|
I entered one of my old personal favorite poems for consideration on a poetry web site, and just got a letter telling me my poem had been accepted for inclusion in a poetry anthology book.
This happened to me once before-- my very first published poem was an inclusion in such a book. I was thrilled when it happened-- a letter landed on my doorstop, and suddenly I was a "Published Poet"! (This took place, if memory serves, in '83. I was 28. Man, was I ever that young???) It being my first, I walked on air for days. As any author knows, your first acceptance, no matter how trivial, is "ACCEPTANCE". You somehow feel you've made the grade. The poem they took, by the way, is to this day my very favorite work.
(I still have my copy of that first book, by the way, packed up in a box in the attic. It's still one of my prized possessions.)
I've seen a lot in my lifetime-- I now know these books are basically vanity publications, and I assume they pretty much accept all poetry up to the page limit, now matter how good they are. I'm pretty realistic about such things. (Especially since they want to know if I want to buy a copy at the contributor's special price of just $49...) I know I'll never be another Sandberg, cummings, Pitt, or so on. Still, it's nice to know that somewhere a few of my thoughts will be catalogued for posterity, even though I didn't realize that when I submitted my poem it was for such a book.
Quite a few of my quiet thoughts have actually seen light, mostly in magazines and local newspapers, so I'm content. (My dad used to have a poetry column in his local small-town paper, and he'd occasionally slip one of mine in without telling me. So I don't know exactly which ones he personally had published.)
Hey, I'm a "Published Poet"!
--
The poem, for your consideration:
THE RAPIDS
The water in the river flows
with ripples, touching many things
along its endless winding path--
To travel, travel on;
to pass the rocks and rills,
then swiftly through the rapids rush
to loudly, broken-hearted, tumble down.
But soon it reaches bottom,
running lightly past the stones
to flash and dazzle in the sun--
The water sings and laughs in victory
and then is finally calm--
It stills at last, and is content
to simply flow away.
--
© 2003 SAH All Rights Reserved
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
