I have come across a few poets that had this 20 year break and it strikes me as a hidden law of the poetic nature: one writes when one is young and then when life’s clamor begins to quiet down.
Hi Nikos. That is an interesting observation. I wrote when I was very young but none of it seemed, to me, to be worth sharing. I knew that I was not quite expressing what I felt. Then in my late 30's something changed - as if a switch turned on somewhere deep inside - and I did like what I was writing, so I shared some of it, and I had some of what the poetry world would call "success."
However, although I did meet some very good people, I was never comfortable with the networking that seemed necessary here in order to achieve external validation as a poet. So I stepped back.
Also, it is true, my very busy life became even busier and part of that was paid employment which required thought processes which were rather alien to poetry..... I kept writing, but at a reduced output, and for 20 years I ceased all publication.
Now I feel like a bear emerging out of hibernation to find the world changed. I have lost track of all the local writers I knew here, and once again I have no idea of who is who or what is what. Substack, however, seems like a new way to make contact with other writers, and readers, so here I am....
Pleased to meet you! Not only another poet - but a bilingual poet. Your poem "The Drop" was a gentle moment of delight in my morning yesterday. :)
The pleasure is mutual, Davi! And your story resonates with me. I was out of poetry for 20 years and it only came back to me this year. It was like a recovery of a lost memory. And what has happened in those 20 years, I could summarize it as : I wanted to do poetry but then life got in the way :)
I am very glad that you liked my little drop because it comes from the days before the 20 year hiatus.
Yes, that's it. Living involves the accumulation of experience. Poetry is the distillation of all that experience, to find the essence - the heart of the experience - the thing which, hopefully, other people can relate to....
Yes, you are perfectly right about this, Nikos. I took up writing again after I retired from my job as a teacher. And I have to say that I never worked as hard at anything as I'm working now, and I rarely get paid for it. But I have my pension to save me from possible destitution. It's true, but I can say it with a laugh.
Yes, for poetry. I work at it every day now, like a craftsman, and sometimes the Muses see me sitting there, where I should be, and come to my aid with little bursts of inspiration. I like those days best. On days like that, I know there's something out there that's a little bit bigger than me.
Hi Danielle. So glad you like it! There is this strange dance between writing and publication. I think most of us write because we need to, but we also want to communicate - and sometimes there is a poor match between what we need to write, and what other people want to read.
When I read this I couldn't help but laugh that this is probably how my girlfriend sees me... The first 8 lines is the poem.
Poetry is so damn weird. We see something there, but in the end we don't have any idea what someone else sees in it. We just know that we are somehow way more invested in ours than they are. Somehow we have to maybe flip that balance. Write what we write... Send it out into the world ... And just let others see what they see without worrying about it.
Yes mate. It's the beauty - and risk - of self publishing here on Substack.
I do write things that I know are not working. I also write things that seem okay to me at first but I read them later and hate them. I'm sure that's true of all writers.
Then there are the one's you like - but someone else says "No." I have had Editors make good calls on my work, for which I was later grateful. The "Gun Lobby" incident mainly made me laugh - hence the poem - but truth is I was a bit pissed off too :)
So - if you haven't read it - the "My Big Break - Unredacted" contains the full poem (for better or worse).
My revenge: a couple of years later I entered a major Australian poetry competition/award run by the same journal. It was blind judging, of course.
I won, and they had to publish the whole thing. It was long! :)
Ha! There is no answer to this conundrum other than to follow your heart, publish what you feel, and just know we are gonna gain readers and lose readers along the way…just like everything else in life. Of course, doesn’t make it easy. Looking forward to see the unredacted version.
Thanks for sharing a little of your story here, David. I had a go at submitting (unsuccessfully) to a handful of literary journals a while ago, and in the end went back to publishing in online spaces because I am quite impatient. Your poem is beautifully formed. Glad to connect with you here.
