Blogging My Poetry

NOTE: Blogging My Poetry was previously posted at Wild Rose Reader in September.


When I began blogging at Wild Rose Reader in April 2007, there was something I had to seriously consider: Would it be wise to post my original unpublished poems there? At the time, I remember other writers who blog discussing the subject of putting our work “out there” without getting paid for it. Some thought it would be unwise. Even though I realized it might not be the smartest thing to do—I decided to post dozens of my original poems at Wild Rose Reader anyway.



Of the original poems I’ve posted there:

1. Some were written for Tricia’s weekly Poetry Stretches at The Miss Rumphius Effect.
2. Some were written specifically for posting at Wild Rose Reader.
3. Some were written for poetry collections that still remain unpublished.
   

TWO QUESTIONS
I asked myself: Would any editors be interested in publishing a poetry collection when some of its poems had already been published on my blog? Would any anthologist/publisher ever pay me for permission to use any of these poems in anthologies?

I can answer the second question in the affirmative. Earlier this year, Graham Denton, a poet/anthologist in the UK, asked permission to use a poem I had posted at Wild Rose Reader in 2007 in an anthology he is compiling. The poem will be included in My Cat Is in Love with the Goldfish and Other Loopy Love Poems. That book is due for release next February. I also received a request from a well-known poet/anthologist who lives in the United States in August. The anthologist asked if he could use two of my poems in a special project that is being published in conjunction with The Academy of American Poets. Hooray!!! That book will be published next April.

Once I started posting my original work at Wild Rose Reader I never looked back. I love writing poetry. I enjoy sharing my poetry with kidlit bloggers, poets, writers, teachers, and other visitors who stop by to read it. After all, I write because I want to share my creative thoughts with others—and once in a while, it actually pays off!

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I have three original witch poems over at Wild Rose Reader.

At Political Verses, I have a double dactyl written by Julie Larios.

Laura Purdie Salas has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week.