Tanka Project #22: Symmetry

I am coming to the end of a period of what I was inspired by Henry Rollins to call 'breathing out' - when I put my work out into the world. Soon I will start the 'breathing in' where I focus in on the creativity, writing and rewriting for me, to let things flourish and grow.

I will keep the tanka project going until I reach 44, which is my age, twice as many as I'm at now, and also a number I love because I love repeating numbers. At that point I don't think it will die, just maybe breathe in.

When I am busy sending my work out into the world I sometimes start to believe that a rejection means it's not good. It sometimes gets to you, especially when someone keeps hold of it for months on end only to reject it. All that time when you could have nurtured the thing and instead it was held by someone who didn't even love it.

I can't judge myself or my work by other's standards (apart from the standards of my boss at the library where I now work, and I'm thrilled when she likes what I do). I have to do what is right for me, and that's not always going to be right for someone else. Someone else might even think it's rubbish. The important thing is that I don't. That's kind of what today's tanka is about.

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February update!

Hello! Please see above for a screenshot (not sure who the photo is by) from the lovely Fragmented Voices website which has my poem, Escaping Pheasants, as their featured poem today. This poem is inspired by the pheasants which are brought in to our local country house for people who are that way inclined to shoot. Sometimes I see them flapping down from the estate wall and on to the busy road, making a break for it toward the moors. Good luck pheasants. Escaping Pheasants also features in my book, Little Gods, published by the marvellous Roswell Publishing and available from booksellers and Amazon, or get in touch to get a signed copy from me. Other recent successes include two poems in Obsessed with Pipework #105, a Haiku in Coin Operated Press ' Haiku Zine, The Libraries came out in Culture Matters' Bread & Roses Anthology, and, as I mentioned last time, When you slow a bit you can see the way , another poem from Little Gods, came out in Butcher's Dog #19. I have ...

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