Writing in April

The research has been getting to the good bits. Research is like that, so much wading through irrelevant stuff and then bam! Something that gets you going, pen moving away, can't wait to get it all down. I haven't felt as if I've gotten as much writing done this month, but I think it's a false verdict in a way. All it takes sometimes is a period of getting lots and lots of new stuff on a page so that what follows seems lazy in comparison. All that new stuff has to be sorted, waded through, and spotting the mistakes and improvements takes time, sometimes more time than that inital rush. I haven't sat and counted how many poems there actually are for the biographical set, I slowed down, and what came out seemed more ready and in need of less work. I wrote the gaps that needed to be filled out once I sae it, and I think I'm done with that. There is still an end poem conspicuous by its absence though, something that feels like an end, without tying too much up this is a tough one.

I have spent my evenings in spring cleaning mode, painting the walls a boring colour I never thought I'd entertain. I must be becoming a beige person in my old age. I just wanted something cheap, clean and tidy. When I got back to work I got stuck into a poem about pigs, it had been bubbling away while I worked. I have one book left to read I think until I need to change my routine to better accomodate prose. The poetry has worked well as some actual writing while I'm doing research, but I'm at a point were I need to wrap up lose ends then flip to researching poems while i write some prose.

And yes finally I've done it, I've been psyching myself up most of the year to send some work to magazines. I sent one some poems this week. I tried to guess what the mag would ike, but to be honest I just can't tell. Mags are funny, now I'll wait for the rejection. I heard it's a 1:30 ratio of rejections over acceptances, just 29 more mags to send to then!