Each Christmas I like to revisit the following essay from the The Sun. My grandmother read it to me many years ago. I've always remembered it. If you don't already know this piece, I hope you'll enjoy it. I also hope you'll have a Merry Christmas if that's what you're celebrating. And I hope you'll have a wonderful New Year. Thank you for being a Blogalicious reader.
Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's TheSun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial on September 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.
Here's Virginia's letter:
"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."
Here's the reply:
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
My new craft book, The Strategic Poet: Honing the Craft, is now available as both a print book and an ebook. I hope that you will consider the book for your holiday gift giving. And don't forget to give yourself the gift of craft talks, model poems, prompts, commentaries from the poets, and bonus prompts. You should not experience any supply chain issues when ordering this book as it's fully available.
I am very grateful to contributor Karen Paul Holmes who made a wonderful video for the book. She recorded herself reading a model poem by Sean Shearer, "Rewinding an Overdose on a Projector," and then her own Sample Poem, "Slow-Motion, Reverse-Replay, Myocardial Infarction," which she wrote using the prompt that follows Sean's poem. Both poems, Sean's commentary on his use of similes, the prompt, and the video appear below.
From the Exciting News Department: My book has just received the lovely honor of being named a Best Book for Writers by Poets & Writers magazine!
Sample Prompt from The Strategic Poet:
Rewinding an Overdose on a Projector
Blacker. Black. The foam drools back up his chin, over his lips and behind his teeth. The boy on the floor floats onto the bed. Gravity returns. His hands twitch. The heart wakes like a handcar pumping faster and faster on its greased tracks. Eyes flick open. Blood threads through a needle, draws into a tube. The syringe handle lifts his thumb. The hole in his vein where he left us seals. The boy injects a liquid into the cotton that drowns inside a spoon. He unties the leather belt around his arm, pushes the sleeve to his wrist. The wet cotton lifts, fluffs into a dry white ball. The flame beneath the spoon shrinks to a spark, is sucked inside the chamber where it grows cold, then colder. The heroin bubbles to powder. The water pours into a plastic bottle. The powder rains into a vial where it sleeps like an only child. All the contents on the bed spill into a bag. The boy stands, feeds his belt through the loops. This is where I snip the film and burn it. What remains are the few hundred frames reeling: the boy unlocking a bedroom door, a black jacket rising from the floor, each sleeve taking an arm like a mother and father.
—Sean Shearer
~~~~~
Craft Analysis:
The narrative action in this poem is reversed. Something horrible has happened—a heroin overdose. As we all do after horrible events, the speaker wishes to turn back the clock. Therefore, he begins at the end of the story, reversing and undoing each action that led up to the overdose and its catastrophic conclusion.
Notice the declarative sentences with their article/subject/action verb construction, e.g., The foam drools, The heart wakes, The boy injects. Notice too the flat, lifeless tone that results from this syntax, ironically at odds with the use of the personal first-person speaker.
The imagery makes the scene one we can see. Much of the imagery results from the strong verbs: Eyes flick open, Blood threads, The syringe handle lifts his thumb. The poet forces us to see the scene. And because we see it, we feel it.
In lines 5, 18, and 25 the poet employs three powerful similes, each of which illustrates that sometimes a simile works better than a metaphor. In the closing simile, the speaker describes the boy’s black jacket, each sleeve / taking an arm like a mother and a father. This closing simile makes our hearts ache for the boy and his parents.
The poet might have given more prominence to the actions by using stanzas, but he opted to use a single stanza which contributes to the poem’s fast pace and the absence of the relief that stanza breaks might bring.
~~~~~
Prompt based on Sean's poem:
For your own reverse action poem, first choose an event that had a negative outcome. This could be something you experienced, observed, or heard about from someone else. It could also be something you heard or read about in the news. Perhaps a dog getting killed by a car, a heart attack, a house fire.
Then make a list of actions leading up to the end. Put these actions in chronological order. This is just a list, not a draft.
Now beginning at the end of your list, draft your poem, ending with what’s at the beginning of your list.
Use a first-person speaker.