Thankyou, Caroline. Publishing is an interesting process. Back in the late 90's, when I decided to try and publish, I built a sizeable rejection slip collection. Then I entered a few poetry competitions - local and national. Interestingly, I won several awards at both regional and national level, and I also received a bunch of runner up/highly commended results. In one sense an award is truly meaningless and silly, (how can there be a "best" poem?), but it does say something about the editorial process. In anonymously judged competitions I was coming out "ahead" of "name" writers who were regularly published in the literary journals, but when I submitted to those same journals - not an anonymous process - back came a rejection slip. The first exception to that was my "Gun Lobby" poem - an experience which was by turns hilarious and humiliating, depending on my mood. After winning a few awards I did manage to get a new poems published, and then a slim volume of my poetry. I even had invitations to a couple of literary festivals. It felt like a magic door to "recognition" was opening (in the very small world of Oz poetry!). However I felt uncomfortable about it. The more I saw, the more it seemed like that little world of Australian poetry was run on the basis of "who you know" and "who knows you" - rather than on the basis of "is this poetry good and engaging?" I was also going through an extremely difficult period in my personal life - and I just ran out of the energy and desire to do what just seemed like literary networking for the purpose of self promotion. So I stopped cold, for 22 years. I was still writing - but I went silent and I dropped off the "scene" entirely. Slowly, then more rapidly, my limited presence in Australian poetry receded. As of a few months ago, nearly every trace of my writing online had eroded away. (Even Google eventually "forgets," as old websites close down or are archived and refreshed. I have been considering a public "return" for a while now, and when Meg (my fabulous partner) pointed me at Substack, I decided it might be the way to do that. There is a risk in self publishing - I'm trying to be hard on myself and not too self indulgent - but there is also a wonderful freedom. The best thing of all is that it is exposing me to some wonderful poets and writers I would otherwise never have found - and that in turn is helping me regenerate my own creativity. (A sad aspect of "coming back" to Australian poetry is that nearly everyone I once knew in the local scene has disappeared, or died, or they have simply forgotten me. I feel Rip van Winkle!). Apologies for the long winded reply. Oh - and thanks for subscribing to my little Poetry Shack!! I hope you enjoy some of my other work. There is a sequel to "My Big Break" coming up.... :)
Someone who is more interested in writing good poetry than networking and 'climbing the ladder' sounds like a true poet to me! For a slightly different generational perspective, I started publishing poetry online in around 2015, and took a break when my second child was born. I came back to it in 2020 and had a brief go at submitting to literary journals, which I abandoned pretty quickly. I find it easier and more creatively gratifying to write, edit, publish online and receive immediate feedback than it is to write, edit, submit, wait six months or more and maybe eventually receive a rejection email. So I share your thoughts on writing in community (such as Substack) being creatively freeing, and while I also find that there is a good deal of networking involved in the world of online poetry, the community, inspiration and great writers keep me here. I'm new to Substack and taking my time with it, but I look forward to reading more of your work :-)
I like 'Big Break' very much and I really enjoyed reading it. I also enjoyed the picture you took in Dublin. But please make your way to Cork the next time you are in Ireland because all the people here will tell you, 'Cork is real capital of Ireland.'
I’m really happy you like the poem. It’s a true story and having a laugh (and a Whiskey) was my only remedy for the situation at the time.
(Although, in fact, a couple of years later I did come out on top. A sequel post is coming up).
Cork! Well we were there just a few years ago, catching up with my wife’s family. Meg is an Irish citizen and her Father was from County Cork. Her Cousins live around Castlelyons. We had a wild night of whiskey with her Cousin Jimmy Morrison at the Oliver Plunkett in Cork where Jimmy - a master of the uilleann pipes - was playing.
One set of my Great Grandparents was from Ireland - my Nan was a Casey. Her Mum (a Barry) was from Clonmel and her Dad was from Tipperary.
Visiting your beautiful country was a revelation. I did not realise a part of my heart was missing, until I came to Ireland….
What a lovely thing to say about my country! Thank you for saying so. It's true, of course. It is incredibly beautiful, and the whiskey is beautiful too, in a different way.
Ah, Martin. It was such a shock to me... I had not expected it. Meg and I were at a very busy and intense time with our work, and I knew her Canadian Cousins were planning a trip to Ireland to catch up with family. I was trying to persuade her to go on her own, but she had been unwell and was reluctant - it's a pretty arduous flight from Australia - so I said "I'll come too, then!" And she agreed.
Honestly, my whole interest was in helping Meg get there and enjoy the visit.
Then - to my utter surprise - I fell in love with Ireland, just as I had fallen in love with her - unexpectedly and completely.
This is something I will write about at more length, on my Substack, sometime.....
I have a poem on my Substack at the moment called 'Gasp' that I think could only be written in Ireland. It simply references how the sea and love leave you surprised totally gasping with joy.
I look forward to reading more of your work in due course - especially if it's about your visit here.
I have come across a few poets that had this 20 year break and it strikes me as a hidden law of the poetic nature: one writes when one is young and then when life’s clamor begins to quiet down.
Hi Nikos. That is an interesting observation. I wrote when I was very young but none of it seemed, to me, to be worth sharing. I knew that I was not quite expressing what I felt. Then in my late 30's something changed - as if a switch turned on somewhere deep inside - and I did like what I was writing, so I shared some of it, and I had some of what the poetry world would call "success."
