On Substack Slacking and Silence

In 2023 I had good intentions. I had heard of a new platform for writers and wondered if it was time to make a change. It seemed it might be a good time, since it was the same year, I began writing the poetry manuscript I continue to revise. And revise, and revise. How many revisions does it take to get to the end of the endless revisions needed to finish a poetry manuscript? Maybe a lifetime? Especially when thus mentioned collection contains pieces of my heart, tears, and now a journey of growing years.

Meanwhile, as I continue to work on the poems in the collection which chronicle the first days through the first year following my daughter’s suicide, I occasionally submit some of the poems to test the waters and check if there is a place for them out in the wild world of words competing for the hearts and minds of many.

So, though my own Substack suffers (extreme) neglect, I do follow and enjoy a few literary accounts which I receive by e-mail. One is a Christian lit journal called The Clayjar Review. They are “dedicated to publishing human works housing the presence of God”. I love this concept!

I am grateful to have one tender offering included in their latest issue: Silence . I look forward to sitting with the issue and following the flow of the poems in the order they go.

One thing I can tell you about the short piece which I submitted is- it is part of a poem which has three individual stand-alone poems. The poem which appears in this issue is the last of the three and my personal favorite and is called Spring Morning .

You can find Clayjar Review on Instagram and Substack– if you are on these platforms I encourage you to follow and support the work they are doing there. I also trust I am forgiven for my Substack slacking in the meantime. If my daughter were here, she would surely be rolling her eyes and telling me to get with the program! Sigh, that’s a post for another day.

Thank you for reading. Thank you to Alexandra O’Sullivan and the editorial team at The Clayjar Review for including my poem!

Enthusiastically, Dawn