My poem 'Glasgow Nights' was written about my journey to work last year when I was working night-shifts in a homelessness unit. My other poem 'Written on Board MV Coruisk' is another commute poem - the short ferry ride from Dunoon to Gourock is usually part of my travels several times a week. Though I can hardly believe I've not been on the ferry for nearly five months now!
You can read my poems online here.
For anyone interested in acceptance / rejection stats - both of these poems were rejected three times by other mags/journals.
I've kept a record of every poetry submission, acceptance, rejection I've ever sent - my records date back to 2006! I've had 117 rejections - not individual poems but full submission rejections which often contain several poems.
My first acceptance came in 2008 - so two years after I started submitting. I've had 67 acceptances, again, not individual poems but often more than one in a submission.
I'm also starting to record rough reply times by mags/journals so I can better gauge how long I want a poem/poems potentially unavailable for.
5 comments:
Hari OM
Having spotted your link in Instagram, I have read them and found them both evocative, but of course, adore the ferry one!!! (Though I have never ridden the Coruisk, only the Argyll Flyer/Ali Cat or the Western Ferries 'four islands'.)
Very interesting about the acc/rej and timings recording. It's a long time since I tried submitting anything anywhere... I admire your persistence and diligence! YAM xx
Thank you, glad you enjoyed them. I think my persistence may be more like bloody-mindedness!! :D
I would never call your poetry inaccessible but by comparison these two are certainly easier reads. I think, perhaps, it’s because you’re dealing with things and places I recognise; I’ve been on the ferry to Dunoon; I’ve walked across the Clyde when I, too, worked on the Southside. I prefer the Glasgow poem. I read both twice but then went back to ‘Glasgow Nights’. It’s, for me at least, the more evocative of the two although to be fair in all the years I’ve wandered up and down Glasgow’s alleys I’ve never encountered a rat or even a mouse. I did come across my first vagrant in one—imagine getting to sixteen and never having seen a tramp—and that resulted in my poem ‘Street Games’. I think I’ve said this to you before but there aren’t many places that have inspired me or even moved me that much but Glasgow still manages it.
I do wish I’d kept better records of submissions over the years. There’re numerous poems I’m sure’ve been published but if I never got a contributor’s copy, which happened more times than I would’ve liked, I’ve long forgotten when or where. I really should start submitting again. I’ve accumulated quite a bank of new stuff since I hit sixty. After a dry couple of years the poems are coming through at a steady trickle.
When I was working in Glasgow last year Jim, all the new building works by the Clyde had chased the rats out of hiding - we used to sit in the evening and watch them run around the garden of the unit I was working in!!! Thanks for reading, glad you enjoyed the Glasgow poem. I'm sure most people think their city is special but I really do think there is something particularly special about Glasgow.
I got into a muddle early on accidentally sending out the same poem to several places so I've kept a strict record since then! Hope you're doing well and good to hear the poems are still coming!
blogwalking here from Malaysia. Regards! :)
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