However, although I did meet some very good people, I was never comfortable with the networking that seemed necessary here in order to achieve external validation as a poet. So I stepped back.
Also, it is true, my very busy life became even busier and part of that was paid employment which required thought processes which were rather alien to poetry..... I kept writing, but at a reduced output, and for 20 years I ceased all publication.
Now I feel like a bear emerging out of hibernation to find the world changed. I have lost track of all the local writers I knew here, and once again I have no idea of who is who or what is what. Substack, however, seems like a new way to make contact with other writers, and readers, so here I am....
Pleased to meet you! Not only another poet - but a bilingual poet. Your poem "The Drop" was a gentle moment of delight in my morning yesterday. :)
The pleasure is mutual, Davi! And your story resonates with me. I was out of poetry for 20 years and it only came back to me this year. It was like a recovery of a lost memory. And what has happened in those 20 years, I could summarize it as : I wanted to do poetry but then life got in the way :)
I am very glad that you liked my little drop because it comes from the days before the 20 year hiatus.
Yes... life got in the way. Much the same for me.
Early in that 20 year period, before people forgot I was a poet, I was often asked what was happening with my poetry.
My reply was "I am in the accumulation phase..."
And you, most likely, were in the accumulation phase. Isn't this what you are actually doing now? Distilling a life's harvest?
Yes, that's it. Living involves the accumulation of experience. Poetry is the distillation of all that experience, to find the essence - the heart of the experience - the thing which, hopefully, other people can relate to....
Yes, you are perfectly right about this, Nikos. I took up writing again after I retired from my job as a teacher. And I have to say that I never worked as hard at anything as I'm working now, and I rarely get paid for it. But I have my pension to save me from possible destitution. It's true, but I can say it with a laugh.
Do you work that hard for poetry, you mean?
Yes, for poetry. I work at it every day now, like a craftsman, and sometimes the Muses see me sitting there, where I should be, and come to my aid with little bursts of inspiration. I like those days best. On days like that, I know there's something out there that's a little bit bigger than me.
Loved reading this, Dave. Thank you for sharing!
Hi Danielle. So glad you like it! There is this strange dance between writing and publication. I think most of us write because we need to, but we also want to communicate - and sometimes there is a poor match between what we need to write, and what other people want to read.
I absolutely agree! There's a balance to find if we want our work to be recognized.
"They only wanted
8 lines
out of 30.
“But JS says
the first 8
IS the poem...
Do you mind?”
When I read this I couldn't help but laugh that this is probably how my girlfriend sees me... The first 8 lines is the poem.
Poetry is so damn weird. We see something there, but in the end we don't have any idea what someone else sees in it. We just know that we are somehow way more invested in ours than they are. Somehow we have to maybe flip that balance. Write what we write... Send it out into the world ... And just let others see what they see without worrying about it.
Yes mate. It's the beauty - and risk - of self publishing here on Substack.
I do write things that I know are not working. I also write things that seem okay to me at first but I read them later and hate them. I'm sure that's true of all writers.
Then there are the one's you like - but someone else says "No." I have had Editors make good calls on my work, for which I was later grateful. The "Gun Lobby" incident mainly made me laugh - hence the poem - but truth is I was a bit pissed off too :)
So - if you haven't read it - the "My Big Break - Unredacted" contains the full poem (for better or worse).
My revenge: a couple of years later I entered a major Australian poetry competition/award run by the same journal. It was blind judging, of course.
I won, and they had to publish the whole thing. It was long! :)
Ha! There is no answer to this conundrum other than to follow your heart, publish what you feel, and just know we are gonna gain readers and lose readers along the way…just like everything else in life. Of course, doesn’t make it easy. Looking forward to see the unredacted version.
A lovely story to share. I maybe terrible at it I’ve no idea but I quite like writing what I call poems.
Great you’ve come back to it 😊
Thankyou!
Thanks for sharing a little of your story here, David. I had a go at submitting (unsuccessfully) to a handful of literary journals a while ago, and in the end went back to publishing in online spaces because I am quite impatient. Your poem is beautifully formed. Glad to connect with you here.
