The Lure of Chapbook Creation

This morning I began my day as I usually do, by scrolling through Facebook.  I saw a call for chapbooks and wondered if I should pull something together. 

I thought about the poems that I hope will become a larger book, the Jesus in the world poems mixed with poems that are inspired by the liturgical calendar and perhaps some feast day poems.  But then I felt irritated--why would I make a chapbook out of them?  They're ready for their book-length debut.  If I make a chapbook that gets published, I'm setting myself up for similar problems that I've had with my current book-length collection--how much material from previously published chapbooks to include?

I won't say too much about that problem here--in the future, you can read the article that I wrote about it, because that article has been accepted for publication in a book called Demystifying the Manuscript.  That acceptance made me very happy.

But back to my chapbook ponderings.  As I was thinking about all the poems I've written, I realized that a different chunk of poems would hold together very nicely.  Since the 2016 election, I've been writing a series of poems with an apocalyptic tone.  I think they'd work well together.

Later today, I'll take a look at those poems and see how many I have.  I want to enter the Two Sylvias Press chapbook contest, so I have until May 31.  It's good to have a focus.

Perhaps I should say that it's good to have a new focus.  I've had a goal to look through my poetry notebooks to make sure that I don't have other poems that need to be included in the Jesus in the world manuscript.  Truthfully, I haven't been doing that.  I'm giving myself a break because I have travel planned in June, and I may find some time to do some writing, revising, and typing then.

Yesterday I was feeling that familiar "squeezed" feeling--and my head was literally feeling squeezed too because my headache returned.  The few people who read this blog daily may have realized that my last blog posts have been shorter; it's a pretty squeezed time when I don't even have time to blog in the deep manner that pleases me.

Part of me thinks, why add one more project?  Won't that make me feel more squeezed?  On the contrary, this morning, I'm feeling inspired.  Much of the work--the creating and the typing--has been done.  It's a chapbook, so it's a 17-24 page focus that I can maintain.  Plus the due date of May 31 gives the project some immediacy.  These days, if a project has a due date a few months out, or an indefinate due date, it's easy to lose the focus as other items come screaming for attention.

I am happy to feel this spark, this "I can do this!" jolt.  I have been feeling dreary, like I've been leading a joy-starved life.  That feeling is cyclical, but I am so ready for it to leave.  At least this morning, my headache has receded.  It's very hard to feel joy when I'm feeling an ache in all of my sinuses and skull.