Another Publisher with Good Taste

As I was sifting through my Gmail (which I abandoned while on vacation), I found an email sent by the senior editor of the Wisconsin Review. They have accepted my piece "Alzheimer's" for publication! Yay! *insert Happy Dance here*

Interestingly enough, it was one that my MFA mentor wasn't a huge fan of. It was an experiment with rhyme a la Sexton (not that I am in her league by any means), where there is a specific rhyme scheme, but no (or little) end rhyme, where the form is subverted to the story. I don't think the story came out as gracefully as possible, but it was an interesting exercise, and I think I captured something. You know the sort of something that exists somewhere between words and knowing, that never quite wears words very well? There's a piece of that in the poem. Sloppily captured, and mangled a bit, but I can see it.

It makes the poem something of a child for me - I love it. I understand it, even when its language is choppy and broken and not quite right. I am extraordinarily pleased when someone else sees something of value in it. And I am painfully aware when it isn't reaching its potential.

Anyway, "Alzheimer's" is likely a piece that still needs a good deal of work, but I am inordinately pleased that the Wisconsin Review found it good enough to publish. I just started another rhyme-scheme experiment piece, and this gives me faith that even the pieces I write for personal development have some value.