It's a pleasure to read this lovely poem again. The story about you and your husband sorting your poems makes me happy. I entered Rattle's chapbook contest recently because I just wanted to try, and Dan ended up going through rounds and rounds of poem selection with me. It's a gift to have a spouse who is happy to be a reader.
Oh, I love that! It really is such a gift to have a partner who not just supports your writing in a general "way to go, honey!" sort of way, but who also rolls up his sleeves and gets to know your poems, forms opinions about them. When my husband gives me feedback I always take it seriously, because I think, besides me, there's nobody who reads my poems with as much attention as he does. Good luck with Rattle! They have vexed me thus far, but I'm not giving up on them yet.
Yes—I forget sometimes what a good editor Dan is because I tend to get caught up in my own head. But he’s been reading every scrap I’ve written for 20+ years and can track patterns and point out stuff that I have grown blind to (like my tendency to wander from one story to another can pull focus from the point of the poem).
I went with Rattle only because they don’t mind if everything has been on Substack before :). My little kids keep asking me, “Do you think that you’ll win?!?!” and I’m like, “No…” but I’m so glad I finally did something like this. Hopefully it broke the ice on sending out more submissions in the future.
I really appreciate that Rattle doesn’t penalize poets for sharing their work. I’m going to focus on chapbook contests in my next round of submissions, because generally they don’t require that the poems have never been seen before.
A lovely way to defang the number 13. The composer Arnold Schoenberg suffered from triskaidekaphobia, or fear of the number 13. He even changed the spelling in one of his operas, Moses und Aron, (the extra 'a' in Aaron would mean the opera title had 13 letters).
It's a pleasure to read this lovely poem again. The story about you and your husband sorting your poems makes me happy. I entered Rattle's chapbook contest recently because I just wanted to try, and Dan ended up going through rounds and rounds of poem selection with me. It's a gift to have a spouse who is happy to be a reader.
Oh, I love that! It really is such a gift to have a partner who not just supports your writing in a general "way to go, honey!" sort of way, but who also rolls up his sleeves and gets to know your poems, forms opinions about them. When my husband gives me feedback I always take it seriously, because I think, besides me, there's nobody who reads my poems with as much attention as he does. Good luck with Rattle! They have vexed me thus far, but I'm not giving up on them yet.
Yes—I forget sometimes what a good editor Dan is because I tend to get caught up in my own head. But he’s been reading every scrap I’ve written for 20+ years and can track patterns and point out stuff that I have grown blind to (like my tendency to wander from one story to another can pull focus from the point of the poem).
I went with Rattle only because they don’t mind if everything has been on Substack before :). My little kids keep asking me, “Do you think that you’ll win?!?!” and I’m like, “No…” but I’m so glad I finally did something like this. Hopefully it broke the ice on sending out more submissions in the future.
I really appreciate that Rattle doesn’t penalize poets for sharing their work. I’m going to focus on chapbook contests in my next round of submissions, because generally they don’t require that the poems have never been seen before.
Loved this one the first time I read it, Tara. Love it all again (along with the story of your husband as selection partner!).
A lovely way to defang the number 13. The composer Arnold Schoenberg suffered from triskaidekaphobia, or fear of the number 13. He even changed the spelling in one of his operas, Moses und Aron, (the extra 'a' in Aaron would mean the opera title had 13 letters).
I remember this from last year and it's still lovely.
Thanks, LeeAnn. 🤗
I especially love the final stanza! Counting thirteen crows… and the image of the hair like a wing.
Thanks, Melanie. The thirteen year-old is now twenty, and I love having this poem as a snap shot. Thanks for reading.
Beautiful! Do you live in Maine Tara?
Yes, I do!
Sweet, I love Maine. I am on the MA/NH border on the coast.
Lovely!