What are you working on?
I bought a copy of Writer’s Market from Barnes & Noble January 1st, 2020 and began submitting poems for the first time. I submitted for about six months, netting 31 acceptances. My mom’s passing has a lot to do with the sudden rush to publish. I figure there’s nothing left to lose – nothing to gain either, but I’m seeing I might be wrong about that. Been carrying them around long enough. After six months I stopped – to catch my breath I think. I never imagined I’d have so many that editors would like what I’m up to. I was just sending everything I had to any magazine I could find with no real idea what I was doing. I figured it out on the fly. My acceptance rate rose as I learned how to be more professional.
I’ll begin submitting again in the coming weeks. I write every day and I’m reworking older ones, too. I just set up a website – adamaipoems.com – and intend to collect poems I’ve published there. I’m taking my time to put my best work out now that I realize someone might actually publish them! I’m learning so much it’s changed the way I see my poems and I’m growing so much through the process I’m regretful I waited. Now I’m being interviewed about my poems, and how cool is that? I don’t know how it keeps getting better with the poems but it does. I’m humbled with so much to be grateful for and look forward to, when it still feels so often like nothing will ever matter again with mom gone. Not to mention Coronavirus, the riots, and all the other things making this the hardest year. But I’m starting to wonder where poems might take me next – a powerful tonic on days and nights when hope is hard to find.
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