Use declarative sentences. Use active and energetic verbs.
As you revise, work in some imagery and similes. Put your strongest simile at the end of the poem.
How does the single stanza work for your poem? Feel free to try a different format.
~~~~~
Sean's Commentary: The Function of Similes in his poem
Although this poem is sparse in similes, the emotional weight of each one tends to be heavier the more the reader moves through the poem. The first one that appears is the heart being compared to the vehicle of the handcar as it wakes. Not much of an emotional weight, but it begins the poem’s rhetorical structure of the body being this rickety vehicle for the subject. The next two similes are the opposite as they compare inanimate objects to a living thing. These similes are hermetically tied to family, i.e., only child, mother, and father.
“Rewinding an Overdose on a Projector” is about the practicalities of shooting up heroin, an ugly subject matter. When you have the amalgam of a family setting beneath the poem, it creates a much stranger and stronger emotional weight for the reader. That last simile in the poem will always haunt me when I read it. The speaker is clutching these bodies that signify a balance or protection in life—a mother and a father—whereas we already know from the very beginning of the poem that the speaker can no longer be protected.
~~~~~
Karen's Sample Poem written using the above prompt:
Slow-Motion Reverse-Replay, Myocardial Infarction
Shards of crystal rise from the terracotta floor, swirl as if charmed by a wizard’s circling wand. They form the stem, then bowl of last night’s wineglass, which floats to the counter just as his heart starts again, the slow wingbeat of a great heron, its reliable lub dub, lub dub. Purple bruises on his cheek fade, rosiness returns, feet pulse with cozy blood. His knees unbuckle. He rises. Settles into his chair’s knowing shape.
[Pause. That’s the stop-action I want burnt on my retina.]
He’s like a buoyant boy on a birthday, lips pursed for the Bulldog kickoff, a gruff WOOF WOOF WOOF! He’s glued to TV’s pre-game pomp— Georgia-Alabama—texting buddies Tide ain’t gonna roll today! The ambulance never needs to scream. The house isn’t skin-prickling quiet. My key doesn’t shake in the lock. On the two-hour trip, my gut isn’t sick, my brain doesn’t fast-talk— his phone must be dead, his phone must be lost. Instead, I waltz with the hairpin curves, Cat Stevens singing “Morning Has Broken.” My heart stays with October’s trees— the red flags only their leaves.
114
fabulous poets have work in this book, poets as George Bilgere, Jan
Beatty, Traci Brimhall, Annie Finch, Camille Dungy, Danusha Lameris, Ada
Limon, Matthew Olzmann, Diane Seuss, and Dean Young (see back cover
below for the complete list).
The book is organized into 13 sections, each devoted to a specific poetic strategy:
I. Descriptive Details II. Diction III. Imagery IV. Sound Devices V. Repetition VI. Figurative Language: Simile VII. Figurative Language: Metaphor VIII. Figurative Language: Personification IX. Figurative Language: Hyperbole X. Figurative Language: Apostrophe XI. Syntax XII. Sonnet XIII. Odd Forms
In addition to the section strategies listed above, many other techniques are covered along the way.
Each
section begins with a Craft Talk devoted to the section strategy, then
is followed by 3 model poems. Each model poem is accompanied by analysis
of its craft elements. Each model poem's analysis is followed by a
prompt which asks the reader/writer/poet to do what the model poem does.
One
model poem in each section is followed by a Commentary from the poet
who wrote the poem. I solicited these commentaries and invited the poets
to comment on a specific element of their poem.
Each model poem's
prompt is followed by 2 sample poems to illustrate what might be done
with the prompts and to illustrate that outstanding poems can result
from prompts. These 78 poems were submitted by an additional 72 poets.
Each section ends with an additional 3 prompts. These 39 prompts were solicited from a variety of fabulous poets who also teach.
This
book can be used by poets working independently, by poets in writing
groups, and by poets in workshops. It should also make an ideal text for
the poetry classroom.
Thanks for your support throughout the
writing/editing of this book. You are an important part of it even if
your work isn't in it. And thanks to all of you who pre-ordered the book and made it the #1 New Release at Amazon in the Poetry Writing Reference category!
