Right now

I have a poem in the current issue of UCity Review. You can read it here.

I'd like to share the journey of this poem with you.

But first, I want to let all the new and would-be poets in on a little secret: not all of the poems you are writing right now are going to be published this year.

One of the poems you're working on right now will take you years to finish. In five more years, when you've left your dead-end job and are finally working at your dream job, you'll still be working on that poem. And you'll tell your students or fellow writers that you have a poem that's still in the revision stage.

One or two of the poems you write this year will be ready to send to journals right away. Others won't be ready until a few months after the initial inspiration.

And then there will be a poem that you won't drastically revise, but that you'll tinker with on and off for years, knowing it's not right, and then when it feels right, you'll send it out, and an editor will want it. And you'll say to yourself when you see it in print, "I remember where I was when I wrote that poem. That was a long time ago." And it will feel right to see in print after all those years.