After writing that I had no submission plan for the coming year, I thought I had better get on with it. It seems I have quite a lot to do. There are 13 possible submissions to 9 different editors at five magazines, plus three possible competition entries.

They require 57 poems to make their selections. I have little prepared and just 12 days to do it in. I should really be writing poetry now, not blogging. Or thinking about breakfast. Mainly, I must admit, I am thinking about breakfast.

Last night I wrote ten tanka before bed. I have rewritten four of them and they are enough for two of the submissions (one editor requires three to select from, the other wants a single poem). I will let them stew for a few days, as it’s always good to go back with fresh eyes, but at least I have two of the thirteen done.

It is also possible that I won’t waste my money on the haiku competition, so that’s three done. It’s beginning to look a lot more manageable.

Now (having finished breakfast) I am going to set to and write the remaining 23 tanka. They will be reshaped by the time they are submitted but getting them all done will be a weight off my mind. After that I am going to sift through the pixelated pile of rejects and half-started prose poetry. There must be a few things in there that I can recycle. And that means that by this evening I will be  starting to write more poetry because I will be forced into it. Inspiration comes in many forms and has many names.