114 fabulous poets have work in this book, poets as George Bilgere, Jan Beatty, Traci Brimhall, Annie Finch, Camille Dungy, Danusha Lameris, Ada Limon, Matthew Olzmann, Diane Seuss, and Dean Young (see back cover below for the complete list).
The book is organized into 13 sections, each devoted to a specific poetic strategy:
I. Descriptive Details II. Diction III. Imagery IV. Sound Devices V. Repetition VI. Figurative Language: Simile VII. Figurative Language: Metaphor VIII. Figurative Language: Personification IX. Figurative Language: Hyperbole X. Figurative Language: Apostrophe XI. Syntax XII. Sonnet XIII. Odd Forms
In addition to the section strategies listed above, many other techniques are covered along the way.
Each section begins with a Craft Talk devoted to the section strategy, then is followed by 3 model poems. Each model poem is accompanied by analysis of its craft elements. Each model poem's analysis is followed by a prompt which asks the reader/writer/poet to do what the model poem does.
One model poem in each section is followed by a Commentary from the poet who wrote the poem. I solicited these commentaries and invited the poets to comment on a specific element of their poem.
Each model poem's prompt is followed by 2 sample poems to illustrate what might be done with the prompts and to illustrate that outstanding poems can result from prompts. These 78 poems were submitted by an additional 72 poets.
Each section ends with an additional 3 prompts. These 39 prompts were solicited from a variety of fabulous poets who also teach.
The book's official release date is October 13, but you can pre-order now. Pre-orders are lovely as they dramatically affect early sales to online bookstores such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon. They also affect the kind and number of promotions that such sites do for a title. So if you'd go ahead and pre-order now, you'd be doing me a very nice service. Plus, you would then have the book by the release date.
This book can be used by poets working independently, by poets in writing groups, and by poets in workshops. It should also make an ideal text for the poetry classroom.
Thanks for your support throughout the writing/editing of this book. You are an important part of it even if your work isn't in it.
Call for Submissions of Full-Length Poetry Collections
We will be open for submissions of full-length poetry manuscripts from January 24 thru February 28 and August 1 thru August 31.
We plan to select 2-4 manuscripts each submission period. All submissions must go through Submittable. Please read ourFAQspage before submitting. Any questions, please use the email address or the Contact Form on the Contact page.
Guidelines are as follows: A manuscript of approximately 40-55 poems. This will produce a book of approximately 90-110 pages. (Please note that your book will always be more pages than your manuscript. Page count for the book includes poems, front and back matter, blank pages, and section dividers).
Include contact information on title page (we do not read anonymous submissions)
One inch margins all around
Include Table of Contents
Include page numbers
Include Acknowledgments Page
List poems and journal titles rather than just a list of journal titles. Format as a list, not as a paragraph.
Pleasenote that we allow a maximum of 6 poems from a previously published chapbook. Regardless of the number of chapbooks, it’s no more than 6 chapbook poems. Poems previously published ina chapbook should be indicated as such on the Acknowledgments page. Include title of poem and title of chapbook.
In cover letter area include a brief bio and a 4-6 sentence description of your manuscript—in your own words, not a blurb We recommend that 25-50% of the poems have been previously published. More than that is fine.
Simultaneous submission is acceptable but please immediately withdraw your manuscript if it's accepted elsewhere.
Please note that there is a minimal $12 reading fee to help cover our costs.
If you are resubmitting a manuscript, please explain in your cover letter how you revised it. We strongly suggest that you peruse at least one book from Terrapin Books before submitting. We suggest that you peruse the work of any press before you submit.
Please note that at this time we are unable to accept manuscripts from outside of the US. ****************************************************************
Terrapin Books is committed to publishing outstanding books of poetry by outstanding poets. We intend to fully support our poets. We will edit your manuscript and work with you on revisions. We expect our poets to actively engage in promoting their books. We require our poets to maintain a dedicated website and to be a member of Facebook.
