Why Publish?

There is only one reason in my mind to publish one’s writing…to touch someone else’s heart — to make a difference.  If a poem isn’t read, does it really exist?  Was Emily Dickinson really a poet before her poetry was discovered after she was gone? After all, only a few of her poems were read by others during her lifetime.

Okay,  so it’s rather extreme to avow that a writer isn’t really writer unless she publishes.  There are many closet writers, who write only in journals and never intend to share their writing.  I know some women who have specific arrangements for who is to burn their journals upon their demise!  Yes, these people are writers, too.

But like so many artists, many writers do want to share, to make a difference out there in the broader world.  Publishing is a hard business. Traditional publishing is a shrinking.industry, as books become a smaller share of the media “pie”…but fortunately, the traditional way isn’t the only way to “publish” — and I use the word loosely.

I would submit to you that any way in which someone shares her writing is a form of publishing.  In your blog? Sure!  At a reading? Yes! Self-publishing? Not a problem!  Even sharing with one’s best friend counts. I would say “get it out there any way you can!”   The new definition of publishing is simpy sharing.

Today, I came home from my day job as a Market Research Manager to a fun surprise.  I do have a faint memory of entering the Writer’s Digest Annual Poetry Contest about 6 or 8 months ago.  It cost me about $5 per poem and I entered at least 5, though I do not recall which ones. I filled out the entry forms on line and remember hitting the “send” button. Then I promptly forgot about the whole thing.  Well, I came home at 5:30 tonight to find that I had been awarded Honorable Mention for 2 poems: Unfinished, which is published below in my first blog entry and another, called Psychedelic Retrospective, which is published immediately below.

We writers have to take our encouragement where we can get it and the Writer’s Digest letter will go a long way toward motivating me to write some more. Just one more way I’ve been published, in addition to self-publishing a book of my poetry, including my poetry in this forum and sharing in my Women Writing for (a) Change writing circles.

So, raise a toast to my placing in the contest and be encouraged that, too, you have many ways to publish your work. Write and enjoy the writing process.  And share your work, to touch as many people as you can.

Now, here is my poem:

Psychedelic Retrospective

Flowers in our hair,

change-the-world visions,

Haight-Ashbury highs.

We’ve all come down,

donning pinstripes

in lieu of dirty jeans,

tie dye and leather wrist bands.

As we monitor our 401K’s,

the admin buildings

are safe from radicals

and weatherunderground

is a “dot com” predicting

storms of an altogether

different nature.

Today, new condo, new appliances.

A vast showroom

with Vikings and Sub-Zeros,

refrigerated drawers,

winekeepers and a red enamel

stove the price of tuition

at community college.

Burnished stainless steel

blurs reflections on all sides.

Brand names seduce me

GE, LG, Kitchen Aid,

Asko, Bosch, Frigidaire.

I read yesterday that $2.29

will feed a hungry family

in cyclone ravaged Bangladesh.

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