One of the things my daughter Stephanie and I love about living together is the freedom to be neurodivergent. Which means.. that at any given time one of us might break into speaking like Barbara Jean from Reba, Loren Bray from Dr. Quinn Medicine woman, an Amish character from an audio book, or any other one of the countless personas that live in our minds. She even quotes fragments of my own poetry which I have long since forgotten. ( With ADHD as a superpower I have found that it is quite easy to forget a poem within a month … or even days… after writing)

Back to editing. Stephanie is brilliantly ruthless. And although this quality greatly frustrated me early on, I have come to deeply appreciate her giftedness. So she is Simon.

Annnd.. she is on the spectrum.. so before we even begin to discuss which poems will be sent to a lit magazine or go into a collection, every single poem that might fit MUST be listed. Since I have written hundreds and hundreds of poems, this is no small task. Once listed, we must ruthlessly yay or nay them … according to Simon Stephanie’s protocol. After which, we begin the ordering process ( paying attention to intro, body, conclusion, chronology, thematic consistency, flow of tone , variation breaks , timing of intensity… etc) throughout which, more poems are inevitably thanked for their time and sent sadly back to the file in Stephanie’s laptop which they call home.

This week, after a year and a half of false starts and prayer, we once again have an ordered collection of 54 “ poetry finalists “ which are preparing ( final edit) for an “ audition” with Princeton University Press.

Deadline is in May.. huge huge long shot..

Please pray? We are asking for His will, favor and acceptance here if this is part of it.. ( I believe the Lord has placed the theme of displacement, with an eye towards unity and hope on my heart for this collection… )

Thank you so much!!

Have a wonderful weekend:)

Kimberly