Thanksgiving Break Bits

{ November 27, 2011 @ 9:40 am } · { Poetry Books, Writing Process }

I’m recovering from the holiday celebrations and trying to gear myself up for the last two weeks of the semester.  Somehow, I managed not to bring a lot of school work home with me, so this upcoming week, I will have piles of papers due.  Then, I will have finals to grade.  Then, the Christmas holiday.  So to sum it all up — I am heading into the craziest time of the year.

I needed this break to relax, and I did.  I managed to catch up a bit with my reading.  In late December, I will be posting my top ten poetry picks of the year (full length collections published in 2011), and I have to say that it’s going to be hard — while I read a few collections that have disappointed me, most books published this year were very good.  (I also just got done reading Kristin’s fantastic lists of poetry collections for Christmas.  Take a look here for what she has to say!  I know I will be making my wish list with her help!)

More importantly, however, I worked on my manuscript.  I seldom blog about the painful project I call my first length poetry collection in progress.  I read so many articles and so many essays about compiling a manuscript that I stare at my piles of poems scattered about my bed (usually with a cat involved somehow) and just get discouraged.  Then, I quit and gather up the pile, throw the whole project in a folder, and stuff it into the bottom drawer of my desk.  No lecture here, please:  I know the collection is not going to get published this way.

But this break, I took time to sort through my poems.  I got rid of some favorites because they didn’t quite fit with the flow of my collection.  I also broke out of the awkward chronological order that seemed to want to dominate my book.  Am I totally happy with the collection?  No.  But, I’m pretty satisfied.  I think it’s a great start.  Right now, my manuscript is sitting sealed in an envelope ready to go out into the world.  I’m charging Anthony with post office duty on Monday!

 

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