Thankyou, Caroline. Publishing is an interesting process. Back in the late 90's, when I decided to try and publish, I built a sizeable rejection slip collection. Then I entered a few poetry competitions - local and national. Interestingly, I won several awards at both regional and national level, and I also received a bunch of runner up/highly commended results. In one sense an award is truly meaningless and silly, (how can there be a "best" poem?), but it does say something about the editorial process. In anonymously judged competitions I was coming out "ahead" of "name" writers who were regularly published in the literary journals, but when I submitted to those same journals - not an anonymous process - back came a rejection slip. The first exception to that was my "Gun Lobby" poem - an experience which was by turns hilarious and humiliating, depending on my mood. After winning a few awards I did manage to get a new poems published, and then a slim volume of my poetry. I even had invitations to a couple of literary festivals. It felt like a magic door to "recognition" was opening (in the very small world of Oz poetry!). However I felt uncomfortable about it. The more I saw, the more it seemed like that little world of Australian poetry was run on the basis of "who you know" and "who knows you" - rather than on the basis of "is this poetry good and engaging?" I was also going through an extremely difficult period in my personal life - and I just ran out of the energy and desire to do what just seemed like literary networking for the purpose of self promotion. So I stopped cold, for 22 years. I was still writing - but I went silent and I dropped off the "scene" entirely. Slowly, then more rapidly, my limited presence in Australian poetry receded. As of a few months ago, nearly every trace of my writing online had eroded away. (Even Google eventually "forgets," as old websites close down or are archived and refreshed. I have been considering a public "return" for a while now, and when Meg (my fabulous partner) pointed me at Substack, I decided it might be the way to do that. There is a risk in self publishing - I'm trying to be hard on myself and not too self indulgent - but there is also a wonderful freedom. The best thing of all is that it is exposing me to some wonderful poets and writers I would otherwise never have found - and that in turn is helping me regenerate my own creativity. (A sad aspect of "coming back" to Australian poetry is that nearly everyone I once knew in the local scene has disappeared, or died, or they have simply forgotten me. I feel Rip van Winkle!). Apologies for the long winded reply. Oh - and thanks for subscribing to my little Poetry Shack!! I hope you enjoy some of my other work. There is a sequel to "My Big Break" coming up.... :)
Someone who is more interested in writing good poetry than networking and 'climbing the ladder' sounds like a true poet to me! For a slightly different generational perspective, I started publishing poetry online in around 2015, and took a break when my second child was born. I came back to it in 2020 and had a brief go at submitting to literary journals, which I abandoned pretty quickly. I find it easier and more creatively gratifying to write, edit, publish online and receive immediate feedback than it is to write, edit, submit, wait six months or more and maybe eventually receive a rejection email. So I share your thoughts on writing in community (such as Substack) being creatively freeing, and while I also find that there is a good deal of networking involved in the world of online poetry, the community, inspiration and great writers keep me here. I'm new to Substack and taking my time with it, but I look forward to reading more of your work :-)
I like 'Big Break' very much and I really enjoyed reading it. I also enjoyed the picture you took in Dublin. But please make your way to Cork the next time you are in Ireland because all the people here will tell you, 'Cork is real capital of Ireland.'
I’m really happy you like the poem. It’s a true story and having a laugh (and a Whiskey) was my only remedy for the situation at the time.
(Although, in fact, a couple of years later I did come out on top. A sequel post is coming up).
Cork! Well we were there just a few years ago, catching up with my wife’s family. Meg is an Irish citizen and her Father was from County Cork. Her Cousins live around Castlelyons. We had a wild night of whiskey with her Cousin Jimmy Morrison at the Oliver Plunkett in Cork where Jimmy - a master of the uilleann pipes - was playing.
One set of my Great Grandparents was from Ireland - my Nan was a Casey. Her Mum (a Barry) was from Clonmel and her Dad was from Tipperary.
Visiting your beautiful country was a revelation. I did not realise a part of my heart was missing, until I came to Ireland….
What a lovely thing to say about my country! Thank you for saying so. It's true, of course. It is incredibly beautiful, and the whiskey is beautiful too, in a different way.
Ah, Martin. It was such a shock to me... I had not expected it. Meg and I were at a very busy and intense time with our work, and I knew her Canadian Cousins were planning a trip to Ireland to catch up with family. I was trying to persuade her to go on her own, but she had been unwell and was reluctant - it's a pretty arduous flight from Australia - so I said "I'll come too, then!" And she agreed.
Honestly, my whole interest was in helping Meg get there and enjoy the visit.
Then - to my utter surprise - I fell in love with Ireland, just as I had fallen in love with her - unexpectedly and completely.
This is something I will write about at more length, on my Substack, sometime.....
I have a poem on my Substack at the moment called 'Gasp' that I think could only be written in Ireland. It simply references how the sea and love leave you surprised totally gasping with joy.
I look forward to reading more of your work in due course - especially if it's about your visit here.