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       Updated 7/16/2024 | Check back periodically

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The Pots That Boiled, Eventually: Thoughts on Submitting, Revising, Submitting, Revising, and Other Subjects (July 3, 2024)

The aphorism “a watched pot does not boil” has been attributed to Ben Franklin, but I heard it first from my mother. It refers to a hoped-for event that doesn’t happen while you’re eagerly anticipating it. If it happens at all, it usually happens when you’re not looking. It’s a close relative to “the mail doesn’t come while you’re standing by the mailbox.” My mother didn’t say that one. I just made it up a few seconds ago.

As we poets well know, it’s better not to waste time fretting about whether a poem submitted to one or more magazines or contests will be accepted or not. Whether it will win a prize or not. Whether it will even be read or not. It’s better to immerse ourselves in writing or some other worthwhile enterprise. If we do that, time passes more quickly, and we avoid the trap of worrying about things we have no control over.

In the lines below, you’ll read about some of the good fortune I’ve had lately with poems being accepted and published. While sometimes a “new” poem gets accepted, often it’s the poems that have been submitted, rejected, revised, and submitted many times before they get picked.

Sometimes it takes that pot a long time to boil. Sometimes it takes years. Joyfully, I am able to report that several of my pots have boiled since my last post.

  • I am fortunate to have “This is not the scenic side” selected by Judge Eddie Vega for first prize in North Carolina Poetry Society’s Mary Ruffin Poole American Heritage contest. The poem appeared in the 2024 edition of Pinesong.
  • Thanks to Editor Beth Gulley, Writers Place Yearbook Volume 3, based in Kansas City, for reprinting my poem “Suddenly Out Popped This Voice” from my latest collection, Letters to Karen Carpenter and Other Poems.
  • I am also thankful that “Sleeping on the Job,” my ekphrastic poem about a painting (actually, two paintings) by John William Waterhouse, was selected by Judge Mary Hennessy for second prize in the 2024 Winston-Salem Writers poetry contest. The poem will appear in Flying South.
  • Thanks to Luke Whisnant, Editor of Tar River Poetry, for selecting my poem “Continental Divide” for a future issue.
  • Thanks to editors Daniel Cross Turner, Libby Bernardin, and Linda Ketron for selecting three of my poems for Coast Lines, an anthology of fifty poets envisioning life in the South Carolina coastal plain. (I lived in Myrtle Beach for two years.) I’m thrilled they picked “Pumpkins,” “An Older Couple, Dancing,” and “Once Upon a Time, a Postcard,” for this collection. Publication date will be announced later.
  • Editor M. Scott Douglass at Main Street Rag Publishing Company is a long-time friend who has been supportive of my work over many years. He published all my books. For several years, I served as review editor on The Main Street Rag magazine staff and am proud to be a frequent contributor. Scott recently selected one of my newer poems, “The Misunderstood Heart,” and has several of my book reviews scheduled to appear in future issues. Reviews in the pipeline so far include my articles on the following poetry collections: Thine by Kate Partridge, Everything You Love Is New by Ralph Earle, and A Citrus Taste: A Memoir of Nazi-Occupied Paris by Genevieve Kissack. In the coming weeks, I plan to review Modern Poetry by Diane Seuss and Dark Souvenirs by John Amen. The Main Street Rag is one of the few print magazines that regularly publishes reviews of poetry books, and I am a strong believer in Dana Gioia’s advice that “poets ought to write more prose about poetry.” If you don’t already subscribe to this magazine, I highly recommend it—not just for the poetry and the reviews, but also for the fine short fiction and photography found there.
  • Thanks to Editor Megan Grumbling of The Café Review for accepting my review of Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough by Shuly Xóchitil Cawood for a future issue.
  • My Biggest Surprise of the Year, So Far: I received an email from Caroline Kane Kenna, a fellow past president of Charlotte Writers Club, informing me I’d been selected to receive the A.L. Kimball Founders Award. She invited me to attend a special celebration in Charlotte, where I would be honored with fellow award winners Dannye Romine Powell and Mary Kratt. My first reaction was, are you kidding me? To be considered for an award alongside these two “rock stars” was just not believable. Dannye is a highly decorated poet and award-winning journalist. Retired now, she once wrote a weekly column on literature and literary happenings around town for The Charlotte Observer. Mary is a prolific poet and historian and author of more than a dozen books about Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. Then there’s me, a little-known poet. Turns out, the purpose of the award is to honor folks who have contributed significantly to the CWC and the literary community in general. My service as past president of the club earned some points—and thanks to a terrific board, we had a huge spurt in membership during my tenure and started a critique group program that is still functioning nearly twenty years later. They also liked that I was a founding editor of Kakalak Anthology of Poetry and Art. Though all that was a long time ago, I am honored to accept the award and grateful for the recognition. The celebration turned out to be a wonderful party with a chance to see old friends and make new ones. But wait, there’s more. Charlotte Writers Club presented Carolina Kenna with a surprise award, too, honoring her for outstanding service to the club.

