I Won!

Okay, so this is a blog post swaddled in manifestation.

I just submitted a chapbook of poetry to the Rattle Chapbook Prize. *The deadline is tonight at midnight! Rattle is my favourite literary magazine. I’ve submitted to different contests and calls over the years, but this year I finally got my shi* together enough to complete a chapbook.

I’m sooooo excited! Thank you to Cristina for her late-night loving edit suggestions! Thank you to Dorothy for her outstanding cheerleading support! Thank you to Christian and Charis for keeping me on track and motivated! This poetry-writing thang is a team effort!

I’m so very proud of this collection, and I don’t often feel this way about my poetry. In fact, I haven’t felt it in a long time. But this…these poems BURST out of me in a way that I’ve not felt in my poetry-writing life…maybe ever. I feel like poetry and me are best friends again, after a dangerous, near-death experience we had back in 2022. I feel that I’ve healed some womb-started wounds in the process of mending the tear-up with poetry I experienced.

The amazing thing about poetry – it’s patient and kind and, actually, will never die. Isn’t that relieving? Refreshing? Exciting?!

We will see the long list and the winning poet on April 15th. I’ve marked it in my calendar.

And, I’m not 100% sure how the heck to ‘manifest’, but if it works something like dreaming/hoping/confidence-ing/love-ing my energy toward a win, then I think I’m manifesting a win!

The thing is, I already feel like I’ve won. I managed to write 25 pages of poetry, edit it, feel mighty joyful about it, and submit it to a place I love, that receives submissions with love. This is a win, is it not? In the meantime, I can submit pieces individually because the contest allows for simultaneous submission. I can widen my manifestation to including the publication of individual poems too!

I’d like to share a little ditty I wrote this morning…after a drive to work following a man in a pick-up truck who refused to use his turn signals. (Maybe they were both broken?)

PS. I’m in love with footnotes.