Celebrating Rejection

Image © Lori Gravley, 2016.

Yesterday, I celebrated my 245th rejection of the year. I'm a poet, and I count individual poems rejected, but over 40 of these rejections are from agents whom I've sent a number of projects this year--Wish You Were Here, Knowing, Banjo Picking Girl, and The Fisherman and the Whale to name a few.

But yesterday's rejection was the best yet, so I'm hoping that means I'm getting closer. It included such things as . . . "This is truly a lovely text" and "You're a great writer and I'm happy to read this." It also included some advice on how to improve the text.

I'm celebrating all my rejections this year, all 245 of them, and thinking about my goals for next year. I hope you're finding some time at the end of this year to celebrate your creative self and all you've accomplished this year. See you in 2017.

100 Poems

Graffiti in Dumbo, New York.  © Lori Gravley,  2013.

Today I updated My Write Club total, and though it’s less than I’d planned, I typed "100" into my total poems written for the year.  It’s less than I planned, but more than I’ve ever written by the beginning of May.  It’s less than I planned, but more than I would have written if I hadn’t been trying for a poem a day. 

It’s less than I planned, but it’s encouraged me to write in new ways, to try new forms, to write down the thoughts and connections I make instead of storing them in the dark caverns where they might get lost or wither before I can unearth them and bring them to light. 

100 poems.  And in those poems--three picture books, travelogues, complaints, sonnets, spare little William Carlos Williams poems, American Sentences, and celebrations of little and huge things. 

100 Poems. That’s something to celebrate!