Did I get a special discount on gas? Was that my motivation? No--I wanted to fill up the cars while it was warm for a winter afternoon. Bitterly cold weather is on the way, and I don't want to be holding a cold metal gas pump handle in my hand in a few days.
It's continued to be a satisfying week teaching literature classes and my nonfiction writing class. I'm so glad to be able to do this. I've done a bit of sketching in the evening, but it's still been a week of very early bedtimes.
Soon the cycle of endless grading will begin. Perhaps that's why I've done more poetry writing, or maybe it's my 2025 goal inspiring me. I've also made a few submission--that process, too, will get dropped as my schedule fills up with grading and work for seminary classes.
Occasionally I think about my book-length manuscripts. I am not submitting those--that process is just too exhausting (and likely too expensive) to contemplate. But I do think about new poems and old manuscripts, and the process of publication. If a slew of new poems got published, how would they fit with the older poems if ever I wanted to put together a manuscript?
I think about how I once believed that an individual poem could change the world--I still do, but I think many other objects and activities have a better chance of changing the world. I once believed that if a poem found its way into a published book, it had a better chance of surviving for future generations to see. I no longer believe that.
It's interesting to think how the publishing world has changed, not only in my lifetime, but in the past 10 years. That knowledge, too, shapes how I use my time, as I realize how little we know about publishing and the future.
But I do know that I never regret having written a poem, in the way that I have some regrets about money and time spent on pursuing publication. Having said that, let me strategize about ways to get some poetry writing into this holiday week-end, since, happily, I no longer have grocery shopping to consider.
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