Now Playing: “Mystical Magical” by Benson Boone
Saturday night Word Raccoon and I stayed up way late submitting our Look I Built a Cathedral collection to a few places that were closing to submissions ASAP.
But WR and I made the mistake of looking at the book first. Like, the whole thing.
We glanced back through our “Ready to Submit” folder and realized there were several poems there that belonged in the collection.
Naturally, we spent the next few HOURS subbing poems in and out like a coach team players.
WR insisted on adding in “Rumours,” the one about Stevie Nicks and George Harrison. I told WR I did not see how that one fit. She said it was a hinge, and that I didn’t need to see, I just needed to feel.
I was tempted to call her unhinged and take it out, but she was right.
It stays in. I’m reminded I don’t need to understand everything to trust it.
There were newer versions of some of the poems to sub out.
There were stronger versions.
There were poems that repeated themselves.
There were poems in the collection that weren’t much more than a vibe, too.
I cannot describe the soul searching involved in sorting these. Not easy. But also, kinda fun. It would have been more fun if I’d had someone by my side with a better eye than mine.
WR says her, that’s HER, but we all know she gets overwrought sometimes.
Dang it, I just remember a poem with a donut in it that I think was inadvertently left out. How did that happen? WR loves the food poems.
Oh well. I’m much happier with this version. It feels full grown now.
While we were hunting for deadlines we might have missed, and also, since we were finishing up a series on Netflix, (No, it wasn’t Bridgerton. We tried. We also gave up on Emily in Paris some time ago. Pretty dresses and puff pastry are fine, but…), we discovered a more than helpful free spreadsheet with both poetry reading periods AND a tracker courtesy of Emily Stoddard’s Substack.
It’s great.
She says to share, please share, and apparently she is facing some health challenges, so if you’re able to buy her book of poetry, please consider it.
Also, what’s up with me and spreadsheets?
WR is giggling and saying next I will be creating a spreadsheet of the feelings:
– Emotion
– Number/types of feelings cycled through in an hour
– What was worn in protest of a feeling/what wasn’t worn in protest/what was worn because of a feeling
– Trigger
– Coping Mechanism (If it’s not chocolate, it’s wrong.)
– How long until WR and I are laughing at one another and saying It’s not that serious, Sis!
– Resolutions made
– Resolutions broken
– Art created? Y or N? If no, go back to the laptop until you get a Y.
– How many fingers did WR attempt to put up that she really ought not have.
– What the hairstyles mean: (Hint: up vs. down = very different moods.)
Obviously each category would have subcategories which Word Raccoon really wants to delineate but I think we’re getting way far from the blogging shore.
Anyhoo, the spreadsheet will tip you off to even more opportunities to get ye olde poetry collections out into the world.
And hey, isn’t there reading to be done?
Here’s a sneak peek at the current table of contents for Look, I Built a Cathedral.
Like most buildings, the scaffolding may shift a little (or a lottle), but this is the structure as it stands today.
Dear Reader, you’ve seen some of these poems here. Others have been published and I’ve shared the link. One was nominated for a Pushcart.
Look, I Built a Cathedral
Table of Contents
On Reading Crush
Tilted Metaphors
The Last Arts Department Standing
Lens, Crafted
Congratulations on Your Assignment
Mutual Mass
The Gaze
Weird Eye Contact with the Soul
dangerous flirtation
Strawberry Jam
Planchette
All In
Salty
One Blackberry
It’s All the Same Damn You
Gone Gray
Blue Cardigan, Loose Buttons
Nearer Than Sorrow and Frost
Duet of One
Soul in the Key of G
Self-Rising
Valentine, If You’re Still Reading
I Stand to See the Trees
Vanishing Act
Conversation at the Edge of Indifference
Wonder Woman’s Donné
a betrayal of the universe
Something in the “Rumours”
Quietly Feral
Panic Breathing
You Know, You’ve Been to Rome
Face Down in the Ache
My Halo Cracked Last Spring
Squirreling
Cohabitating With My Past
Not Here to Help You Sleep Better
I Looked Out for You
The Gift
An Accidental Wedding Song for Misfits
When I Go
The Soft Apocalypse
Oh, you want a line from one of them? Greedy, greedy. But ok, fine.
Last lines from Wonder Woman’s Donné :
I’m not saying this right;
please understand anyway.
dremadrudge.com 