Monthly Archives: December 2017

2 poems up at Ekphrastic Review

Ekphrastic poetry (poems inspired by and written about works of visual art) has always been interesting to me, how different media interact, imagery and words in close relation. I have a small (as yet unpublished) collection of such pairings, a selection from which Ekphrastic Review recently accepted and published, “nocturna.”

Take a look at it (or the other one, a reprint called “the angry boy“), and stay to read some of the other incredible work shared on the site. I see it as something of a window to the writer’s process. The paintings or photographs (or links to them) that inspired each poem are included for your viewing pleasure! Interesting stuff.

Many thanks to Lorette Luzajic for including my work.

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“Implicate Knitting” (2010)

322 Review is now defunct, but before that, they published this (no archive available):

Implicate Knitting
First appeared in 322 Review (2010)

The warm bamboo needles slide mathematically
within the curves of my practiced fingers:
snick
through
under,
loop back lift.

The pear-green wool links to itself
in the recursive continuum of a single knot
any physicist would recognize—
string theory.
Somehow,
a scarf emerges.

The equations of warmth are indecipherable to me,
like the dozens of people who call me friend
but who wouldn’t know the heavy stitches
that bind me together
if they tore them out personally.
Some of them have tried, seems like.
The names they use for closeness
are scratchy like the wool, and odd—
their friendship, mis-stitched and holey.

On these cold days,
I’m divisible by zero.
I knit, and watch my stash of scarves grow.

#100rejections — November Totals

fuchmyo

Accountability check-in-with-a-vengeance! But first, what is #100rejections anyway?

I have decided to set the literary goal of accumulating 100 rejections this calendar year to facilitate sustained efforts toward publication. Submitting multiple poems to one market and having them all rejected counts as one rejection. Having any number of poems in the packet accepted means that submission counts as one acceptance.

November, 2017 — 14 Rejections,  6 Acceptances, 16 New Submissions
Year to Date, 83 / 17-1 / 85

  • SOFTBLOW, Rejection
  • Amaryllis, Rejection
  • Black River Chapbook Competition, Rejection**
  • American Upheaval, Defunct (after prior Acceptance hence the -1 above — not counting it as a rejection either, though)
  • Cordella Magazine, Rejection**
  • Sustainable Arts Foundation (grant app), Rejection
  • Eunoia Review, Acceptance
  • The Penn Review, Rejection
  • Red Eft Review, Rejection
  • Anti-Heroin Chic, Acceptance
  • The Great American Poetry Show, Rejection
  • THRUSH, Rejection (personal!)***
  • Bomb Magazine, Rejection (personal)
  • New Verse News, Rejection
  • Plum Tree Tavern, Acceptance
  • *82 Review, Rejection
  • Bird’s Thumb, Acceptance
  • Front Porch Review, Acceptance
  • (b)OINK, Rejection
  • River Styx, Rejection
  • Christian Century, Acceptance

** Ghost rejection, hashtag sad-face.

*** A personal rejection, also known as a tiered rejection is sort of like a half-way point between a rejection and an acceptance. It means the editors passed on the work, but otherwise left a positive commentary of some kind in the rejection notice that was unique to you or your work, or added a personal note of appreciation. This is the first one I’ve thought to make note of, and definitely the first one I’ve received in a while. I’m excited about this one because I’d love to be published in this journal, so it feels like one little step closer! Also, they liked one of the poems that I really like, too, so that was just plain nice.

❤

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Tune in after the new year for December tallies and the FINAL COUNT of rejections for 2017, to see if I made my goal. Happy submitting!