Ujjvala Rahn
My sister Anita Seth, Executive Director of Integrities, the publication for IF, which supports projects that offer alternatives to the great problems of the world, suggested I get an acting student to read some of my poems in a Youtube video. It seems to me that poets read their own poems in these videos, although the examples I’ve seen are of live readings put to Youtube. If anyone has tried this on Youtube, or had someone else do it, email us. I’d like to interview you for this blog.
In the meantime, I watched a lovely Youtube of a reading at USCB by Ted Kooser, the US poet laureate in 2004-2006. It’s long, about 58 minutes. Kooser’s poems are all loving here, even the one about spiral notebook (!) but the elegy for his mother rings with a son’s love and grief. There is a haunting poem (no pun intended, you’ll see) about Ted’s mother’s friend Pearl. The last poem, “That was I,” is a self-portrait of an old man who seems desolate in different scenes but who is observing the world and thinking. I love it: powerful.
My poem “From the Hand” was recently accepted by the online literary journal Mobius: The Journal for Social Change. By then I had submitted 47 poems to 10 literary journals in 10 weeks. My goal is to have completed 100 submissions, in order to reach my goal of 5 more acceptances to add to my previous 5. This recent one is my sixth.
In the life of writing, submissions are a route to exposing our work to a reading audience. However, it is not a judgment of your writing or your talent or skills. When your work is as good as you believe it can be, ideally with objective review from someone else, go ahead and start sending it out. As many good literary outlets as there are, submissions is a numbers game to find the journals in which your work fits.
A list of acceptances shows that other people who are not your intimates have liked your poetry. In addition, it helps build your audience. It"s part of a resume to show publishers, grants organization, and the like.
Most of you are writers with day jobs and family responsibilities. I’m no different from you. I’m an industrial chemist with a 40 minute commute each way. I have a daughter in high school and a husband who also works away from home. But I have been writing for 35 years, including during my daughter’s infancy.
I wrote, but I didn’t submit much, because just getting to writing was often enough of a hurdle. However, now I have a system that minimizes the time spent on submission. This system works well for poetry, but I think it would also work for other writing.
1. I went through the current Poets Market and noted those journals that would accept emerging as well as established writers and had viewpoints that I thought I had written for or could write for. I entered the name and the page into a spreadsheet. This step took a couple of months to complete.
2. When the list was complete, once a week (more or less - no need to get anxious about it) I checked one of the listings to see if there was a website and if there were sample poems. If I didn’t like the poems, that listing was removed. If I did, then I would submit the maximum number of poems the journal accepts at one time. What if sample poems are unavailable, and you only have recourse to the print copy? Currently I just move on to the next journal, but eventually I will get a copy of the journals I passed over.
3. If I see a possibility in a journal, contest or something else that is advertised in magazines like Poets and Writers, I add that to the spreadsheet with pertinent information.
4. When I finish the spreadsheet, I will start again from the beginning.
5. When I submit work, I enter the titles of the poems, date of submission, the expected date of response, the actual date of response, and the response.
6. I set up a calculation to track the total number of submissions, the number of journals, and the number of weeks.
It helps that journals are increasingly accepting online or email submissions even for print copies. Mailing can be a little more work. But the important thing is to track your submissions, which a spreadsheet makes considerably easier.
Joe and I both love poetry, writing and reading it. We each have our own set of criteria. Here is what I like in my poetry as well as others.
1. Recognizes the iridescence of truth – how it can be relative to a person or situation, how it can even be uncertain, and the like.
2. Original metaphor and/or imagery.
3. Musical sound and careful word choice: the words sound good and feel good in the mouth when read aloud.
4. Has to be about something, not just wordplay, nor abstract, nor a puzzle to solve (but I’m fond of Sylvia Plath’s “Metaphors,” tells us that she’s a riddle.).
5. Small or big theme. It can reveal its whole self or just its shadow.
6. Passion, intensity, even if underground.
7. Technical prowess.
8. Especially impressed with poetry which moves me about a theme or subject to which I’m initially unsympathetic or even antagonistic.
The idea behind projects is to think of writing as a serious endeavor and not just a whim to be indulged when “inspired.” Here are some ideas:
1. Make gifts of your writing, for instance, a book of poems for your significant other inspired by him or her.
2. National Novel Writing Month (in November) or National Poetry Writing Month (in April) - just to push yourself for a completed piece of writing. In NaNoWriMo, the aim is to finish a draft of a novel. NaPoWriMo’s goal is a poem a month. There are websites for each of these events.
3. Poems or stories for birthdays.
4. Poems or stories concerning a holiday. Ted Kooser wrote Valentine’s Day poems for his female friends. Sally Van Doren’s Easter is an evocative poem around spring and resurrection.
5. For a child, a little story that features her or him. For instance, when my daughter was five and obsessed with swimming, I wrote a story about a kindergartner whose wish to become a mermaid came true, and the consequences in real life.
6. Of course, the memoir for your family. There are many books to help you write a memoir.
7. The love letter to anyone, beyond spouse or lover – to a parent, a child, a sibling, a friend.
8. Sign and frame one of your poem for someone who really likes it.
Write a little something every day, as Rosemary Daniell of the writing group Zona Rosa says. Consider that artists sketch regularly, that musicians practice their instruments, and athletes work out regularly even off-season.
In Zona Rosa, we write a little every day because it makes us feel better. An additional benefit is that we stay limber as writers.
It is not a blog, it is not meant for publication or critique, and it is not meant to generate or develop ideas, unless that’s what you feel like. It doesn’t have to be legible.
It’s a treat, just for you. It is play. It is indulgence. That is the spirit in which you write this little something.
But as you indulge yourself regularly, with no pressure, you increase the ease of writing flow, just by doing it. Practicing writing when you have no goal in mind other than writing reduces the likelihood of writer’s block when you are in fact on a deadline.
What would you write, and when and where? That is up to you. For instance, I set aside 30 minutes before I leave for work to scribble in my fat softcover journal I get from Barnes and Noble. On most days I end up with only ten minutes, which is still ok, even if there is that separate time management problem. I write whatever happens to be in my head at the time. If I don’t have anything, I’ll describe what’s on my desk or some other place. I confess, I have turned on Dr. Phil on TV and talked back to him in my journal.
Open that page and write one word after another, even if it’s just nonsense, or a list of words. Writers usually have a minimum of a certain number of words or pages, which forces them to dive further into it. If you are uncomfortable with “wasting” paper or computer screen with nonsense, start with a limit of five minutes.
As for what medium, choose whatever is physically more comfortable, either electronic or paper. However, use a real file or book, not scraps of paper you throw away. That does not honor your writing. At least put the paper in a binder. Rosemary uses those cheap composition books so that she feels free to scribble any which way. I prefer sturdy blank books because writing freely is my treat, and also because I am hard on the books!
When? Whenever it feels good, but stick to one time. It needs to be a time that is as convenient. You may find that after or before dinner is convenient, or before bed. Many people write in the morning in bed before they get up to start the day. I, however, would like my coffee before I start! This commitment to time is the only requirement, although forcing commitment to one’s pleasure sounds like American Puritanism.
Consistently writing a little every day at the same time is like lifting weights. You will find that expressing yourself in your own way comes more easily.
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