On Writing

     I'm putting a book of poetry together for the Lena Schull contest.  I'll probably end up with 60 poems.  Such hard work.  I put the poems in a folder and printed off quite a few of them, about 47, need to have 50+.  Putting them in order has been a pain, moving them around in the folder.   I think I'll send the manuscript as a hard copy off, b/c the technical end of it has stressed and worn me out.

      The contest is through the North Carolina Poetry Society.  I experienced a trauma at the last meeting I went to for it and had to go to the emergency room.  Not long before that, Bonnie Korta had given me a severe dressing down and refused to pay me for the work I had done for her.  And Trump had been elected.  Big stress.

     Bonnie died after being sick for a while.  I didn't feel anything.

     So I associate the NC Poetry Society with a big, big stress in my life.

     William Faulkner said he became a novelist because he couldn't write poetry.  He considered poetry to be a higher form of writing than prose.  He was right!

     Fortunately, I have more time left before the deadline, which I thought was tomorrow.  I actually have 4 or 5 days.