Kurisumasu omedetoh, Jessica! In California we've had our breakfast (with Handel's "Messiah" in the background), opened our presents, and are napping before dinner. It's a hard life, but someone has to live it. : )
Happy Holidays to you too, Mari, My previous well wishes to you never got published somehow. So now I will wish you Happy New Year, Oshogatsu Omedetoh!
Thank you... and to you: all good wishes for the new year! In response to your most recent post, my poetry plan for 2012 is to do more ass-in-chair (meaning: write more!). I've got the concept/theme(s), but need More Poems. Many More. The transition from first to second book is harder than I'd anticipated. Sounds like that's not the case for you. Thank goodness.
I wish the second book was going to be easier. Right now I have an almost-manuscript-length pile of poems lacking the cohesiveness to be a manuscript. I think I'd rather have a theme/concept and need more poems (the grass always being greener), since that's a problem I've solved before, but I suppose it's good for me to have a new challenge. I'm sorry to hear the transition is challenging for you too. I've heard it's the 2nd book, not the first, that is the difficult one. But of course, people say that about children too. How ever many a family has, that last one was the hardest to adjust to....
I think it's safe to say the first book, for many poets, generally consists of such a wide range of poems (in terms of style and content) and the making of it often spans several years that one doesn't even *think* about whether the writing's been particularly difficult or not -- one's simply in the trenches with the work. With the second book there seems to be more intentionality and goal directedness, i. e. these poems will be a cohesive book!... and so, perhaps, there's more pressure involved (or at least that's my take -- I'm sure others experience it differently). It seems you're writing poem to poem and, in time, I'm sure some or all of them will find their way into a cohesive whole. Trust in the process!
Hi Mari I think you are probably right about first books in general, as compared to second books. Being as I am, I have done it bass-ackwards, but will end up learning the same lessons, albeit in a different order. Here's hoping this year brings your second and much awaited manuscript to fruition.
8 comments:
Merry Christmas Jessica!
Thank you Jeannine, And to you and yours!
Kurisumasu omedetoh, Jessica! In California we've had our breakfast (with Handel's "Messiah" in the background), opened our presents, and are napping before dinner. It's a hard life, but someone has to live it. : )
Happy Holidays to you too, Mari, My previous well wishes to you never got published somehow. So now I will wish you Happy New Year, Oshogatsu Omedetoh!
Thank you... and to you: all good wishes for the new year! In response to your most recent post, my poetry plan for 2012 is to do more ass-in-chair (meaning: write more!). I've got the concept/theme(s), but need More Poems. Many More. The transition from first to second book is harder than I'd anticipated. Sounds like that's not the case for you. Thank goodness.
I wish the second book was going to be easier. Right now I have an almost-manuscript-length pile of poems lacking the cohesiveness to be a manuscript. I think I'd rather have a theme/concept and need more poems (the grass always being greener), since that's a problem I've solved before, but I suppose it's good for me to have a new challenge.
I'm sorry to hear the transition is challenging for you too. I've heard it's the 2nd book, not the first, that is the difficult one. But of course, people say that about children too. How ever many a family has, that last one was the hardest to adjust to....
I think it's safe to say the first book, for many poets, generally consists of such a wide range of poems (in terms of style and content) and the making of it often spans several years that one doesn't even *think* about whether the writing's been particularly difficult or not -- one's simply in the trenches with the work. With the second book there seems to be more intentionality and goal directedness, i. e. these poems will be a cohesive book!... and so, perhaps, there's more pressure involved (or at least that's my take -- I'm sure others experience it differently). It seems you're writing poem to poem and, in time, I'm sure some or all of them will find their way into a cohesive whole. Trust in the process!
Hi Mari
I think you are probably right about first books in general, as compared to second books. Being as I am, I have done it bass-ackwards, but will end up learning the same lessons, albeit in a different order.
Here's hoping this year brings your second and much awaited manuscript to fruition.
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