Charlotte Writers Club Award Winners (June 7, 2024): John McGillicuddy (left) and Carolina Kane Kenna were honored with the 2024 Aline Thompson Award for service to the CWC; the three 2024 recipients of the A.L. Kimball Founder’s Award, honoring distinguished service to the club and literary community, were Mary Kratt, historian and poet; Richard Allen Taylor, past president, and Dannye Romine Powell, poet and journalist.

Celebration Time: During the CWC ceremony, Richard posed with friends Brooke Shaffner (left), author of the recently published novel, Country of Under, from Mason Jar Press, and Irene Blair Honeycutt (right), whose next poetry collection, Mountains of the Moon, is forthcoming from Charlotte Lit Press.

Poets I’ve Read Lately: I finally got around to reading Made to Explode by Sandra Beasley, which deserved to be read the moment I bought it. But I’ve carried it around in my suitcase for two years, to make sure I had something good to read on the road. Now I have to decide on another book to carry around in my suitcase. Other poetry books I read in May and June: Modern Poetry by the aforementioned Diane Seuss, Last Epistle by Anne Myles (my reading partner at Flyleaf Books last month), and Atmosphere by Michael Wayne Friedman (a Queens University MFA classmate). And one more: an unpublished manuscript by Irene Blair Honeycutt titled Mountains of the Moon. I am “over the moon” Irene asked me to preview the draft. Such an honor. I predict the book, slated for publication by Charlotte Lit Press, will be a hit.

Places I Read in May, June, and July:

  • In May, Scott Owens, poet, college professor, and proprietor of Tasteful Beans Coffeehouse, welcomed me back to Poetry Hickory, a monthly poetry reading and open mic event in Hickory, NC. Readers at the event can always expect a warm welcome, fun crowd, and good coffee. I especially like the quiche.
  • My first reading in June took place at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, ably hosted by Jan Harrington. (Her co-host, Ralph Earle, was traveling abroad.) I was glad to see many old friends there, including Mike Friedman, Kyle Terrell, Priscilla Webster-Williams, Earl Huband, Paul Jones, and lots of new friends, too. I shared the featured reader spotlight with Anne Myles, a terrific poet whose recent book, Late Epistle, won Sappho’s Poetry Prize. Special thanks to store owner Jamie Fiocco, who helped reunite absent-minded me with a left-behind briefcase.
  • Vino & Poesia, as the name implies, welcomes poems in Spanish and English, and lucky for me, some people brought vino and were willing to share. Held at the VAPA Center in Charlotte in late June, the event was hosted by José Vasquez, who graciously invited me to read as part of a poetry trio. The two of us read alongside the lovely and talented Kurma Murrain, whose love poems raised the temperature in the room by several degrees. Kurma, originally from Columbia (South America, not South Carolina), recited her poems in English. José read some in Spanish, some in English. An open mic followed. One of the few people in the room fluent in only one language, I was nevertheless made to feel welcome, in the tradition of mi casa es tu casa.

Richard and José at Vino & Poesia (June 21, 2024): Richard read from his new collection, Letters to Karen Carpenter alongside José, who read both old and new poems, some in Spanish, some in English. His book Icaro Vuela De Noche (Icarus Flies by Night), published by Main Street Rag Publishing Company (2024) is a bilingual edition.

Kurma Murrain: Rounding out the evening at Vino & Poesia was Kurma, author of the mixed genre (poetry and prose) collection, Coffee, Love, and the American Dream, is an immigrant from Columbia and a consummate performer of spoken word poetry in either English or Spanish.

  • My reading at Simple Gifts, on July 2 at the Friends Meeting House in Columbia (South Carolina, not South America), continued my rollout of Letters to Karen Carpenter and Other Poems. It was a thrill to share the stage with the featured musician Steve Bennett, a retired biologist, authority on certain species of reptile, and a singer/songwriter who plays a mean acoustic guitar. He’s also a member of the band Blue Iguana, now performing in the Columbia area. My sincere thanks to hosts Al Black and Lawrence (Larry) Rhu. Larry has a new book of his own, Pre-Owned Odyssey and Rented Rooms (Main Street Rag Publishing Company, 2024). Friends Meeting House is a Quaker Church, welcoming to everyone and very supportive of the arts. The program includes music and poetry followed by open mic.

I checked the boxes that say willing to travel, do readings. As of this writing, I have one more reading scheduled (see below under “Upcoming Events”) and one other in the works (date and place to be announced soon) as part of my rollout of Letters to Karen Carpenter and Other Poems. If you want or need a featured poet for your event, I’m here. You can get in touch with me via the “Contact” section of this blog or you can email me directly at rtaylor7491@gmail.com.

In the meantime, I’ll be writing. Themes of current interest for me are ageing, home, solitude, history, science, and art. Political poems are not my forte, but I am very concerned about the dangers of right-wing radicalism to our democracy and will be working to oppose authoritarianism whether I’m writing political poems or not. At the moment, we still live in a country where we are free to say and write as we please. Let’s use that right while we still have it.

Peace, Love, and Good Writing!

Upcoming Events

While I do not have events currently scheduled, please check back.

I’m honored Alice Osborn chose my new
poetry collection for plane reading material—
thanks for the photo, Alice!

Friends Celebrate the Release of Letters to Karen Carpenter—Jump to Story