Writing Bug bit when I was 8.  Little prize at 12, that was IT.     Now, if I just had time to actually put the words swirling in my head on paper.  But life is what it is.  Laziness and reverberations from a chaotic childhood combined with pressures having to do with gender and class and time slipped past.  I messed up, okay?  Add normal distractions like marriage, parenthood, returns to school,  juggling jobs. . .. . you get the picture.  Got a bag of excuses, take all you like. .
 
By  1986. . .,  the kids were grown, formal education more-or-less out of the way.  Sick to death of throwing myself into  job reports and promising myself I was going to write,  I took a little blue and white Smith Corona to an out-of-the-way beach in North Carolina and typed until a novel piled beside me. 500-and-some-odd pages, single spaced!   (I used butternut second-sheet paper and for years could write on nothing else.) Good the book wasn't, but it broke the dam.  By 1987, I'd had poems, stories, and essays -- even an article -- published here and there.
 
            Can't take rejection,  don't write.  Correction:  keep what you write to yourself.   Sometimes rejection is deserved, sometimes it isn't.  May have nothing to do with your work.  Publication folds,  guidelines twist or get miscommunicated, timing sucks, name it.   Even big publications have limited space.  Needs shift and staff comes and goes.  Sifting through the reams of material that flood in is mind-numbing.  Once straw is separated from chaff  (way not as simple as it sounds), it is a matter of balance and second-guesses.  As the deadline approaches, it' quickly becomes eeny-meeny.  It is astounding  how many editors take the time and trouble to jot a note or even write a letter to explain what went into their decision.  To receive a comment such as "shows a lot of promise,"  or "send another," is a thrill that never wears thin.  I gave up on saving pre-printed rejections of the "Sorry, doesn't meet our needs
at this time" ilk when I saw I was running out of baskets and file boxes.  But throw away a handwritten critique or encouraging letter from an editor?   Right.  Then I am going to trash that awful novel I wrote at Emerald Isle.   
 
There is magic in every  thoughtful word.     Never doubt it!
 
(watch for more. . .think u can stand it)

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A  Poem of Thanks to Poets who Know who They Are

 This is bad.  I  have words.  I  have phrases.   
 This small amount of talent and a Bic that erases.
 I picture a giant fridge plastered with magnets,
 Each with a glowing adjective (ballsy, say, or magic).
 I picture trying to arrange them in a way that will do
 To express my gratitude for all you are, all you do.
 But the magnets are weak, and the words go plop.
 Adjectives tired and trite, or just plain flop.
 Don't begin to describe how you help poets like me
 Get past our pounding hearts and quaking knees.
 Teach us to listen more and spout less.  (Even moi.).
 Take care that metaphors add more than rob.
 That we need to be clear at nearly any cost.
  At the same time show The Rule Book it is not Boss.
  Me, you have inspired with your bravery and wit.
  Me, you have shown it can be good not to fit.
  To admit that Hey, I am a fool.  Not the worst fate.
  Far worse never to rail against Prejudice and Hate.
  Never to honor a memory by being flat-out honest.
  Never to look deeper.  Be a Doubting Miz Thomas?
  Need to have faith and hope and. . .music!
  The wit to find a rhyme for a word like. . .music!
  Best add your voice to the choir, however so-so.
  Remember that off-key ain' no way a no-no.
  Sorry for sounding silly and for being so late
  With my inane but heartfelt,  Thank you, mates!

            (c) Phyllis Jean Green, 2006


   SO   MANY BOOKS,   SO LITTLE TIME   

*N 12/06:  It was from Annie Proulx' The Shipping News
that I got the idca for the poem I just posted, "Hard to Pin a Dirvishing Clown."  Her eye and ear. . .creativity. . .
are beyond astounding. 

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      FEED .  THE .  CHILDREN .

