Friday Speak Out!: Writing by Divine Order

by Nadia Brown

I’ve married and divorce poetry so many times I’ve lost count. I’ve even written poems about my love loss and misgivings. But each time after our break-up, I would recall our good times, and that would encourage me to continue on in our relationship. I’d like to think I don’t have a quitter’s mentality, but there were moments where I’d set my mind to moving in another direction, that maybe this writing thing is not for me after all. This is not because I want to give up but rather it is about not seeing another way forward after already exhausting all options. But here I am years later, still learning about life with poetry, about where I fit into its world – to the point where I’ve written several poems about it. Here is part of a poem I wrote weeks ago.

Probe

I've probed
and examined you
but still can't speak
your language.

How many mountains
must I cross,
how many countless oceans I must
propel my body through
to reach your core?

When I first began this journey, an acquaintance at the time recommended a publishing company where I could submit my work. This company isn’t perfect, but it had no monetary requirement for submitting your work. If she hadn’t done so, I probably would have not gotten published, as I was quite ignorant about the publishing industry at the time. So I count this as a divine encounter.

Once I was published, I promoted my book and still submitted poems to contests, online and print poetry magazines. As time went on, I started to feel what I was doing wasn’t working. But then I received a letter along with an award certificate and $75 dollars informing me I came in 2nd place in a poetry contest I forgot I entered. Again, this renewed my hopes in my poetry writing. That said, I still wasn’t sure if I could write and publish an article because until this time I had never done it before. I then thought I would write an article and submit it to see if I’m any good at writing beyond poetry. The first time I submitted my article, I only submitted to one place. It was just to test the waters, to see if I had what it took. I was then pleasantly surprised when Absolute Write accepted my article “Knowing What Editors Want.” These accomplishments reaffirmed to me that writing is my calling and that even though I’ve had other accomplishments since then, those were the ones that came when I was really unsure whether I would stay with this thing called writing.

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Nadia Brown is a book publicist for indie authors at http://www.author-promotions.com and the author of two books of poetry: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003D1VEFI. Her poems have been published in several print and online publications, including Absolute Write, The Florida Writer, and Conceit Magazine.
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
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