Well, thank God that's over!
When I first noticed that for a couple months I'd been averaging around 30 poems per month over on A Pocketful Of Poesy, my original poetry blog, I was elated! I said to myself, let's see if this keeps up. If it does, by the end of the year I'll be justified in slapping a little header on there that proclaims Poesy to be a "Poem-A-Day(-On-Average) Blog"! I really wanted to do that! I was psyched at the idea. But I wasn't going to compromise my standards to meet some goal.
But at some point, I looked up and realized my clip was woefully inadequate to hit that goal. Why? Because I had fucked myself with months of 1, 8, 13, 19 and 24 poems during Jan thru June (only a 30 poem February managing to outperform the average). I was in a hole that was not going to be climbed out of just by setting a nice easy clip.
Well, too bad for the nice, easy clip. Because by then, I'd already mentally accepted the challenge.
I doubled and redoubled my efforts. I got a little help from my friends, in terms of poem idea suggestions (more than half of which were indeed used!). I kept up with periodic updates, to tout the gains made and the standard of quality maintained and keep morale high, and then yesterday, I just started drinking and lost it. I'd started the day yesterday with the poem tally at 321 poems, and I looked at how far I had to go and I said: "This ends. This ends NOW." I had literally had it up to here with poetry.
And the poem counter for 2009 displayed: 365.
When I first noticed that for a couple months I'd been averaging around 30 poems per month over on A Pocketful Of Poesy, my original poetry blog, I was elated! I said to myself, let's see if this keeps up. If it does, by the end of the year I'll be justified in slapping a little header on there that proclaims Poesy to be a "Poem-A-Day(-On-Average) Blog"! I really wanted to do that! I was psyched at the idea. But I wasn't going to compromise my standards to meet some goal.
But at some point, I looked up and realized my clip was woefully inadequate to hit that goal. Why? Because I had fucked myself with months of 1, 8, 13, 19 and 24 poems during Jan thru June (only a 30 poem February managing to outperform the average). I was in a hole that was not going to be climbed out of just by setting a nice easy clip.
Well, too bad for the nice, easy clip. Because by then, I'd already mentally accepted the challenge.
I doubled and redoubled my efforts. I got a little help from my friends, in terms of poem idea suggestions (more than half of which were indeed used!). I kept up with periodic updates, to tout the gains made and the standard of quality maintained and keep morale high, and then yesterday, I just started drinking and lost it. I'd started the day yesterday with the poem tally at 321 poems, and I looked at how far I had to go and I said: "This ends. This ends NOW." I had literally had it up to here with poetry.
I tore into it with a zeal for completion that I've rarely if ever displayed. I composed brand new poems from scratch. I took inchoate and disorganized drafts and banged them into shape and into place. I even reached out to one or two people's comments queues, where I'd left a poem as a comment earlier in the year, and seized them back for the purpose! I'm not ashamed. It is right that those poems should be anthologized here. And I needed them.
This morning I awoke. Checked the ol' poem blog. Cute little blue banner at the top!:
This morning I awoke. Checked the ol' poem blog. Cute little blue banner at the top!:
A Poem-A-Day(-On-Average) Blog!*
*calculation based on calendar year 2009 poem rates
And the poem counter for 2009 displayed: 365.
That's a forty-four poem day,* holmes.
As to the results of that day's toil, you may feel free to judge for yourselves. Comments for A Pocketful Of Poesy go here.
I swear. If I so much as see a haiku for the next ten days I am going shove an extra 8 syllables right where it wants it the least. I am DONE with this poem business. For a bit.
He said grimly. With fate-tousled hair caressing his broad brow, his keen eyes looking out on the world without, as that world looked in upon his poet's soul.
Comments
365 uh, chump(ing?) poems!
Damn!
By then I was just head down to the grindstone.
Yeah, "chump" only ever works in the pejorative sense.
"Mother chumper" is a variant I've used in the past, but it's not as easy to get a bead on.
You know what, I don't think people really have any idea how sensitive and delicate I am towards my poetry, and how much it can mean to get a little encouragement. So thanks, man!
The one about marriage vows I admit, but as much as it needed changing/fixing, I couldn't bring myself to take down the original, since I had given it to someone in that form.
It's possible I missed another, but it's not unusual for poets to have another go at a poem and let the original stand for various reasons.