Our books are 6 x 9, paperback, perfect bound, color cover, with printed spine (poet's name, title, press).
We are committed to publishing accepted titles within six to ten months of acceptance. We do not maintain a long list of books-in-waiting. We offer a standard contract, a generous number of author copies, a substantial discount on additional copies purchased by the author, and an annual royalty payment.
The new craft book is moving right along. I now have all the content gathered: Thirteen Craft Talks, 36 Model Poems with 36 Prompts, 13 Commentaries, 39 Bonus Prompts, and 72 Sample Poems (written to the prompts). Permissions are done and bios are almost done. Contents is underway.
Still to be done is the Introduction. Then the dreaded Index. Then the editing and proofreading. Then the monumentally huge formatting job. Then more proofreading. Etc!
In case you're curious, here are the section headings:
I. Descriptive Details
II. Diction
III. Imagery
IV. Sound Devices
V. Repetition
VI. Figurative Language: Simile
VII. Figurative Language: Metaphor
VIII. Figurative Language: Personification
IX. Figurative Language: Hyperbole
X. Figurative Language: Apostrophe
XI. Syntax
XII. Sonnet
XIII. Odd Forms
In my last blog post, I listed all the poets who contributed Craft Talks, Model Poems, Commentaries, and Bonus Prompts. Since then I put out a Call for Submissions for the Sample Poems. The poems poured in, and I'm happy to say that all 72 spots filled quickly. Here's the list of poets whose sample poems will appear in the book:
Tiel
Aisha Ansari
KB Ballentine
Nina
Bennett Libby Bernardin
Nancy Susanna Breen
Ronda
Piszk Broatch
Jayne Brown
Luanne
Castle
Robin
Rosen Chang
Robin
Chapman
Kersten
Christianson
Patricia Clark
Cathryn Colman
Gail
Comorat
Geraldine Connolly
Jane
Mary Curran
Jessica
de Koninck
Maureen
Doallas
Lynn Domina
Robert Fillman
Ann Fisher-Wirth
Emily Franklin
I am up to my neck working on a new craft book, The Strategic Poet. This one will be similar to my previous craft books—The Crafty Poet, The Crafty Poet II, and The Practicing Poet—as the emphasis will be on gaining mastery of the elements of poetry. Like the earlier books, it will be aimed at practicing poets who already know the basics and want to move beyond them. But this book will also include some unique features. Instead of Craft Tips, there will be Craft Talks. These will be sharply focused on a particular craft strategy. I solicited these from poets I love and am thrilled with the lineup.
Again there will be model poems, each followed by an analysis of the poem's craft elements and then a prompt based on those elements. A new feature of this book will be Commentaries in each section. Each commentary will be written by a poet on some specific aspect of craft in his/her model poem. This book, like the earlier ones, will include Bonus Prompts, but they will be done by poets other than me—and there will be more of them, a total of 39. These I solicited from poets who are both outstanding poets and teachers. While the earlier books each had 10 sections, this one will have 13, a baker's dozen. A total of 87 accomplished poets will contribute the model poems, craft talks, commentaries, and bonus prompts.
Finally, each of the 36 prompts that follow the model poems will be followed by 2 sample poems. These sample poems will be written to the prompts (at least as a starting point) and submitted for consideration.
I was recently invited to do a Q&A with someone who planned to do an article about small press publishers who specialize in poetry books. I don't know why but the article never came to fruition. Rather than waste my work, I've decided to post it here. I hope it might prove informative and useful.
1. How do you determine who to publish?
I run two open readings per year. From the submissions, I select 2-4 manuscripts for publication. I select the ones I like best. I like to get a range of styles and voices and a diversity of poets. But my main guide is the quality of the work. I also consider if the work fits the press. I don’t take experimental poetry or single form collections (i.e., it’s unlikely that I’d take a collection of all sonnets or all haiku or all ekphrastic poems). I ask that a good number of the poems have been previously published and I limit the number of poems previously published in chapbooks to six.
