Be careful what you ask for!
I started writing poems on my birthday in 1991 while at Asilomar for a conference. It became an avenue of creativity quite different from playing music, in some ways more specific and in some ways far more diffuse. Unlike performing music, though, in order to present to a wider public than my wife, I realized I needed to get them published. I submitted poems to various journals which I thought would like the particular style of each poem. It was a huge amount of work, even down to targeted cover letters. It was quite discouraging to always be rejected, especially considering how many times I would revise a poem to make it stronger and more expressive to submit somewhere different.
After I had some success with my essay writing being published, I felt my poetry improved and started submitting poems again, with zero acceptance. I began to consider rejections as a message from the universe to stop writing poetry. When I heard about the call for submissions about metamorphosis from South 85 Journal, I sent them two poems. By them accepting one, I can no longer brag about my 100% rejected poetry record. Will I start writing poetry again? I can’t give you a definitive answer – yet. I guess I’ll wait to see what happens as this poem makes its way out into the world.
“How to Make a Violin” a poem by Blaise Kielar