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       http://www.FREERICE.com       

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Phyllis Jean Green's publication credits include Sensations' Magazine's 20th Anniversary Issue, Spoken Word, First Writer Magazine, Mountain High (anthology), Southern Mist (anthology), Ardent!, Iodine Poetry Journal,  Night Whispers {anthology},  Sand, Sea, and Sail {anthology},  In the Eye {Katrina victim contributing anthology}, West End Poetry Newsletter, Writer's Haven, Carmen Ruggero's The Yarn Spinner, Poetry Life & Times, Washing the Color of Water Golden {C.E. Laine's Katrina anthology},  BeWrite,   itsaboutwomen,  Mobius, Antipodean SF, Always on Friday {Friday Noon Poets anthology}, The Village Rambler, Wicked Alice, Kenwood Review,The Pedestal Magazine, Sensations Magazine, New England Writers' Anthology, Freedom of Speech, WestWard Quarterly, Shadow Poetry, VoicesNet, SP QUILL, Poetic Space,  The Eintouist, The Moonwort Review, L’Intrigue, Mooncrossed, Mindfire, Poetry in the Arts, Skyline Magazine, PoetryRepairShop, PW, Pristine Poetry, Snow Monkey, Sulphur River Literary Review, Survivor Wit, Up Against the Wall Mother, Visions, Bitterroot, Muse, T-Zero, Poetry South, Soundings, Piedmont Literary Review, Seeker, Three Candles Magazine, Say it With a Song, Floating Holiday,Black Ice, Eratica, Author-Network, Wordwrights!, Wildcat, Timber Creek Review, Lost Creek Letters, Timbuktu, Ze Book Zine, and others that include newspapers and professional journals.).

The former therapist and speech & language pathologist authored a biography written on behalf of Patricia M. Apple, Spinning Straw: the Jeff Apple Story [Diverse City Press, 1999], and edited and introduced Peter
Tomassi's collection, Mixing Cement [Thunder Rain Press].   She served as Associate Editor of L'Intrigue the Wild Magnolia of Literature, and her published works encompass assessment and teaching materials for children with special needs and their families, as well as fiction and poetry for individual clients.  Green ghost-writes on a limited basis and has helped Internet business owners for whom English is a second language with their sites.  Her award-winning historical long poems about Coney Island, NY, have been performed by other poets in 24 states.  Her poetry collection, Straw-Hat Theater [Ze Book Company, 2001 --alas, the company folded] received raves.  She read with David Messineo, Sara Claytor, and other Sensations Magazine contributors at the Centennial Celebration in Secaucus, New Jersey.   Other readings have included one with editor-poet-musician John Amen.  Green recently read at Market Street Books {a non-profit arts center}in Southern Village, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  Her awards include a New England Writers Special Commendation, first prize from Poetic Liberty, first and third prizes for the Coney Island issue of Sensations, second prize from Shadow Poetry, first prize from Freedom of Speech, etc.  She is a Contributing Editor for Barbara Quanbeck's itsaboutwomen and Writer-Editor-Consultant, Angels That Care {ATC dedicates itself to ending domestic violence}.  <~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>>>

LEARN AND GIVE:  http://www.one.org                          

ENJOY!  http://www.sensationsmag.com      

ENJOY!  http://thepedestalmagazine.com

CONTRIBUTE AND LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW YOU CAN HELP KATRINA SURVIVORS:  http://www.celaine.com              

LEARN, GIVE, PARTICIPATE -- H E L P STOP ABUSE!::  http://www.angelsthatcare.org

ENJOY!  ttp://www.lintrigue.org            

PROTECT ANIMALS:  http://www.aspca.org  

{just a few of the novels that have changed my life)

 A Man in Full -- Tom Wolfe
 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith
Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
All Quiet on the Western Front  -- Erich Maria Remarque
Beach Music & The Prince of Tides -- Pat Conroy
Body and Soul -- Frank Conroy
Cannery Row, East of Eden  & The Grapes of Wrath -- John Steinbeck
Far from the Madding Crowd -- Thomas Hardy
Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan
Middlemarch -- George Eliot
Pickwick Papers, Hard Times, & Great Expectations -- Charles Dickens
Pride and Prejudice -- Jane Austen
Red Badge of Courage -- Stephen Crane
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter -- Carson McCullers
The Poisonwood Bible -- Barbara Kingsolver
The Great Gatsby -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Billy Budd -- Herman Melville
The Good Earth – Pearl Buck
The Accidental Tourist – Ann Tyler
The Last of the Mohicans -- James Fenimore Cooper
The Shipping News -- E. Annie Proulx*
To Kill a Mockingbird -- Harper Lee