Good New All Over the Place!!

This has been a good weekend for me. Not only did we go to my favorite casino in West Virginia and actually come home with cold green cash - I also received an acceptance from an anthology AND an encouraging request for submission from another anthology AND I've been "shortlisted" by an exclusive UK poetry magazine!! I won't mention names of the shortlist or the request because I'm a firm believer in the powers of "jinx" but I will tell you about the acceptance. Saturday morning I received a very nice, very funny letter from Dr. Neil Harding McAlister in which he accepted my poem "Vomiting Jonah" for inclusion in the second edition of "New Classic Poems" - contemporary verse which rhymes.

That's me!!! Not only am I alive, which makes me contemporary as hell, but I also rhyme most all the time! It's so very nice to have it recognized as occasionally important. There are so few poets who do so and many of those that do do it, do it badly and without regard for metrical accompaniment. As far as I'm concerned, there IS no good rhyme without meter holding it's hand. It's a lot like dancing without a partner.

Anyhow...the first edition of "New Classic Poems" is available as a PDF online here - http://www.durham.net/~neilmac/poemfiles.htm - if anyone is interested in checking it out.

They are also still accepting submissions until April 30, 2006. http://www.durham.net/~neilmac/submissions.htm. If anyone is into "formal" verse, this might be a good opportunity to show your stuff to an editor who will appreciate your formality.

I'm also very excited about the "shortlist" poem. It's one of those poems which is one of my personal favorites, which I've had around forever, which everyone who reads it seems to love, but one which no editor has ever showed any interest in publishing. The magazine which shortlisted it is a very reputable and fairly exclusive one - and it would be my first foray into having my poetry published "across the sea." That alone would be accomplishment enough to make me smile for months.

Keep your fingers crossed. I'll find out sometime in early summer.