Let's Talk About (Suc)Cess, Baby!

Success...What is it, how do you achieve it, when do you know you have it? It's so much easier to know when you don't.

Story time, Dear Reader, so settle in. About this time last year I submitted some work to a local literary magazine, The Porter Gulch Review . I was surprised to find out one of my poems had been accepted and was to be published in the 2009 edition. It was totally cool and fun and led to my first public reading! I enjoyed the experience immensely.

However, I pretty much pooh-poohed the PGR - basically because they had selected one of my poems to publish. What was it that Groucho Marx said? Something along the lines of he wouldn't want to belong to any group that would have him as a member.  Essentially I figured the PGR wasn't much of a literary journal if I got in. (Yes, this is a sad indicator of how low my self-esteem is...)

Imagine how I feel now having submitted several poems for consideration for this year's edition and  not having any accepted. Pretty crappy.

I submitted poems to three journals - all of which were to contact selected poets by March 31. Granted, it is only late on the 29th and therefore there are technically another 48 hours...but it ain't lookin' good folks.

Waaaahhhh. :-(

On the flip side (and there always is a flip side) I am a little relieved because I recently workshopped  one or two of the poems I had already submitted. Now that I have done more revising they are much stronger poems. And I have every intention of submitting them to other journals. That is part of my on-going plan - keep those freakin' poems in circulation, because sooner or later someone will read them and see the shiny goodness they hold.

In the meantime I am feeling a little disappointed and sad.

I was reading quotes on success and came across this one that, for some reason, I really love:

" Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire." - Arnold H. Glasgow


Please pass the matchbook,
j.