Saturday, July 26, 2008

I've been tagged!

My most recent purchases of a book, a film, and a sound recording (with accompanying information)

1) Book - my last purchase was a chapbook, Lament of the Wanderer (an Anglo-Saxon elegiac poem) translated by Jane Holland (Heaventree Press, 2008). Not sure if chapbooks count so my last actual book purchase was my holiday reading Windabgeworfenes Licht by Dylan Thomas (Fischer Taschenbuch Press, 1992).

2) Film - Beowulf & Grendel (Starz Home Entertainment, 2007)

3) CD - not sure I can remember the last cd I bought! I think it was Yvonne Lyon's A Thousand Questions Why (2007)

I tag rachel, dave and swiss (because he gives nothing away, lol) - only if you want to, and anyone else who wants to also!

I apologise for being a boring blogger over the summer, I've got lots of notes for poems but the heart of them hasn't come to me yet. Sometimes I think too much and carry the weight of existence on my shoulders, it makes it impossible to write poems.
Looks like I didn't win the five grand Vital Synz poetry competition, that'll be the Baltic cruise out the window, lol! The poem I had entered into the competition I 'translated' into scots and entered it into The Herald McCash competition for scots verse! It's judged by scots Makar Edwin Morgan, I had a funny dream about him the other night!

I'm waiting on several probable rejections but the wait is driving me mad, how long should one wait before writing a 'hurry up' letter, three months, four months, longer?

7 comments:

Rachel Fox said...

Sweet Sorlil!
A tag? Oh god, what is that? I'm only a pretend blogger...I don't know any of the lingo (oh no, using language like my mother alert).
Boring? You're never boring. It's the holidays. There's daylight. Getting on with life is allowed!
Think too much? That's in the poet's job description. It can make the brain hurt but it is almost unavoidable.
The weight of existence? Ditto. But we do get to enjoy the incredible lightness of being and all that too. Hurray for the up moodswing!
Rejections? Best not to think about these. Everyone has had them (including all the poets you admire and love the most). They don't mean a thing beyond that one person not liking your poem on that one day. Rise above, my love, rise above!
x

Marion McCready said...

awww thanks rachel, was the literary reference intended?

Rachel Fox said...

I haven't slept much for the last couple of days...everything's out of my control!
x

Jim Murdoch said...

Personally I wait 6 months before chasing people up. I have to say, it never used to be as bad a this. I used to get replies easily within a month and many by return post in the pre-Internet days. Remember you can go down the simultaneous submission route if you're not doing that already. I've been a bit lax recently and not checked my database and much to my irritation I find I have about a dozen short stories that have been out since November! Doesn't time fly?

Marion McCready said...

6 months, crikey! I haven't done the simultaneous route - my plan is to aim high then as the rejections come in work my way down through my where-I-would-most-like-to-be-published list!

swiss said...

rachel's comment re someone not liking your poem is spot on. i'm just impressed with all this competition knowledge/submitting going on! i may dig something ou tfor that herald thing.

Marion McCready said...

here's a link for a good resource for writing competitions - http://www.poetrykit.org/comps.htm

You'd better hurry in getting a submission sent to the herald comp, the closing date's 1st August