I’ve not quite made up my mind about my new blogging routine, but I am going to keep to the one a day (on average) plan until the end of the month. I’m thinking I may drop back to a couple of times a week after that. Half of me says that there is no need to change, as 250 words a day shouldn’t be a challenge. The other half of me says that practising longer pieces will be good for me and I should give it a go.
Whatever happens, I do know that I had a rejection yesterday. Rattle magazine runs a monthly ekphrastic poetry competition, amongst other things. It’s a good way of getting my submission numbers up, and giving myself a new challenge. So far, it’s also been a useful lesson in rejection, with me achieving a perfect record of three rejections in three attempts. I don’t mind these rejections, because they reject the poems because they aren’t good enough. Yes, I’m still banging on about editors who reject decent poems because they don’t match up to some wrong-headed vision of what a poem should be.
I will not go further along that line as it’s difficult to explain without becoming tedious. I’m thinking about this more and more because it’s coming up to the time when I will have to select a poem for a best of issue tanka, and I’m still not sure how to do it. I think I’ll just select the one I like the most and be honest about it. I’ll leave scholarly comment to other people.
Meanwhile, I just had two acceptances to balance up the rejection, and we had the woodpecker back on the feeders this morning. We have also got a small rabbit in the back garden. We aren’t sure how it got in, but are hoping it will be able to get out the same way as I wouldn’t want to see it trapped. It seems to have burrowed into the compost bin in search of vegetable scraps, but am not sure there is enough food in the garden to support even a small rabbit. The photo isn’t good, but it was done on a phone and enlarged without mercy.
It’s been a good time for wildlife – all the fledglings, the woodpeckers, a rabbit, a sparrow and the return of the goldfinches.
ha!!
🙂
I suppose if you aren’t growing lettuce and carrots the little is fine. I once put a plank up against the fence hoping my visitor would go. Never saw it again.
Unfortunately our fences are six feet tall and even if I had planks of the right size I just don’t see a rabbit making a successful escape this way. I’m thinking of laying a trail of lettuce and leaving the gates open . . .
Aye, six feet might be a stretch for a baby rabbit, without a handrail anyway.
ha! Health and Safety again!
Yup, anything over 600mm requires a handrail 😊
I just knew you’d know the technical details. 🙂
Balance will come
Congratulations on the acceptances!
When you come to a fork in the road, take it. I don’t remember who said that, might have been Yogi Berra.
It is the season of new life in many forms. We don’t see many rabbits here, too many predators.
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/07/25/fork-road/
Are you thinking too much? I ask politely. I can appreciate that you are a thinker, and your posts are all the richer for that, but there comes a moment when you should just pin your ears back and go for the try line.
I also appreciate that sitting around in hospitals gives anyone too much time to think, so I hope that your health improves.
Good luck.
Julia has just been reading the post and the comments – she agrees with you that I should stop over-thinking it.
Sweet little rabbit! I love how this time of year is filled with life. I find blogging once a week to be just fine, but different bloggers have different rhythms.
Yes, I must adjust. Something will reveal itself.
Less is more; blogging a couple of times a week is enough to keep the brain active and hone your skills, while also allowing space to reflect on lessons learned and experiences gained.
That woodpecker is a fine looking lady, and the bunny’s cute too.
Good plan. Yes, at the moment it’s a bit like being in a live action remake of Bambi. 🙂
always go with what you like the most. there’s a reason you like it .
I’m sure I replied to this. If I did, sorry for the repetition. Thank you for the pointer – it’s obvious but I was so caught up in other things that I hadn’t thought of it. Sometimes I feel like an idiot.
I don’t think you replied to this. but I know how you look.forwatd to talking to me
It has been a bit bleak recently with you being ill. I tried to answer some of the questions you posed but, in the end, refrained. I felt my views might be a little too contentious. Like the answer where I said I attach as much weight to Seinfeld’s views on Gaza as I attach to Trump’s views on the theory of comedy. And “Who are these Knicks of whom you speak?”. 🙂