The big news for me this week was placing 3rd at a poetry competition at the Lakefly Writing Convention in Oshkosh, Wisconsin!
I found the contest when looking for Wisconsin writing associations and organization after LTUE. And when I noticed the competition, I thought of a poem I’d written a few years back that I was honestly pretty proud of but had not done much with.
I edited it, sent it out, and then forgot about it. This for me is about the best way to deal with submissions- send it and forget it. Otherwise I fret. To be fair, the biggest thing I’ve sent out at this point is my novella a few times. (Hasn’t found a home yet, which is why I’m not shouting about it here.) Maybe that’ll change when I’m submitting novels.
The poem is about love as an enduring, gentle, steady emotion rather than a quick passion or a barely-navigable bucket of traps and problems. So obviously the first stanza came to me practically in its entirety when I was stuck in my car behind a train a while back. What can I say, when inspiration strikes you write it down. The stanzas after that took more work and were much more rough and took a lot more editing. When I first wrote the poem, I didn’t edit them much at all since, well, why edit poetry? It’s supposed to flow from the moment, right?
Nope.
Much like most other forms of writing, you’re going to make mistakes and mix metaphors and not find just the right word or turn of phrase the first time through or completely muddle what you’re trying to say. Edit, y’all.
When you read the poem, which I’ll attach below, you’ll find I really like playing with rhyme scheme and structure. I’m not always good at sonnets or villanelles (those ones straight kill me and I admire the people who can turn them into actual polished pieces that work and mean things) but I don’t like doing just straight free verse most of the time. Rhyme has a shape to it that makes my mouth and my brain happy. So, you know. Do what you love. Also yes, I’m a nerd, when my husband and I were dating we’d have literal hours-long conversations by text that involved one of us saying something and the other responding in rhyme.
To conclude this ramble, I’m happy I was able to share the poem. I’m quite pleased it received recognition! And, unlike my posts here, a reminder- edit your work.
Intellectual Property of Elizabeth Doman
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