BIT #4: Lucky Streak

I have had four publications this year, and we are only in the fifth month. I had hoped to do some annotating this weekend but Reality has had other ideas for me, so what we'll do in the next two weeks is take one success at a time. We'll do them in reverse order too, starting with Verve, because this has taught me a number of lessons. The main one is how curation REALLY matters when you are looking to place your work in a specific space.

All the chosen poems for April have a central metaphor as their foundation: a heron, a horse, a childhood memory, a statue, a photograph, and I think this is a significant reason why I will have been chosen. Any curator of either a prize, a submission space or an anthology will already have come to the table with an idea of what it is they're looking to showcase.

I could also make an assumption over why I was given less exposition than everyone else, but it's a moot point. If anything, by not giving away what the poem is about, the first read will have a great deal more impact, and as the poem is hugely political (I did wonder if the first line might be too much, and am REALLY glad that turned out not to be the case) its sanctity remains intact.

I sent this poem to a friend before it was submitted, who told me that they thought it probably didn't go far enough. It is fair to say that my Protest Era is officially underway, that there are a number of pieces of work currently out for submission that lean heavily on current affairs, and contentious subjects. Three of my four do exactly that with equal degrees of impact.

There are many people who I care deeply about who are trans. The way they are treated in the media remains unacceptable, and I hope with local government elections coming up this year in the UK we may begin to say some traction in those undesirable elements being removed. In the meantime, protest is vital, and as it becomes increasingly dangerous to do that in public, I have a niche to fill.

I'll have an annotated version of this for Wednesday.

I aggravated an inner ear problem on Saturday and this morning everything is a wee bit too wobbly for my liking, so instead of the planned activity I will be taking it very easy indeed. The drawing projects being approached for relaxation have been hugely useful and I fully intend to keep doing this long-term as an antidote to burnout. I'll be finishing another one this morning. Not trees, but triangles.

We'll also have some new writing prompts starting tomorrow.