many places, and editors/ publishers don’t want work that has been “published” elsewhere usually.  Mind you, only a few people are “reading” the poems there at all, but some will even claim a closed locked down Facebook site means
you’ve published your poem.

We poets are not writing Pulitzer Prize winning novels and posting them on Facebook!  It seems a bit silly and excessive to me to not be able to share and get my close friends’ critiques; however, with the poetry publication market as competitive as it is, I don’t want to ruin any chances I might have of publishing.

I admit to liking an audience for my writing.  Is that shallow? Probably.

Two good sites that are open to accepting poetry already posted on social media and personal blog posts and two I greatly respect are Rattle Magazine and Tuck Magazine.  (Links here: Rattle Magazine and Tuck Magazine.)

In fact, Tuck Magazine just published a poem I’d placed here; they simply asked me to take it down for three weeks and to link to them.  Sounds fair! Their goal is to INCREASE readership of writing about social issues.  I posted this poem here on the first day I created this blog, and now it is published here: Refuge Laura Lee Poem in Tuck Magazine.

Rattle Magazine is a top notch magazine of modern poetry, and its poems knock me out.  I can only dream of being published there.(I need to read and write more! Much more. I come away renewed with the power of poetry when I read their published poetry!)

Yet they don’t consider social media published for the sake of accepting work for competitions and possible publication.

Having said all that, I admit I am not a great poet.  I can write good poetry of a particular style, narrative poetry and dramatic monologues, the latter of which is out of style.  I have sometimes written good lyrical poetry.  I am not an academic but a caring reader and writer, so to me it’s okay I’m not making a living as a poet.

As if. DECADES ago I did research and found that only 9 people in American admit to making their living as a poet. NINE out of what–1/3 of a billion Americans?

So I continue to read and write. I should spend more time reading and writing, and now that I am a part-time worker, I will.

I’m fighting the impulse to return to full time work; I don’t want that heavy workload anymore.  Been there.  Done that! For DECADES.

So here’s to the talented poets and fiction writers and nonfiction writers–I admire you! I’m looking for more great writers to read, new or old writers, poet or fiction, for good literature really inspires me.

And I’ve only got so many poems in me–I don’t want to lose the right to publish them unless they are actually PUBLISHED elsewhere. I send out the ones I can stand to lose!  Since poetry doesn’t pay, I have many poems I just don’t want to lose.  I know. As if!

Keep reading and writing!

If you have any writers you would recommend or novels, I’d love to hear about them!

Laura Lee