December arrived and with it typical Missouri weather. Cold one day and a record high for one day of 72.  You can never judge Missouri weather  by a one day experience.

Had an open mic reading recently on zoom and read my new poem, "lost & Found" from the fall issue of 34 Orchard.  

It's been a busy year evidenced by my submission stats.  

• So far this month   7
• Today 3
  
• Past 12 months.   133
  
• Poems pending  70
  

 
Still got more days left this month.

A short time back I mentioned on FACEBOOK  I had a poem accepted by a journal that I was particularly excited about. I didn't name the journal but indicated I would soon. Soon has arrived the contacts has been signed and payment actually made already.

The Journal is 34 Orchard. My poem will appear in the Fall issue release date November 10, 2021.

Kristi Petersen Schoonover, Editor as 34 Orchard writes, "What I love about "Lost & Found" is, on a surface level, its universal message- we've all had days like this. Yet, in the end, it gets turned around, and, on a deeper level, speaks to healing. It's also entertaining and has a little bit of a sense of fun amid the darkness. In Short, "Lost & Found" is exactly what lives at 34 Orchard--visceral work, that illustrates the dark reality of our world; those internal things we cannot talk about. but we all know exist. I believe this piece is going to reach someone, and if you reach at least one person with your fiction, then you've done you job as a writer.

I'm very excited join the 34 Orchard family

OMG.... it's June Already...    How did this happen. 

Things going on:  

• I am participating in The Grind for June.  This is where we write poems daily and exchange them within the group for accountability.  Not only am I writing poems daily, I'm seeing some great work by other poets. 
  
• This weekend I submitted poetry work to three venues. 
  
• I recently  finished reading Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda, Easy Does It by Jennifer Moore, Dialogues  with Rising Tides, and The Naomi Letters.   Some great Stuff there. 
• Looking for reading opportunities.

But seriously, the year is nearly half over.  The anxiety of it all... 

  AWP 21 has come and gone.  It will likely be remembered as the Pandemic Conference. The conference that was to be in Kansas City, Missouri, and for me it was, but not in the way I had hoped or wanted. I did the conference from my living room on my laptop virtually.  I would like to tell you it sucked, but it didn't. I would tell you it was great, but that too would be incorrect. 

In the end, I benefited from it. It was cheap with no hotel or air flights.  No meals out. No Uber rides to off site location. 

It was in some respects a lonely event.  It was harder to connect directly with friends and meet new people, although I was able on a very small scell to do so.  There was no swag. There were no hugs. I did enjoy some readings and a couple of the panels i felt were very beneficial to me. There were quite a few instances where my mind seemed to be challenged in my thoughts about literature in various genre, not just my own.  I also feel the conference suggested to me that I should try to move beyond to poetry in some ways. Memoir and essay  most came to mind. But these thoughts were more like giving me permission to try, to explore a bit, not driving me to abandon poetry or  even implying that  I should follow such efforts seriously.  I

I of course ordered books and they have started to trickle in. I missed not bring a suitcase full of new books home and promptly unpacking them and exploring them right away. 

So far I have received the following: 

1. Plunder by Dorsey Craft. Published by Bauhan Publishing.  Dorsey was new to me and I was so impressed with her on one of the panels and from poems I heard her read that I considered this new connection a a big plus from the conference. 
2. Come the Slumberless to the Land of Nod by Traci Brimhall  - Copper Canyon Press  I already knew of Traci. 
3. Our Lady of the Ruins by Traci Brimhall - Copper Canyon Press
4. The Whimsical Muse by Darnell Jones - two sylvias press (one of my favorite small presses)
5. All Transparent Things Need Thundershirts by Dana Roeser - two sylvias press
6. The Inspired Poet - Writing Exercises to Spark New Work - by Susan Landgraf - two sylvias press
7. Deathbed Sext by Christopher Salerno - two sylvias press

 I've got more on the way... I will update you on me new library editions as a result of AWP21 as they come. in.