Tag: poetry

Wintry Mix: Natsume Sōseki, Neil Young, and My Eldest…

~ Chris Cocca ~ Leave a comment

I posted “Over the wintry” earlier today.

I’ve been playing “Winterlong” on guitar between outside snow day fun and shoveling.

Inspired by Natsume, I thought it would be fun to ask/make my eldest to write a haiku about today’s weather. We read The Trials of Apollo series together, and every chapter starts with a haiku, which is to say, the form is familiar. As is the cheek:

I like to eat snow.

I pelt my Dad with snowballs.

Don’t eat the yellow snow.

I mean, no lies detected.

How Many Submissions do Poetry Journals Get? One Interesting Example, and Some Extrapolation.

~ Chris Cocca ~ 1 Comment

I discovered And Other Poems today via Twitter. It’s a very well done project.

And Other Poems opened to new submissions in November in a sort of relaunch. I don’t know exactly when their window closed, but we’re only halfway through December, so it couldn’t have been too very long ago.

They share that over 200 poets submitted over 700 poems in whatever the relatively short time frame was. Some new journals get less, some get more. Long-established venues get many, many more. Still, any way you look at it, 700 is a lot of poems. Reading them and giving them the right attention is a lot of work. No doubt a passion project.

Across the literary world, thousands of editors this past year have collectively read, what, probably millions of pieces? Mostly as volunteers. Mostly because they believe in the power and beauty and necessity of words. They believe their work and the work of the writers they publish matters and makes a difference. Thank you, editors, publishers, laborers of love. You make all of this happen.