Publishing Poetry

With a title like that I am bound to get people like me, people who are starting out in the world of publishing poetry. Oh, I have been writing for years and I know that doesn't count for much. I know being poet doesn't bring all the riches in the world. Even winning the Pulitzer Prize gets you ten thousand dollars ( I know that is hell of a lot of money and if I did win, I sure wouldn't turn it down). Being a poet means not making thousands of dollars a month in royalties (and it does seem many small presses don't even offer royalties.)

I don't write poetry to make money but that is only a benefit. I love poetry. I have all sorts of poetry books scattered around the house. How to write poetry, anthologies and everything in between. I  think I have more poetry books than how to write a story book. Anyway... I always wonder how people can even get a poetry book published. I have one written. I love this book, sometimes when I read it over, I am in awe of myself. I actually feel like I am reading someone else's book (I  know how it sounds- but who cares? I have to have some pride in my work).

I feel like two different people. Writer girl and the everyday girl. Sometimes, I write something and I can hardly believe I wrote it. Now this book is called Into the Garden it is a book of acrostic poems. Okay don't get scared... there is nothing like this in the world. This is different and unique and maybe that is why some people don't want to look at. It is acrostic poetry which I think I am pretty good at. It is not written like:

B is for beauty that you posess
E is for an equality in heart
T is for time I spend with you
H is for hands in mine always.

No, mine are written more like this:

Cautious with the feral wind     

And I wait in slipping dusk for  

Truth to fall from the sky.          

You get the idea. These poems are arranged in gardens: flowers, vegetable and fruit. And the titles of the poems are things found in each garden like tiger lily, cauliflower and others. No, I won't publish any on here because I want to keep the entire book pure. As in I want to keep it whole and that's why I don't even send the poems out to magazine publishers (they are acrostic so of course some people have a stigma to this form, thinking it is childish).

Next to haiku, I love this form of poetry because it offers a challenge. You have to say what you to say in certain perameters. I have been writing acrostic poems for years. I made some for my friends  and family and then I would frame them and voila, a totally unique Christmas present.

It is one of my dreams to write poems for these types of poems for people and get paid for it. Back to Into the Garden, I created the title before anything else. In fact, this was an idea born on a hot summer's day while I was beside my own small garden. The very early winter of that same year, I finished the book. I spent the following year editing, typing and pruning my love.

Here is a sample from the poem "Hibiscus" ...Go/Into the garden, where/Succubi feed you dangerous/Cakes made of lies.

I know you want more, tell the world you want more.