2. How many manuscripts do you receive yearly?
This is a question I like to avoid answering. If it’s a high number, some poets will feel discouraged from submitting. If it’s a low number, some poets will feel that the press is not sufficiently competitive. So I’ll just say that we get a good number of submissions and that number increases each reading period and the quality of the submissions gets better and better. I do not run any contests at Terrapin. I like to think that each of my poets is a winner.
3. Can you share details of a normal agreement?
Terrapin offers publication within a year of acceptance, an annual royalty, 6” x 9” books with printed spine. I provide each poet with 15 complimentary review copies. Authors also get a 50% discount off list price if they choose to order additional copies to sell on their own. I require that my authors have a dedicated website and belong to Facebook. I expect the poets to actively seek readings and other opportunities to promote their work. I also stipulate that they not publish a new book with a different press within a year of publication of the Terrapin book.
When I was starting Terrapin Books, I contacted several other publishers of small presses. Several of them were kind enough to share their contracts with me. I then created my own contract which I describe as “standard and fair.”
4. What sort of royalties do authors normally get?
I pay an annual royalty of 15% of net sales. To qualify for a royalty payment, a poet must sell a minimum of 15 books in a given year.
5. Why might an author choose to work with a press like yours versus a similar press?
I typically respond within a month of submission. If accepted, the book gets published within a year. My poets don’t grow old waiting for publication. I carefully edit each accepted manuscript and work closely with each poet. I try to accommodate requests and to keep the poets happy. I respond quickly to emails. Poets are invited to participate in the design of the cover, though final decisions are left to me. I like to think of the entire process as a collaborative one.
6. Can you talk a bit about how you market the work for your authors?
I promote on Twitter and Facebook. I provide each poet with a list of suggested promotion tips. I also provide them with a list of after-publication contests they can submit to. If I know about readings in their part of the country, I pass on that information. I keep a list of reviewers and reach out to them to try to get some reviews for each book. I keep a Terrapin website where each poet gets a book page and an entry in the bookstore.
7. What do they normally have to do in terms of marketing?
I ask poets to send out an email announcement when their book is available for pre-orders and again when the book is published. I ask the poets to include purchase links in that note. And I ask them to send the announcement to an extensive list of friends, relatives, and neighbors—in short, everyone they know. You never know who might buy a book. I also ask my poets to post links on their website to reviews and to include excerpts from those reviews. I ask them to do the same on Facebook and Twitter. I ask them to send out review copies to journals they’ve published in. I ask them to line up readings. I suggest that they throw themselves a launch party. Every new book deserves a party.
8. Are you open to working with new authors, or are you mostly looking for established authors?
I love working with new poets and am happy to have several debut collections. Of the four poets I selected from the last open reading period, three of them have debut collections with Terrapin. But I’m also happy to work with older poets who sometimes feel that they are overlooked by other presses. In fact, I’m happy to work with new and established poets. Again, the quality of the work is the primary consideration.
9. How many copies do you usually expect to sell per book?
I aim for 500 but am happy with 300. Now that I can make the books available for pre-orders, I’m finding that the number of sales has gone up.
10. Is there anything else we should know about how you support your authors?
I give personalized service throughout the process. And I do not forget about my poets once their book has been published. Also I’ve recently started a new series, the Redux series. This series is limited to poets with a previous title with Terrapin, one that has done well. My original intention was to do one book only per poet, but a number of my poets asked for this new opportunity. I hope that means that they enjoyed working with me and are happy to be part of the Terrapin family of poets.
I am happy to announce that my poetry press,Terrapin Books, is currently open for submissions of full-length poetry manuscripts. This submission period opened on January 24 and will close on February 28, 2021.
Be sure to read ourGuidelinesbefore submitting. Please note that we request both a bio and a descriptive statement with your submission. Be sure to include both. Most questions are answered in ourFAQs, so be sure to read that page also.
Our Guidelines ask for a manuscript of approximately 40-55 poems for a book of approximately 90-110 pages (page count includes poems, front and back matter, and section pages). Please note that your book will be longer than your manuscript. If you have 40-55 poems, go ahead and submit. Let us worry about book length.
Here's some general information about the press:
We publish only poetry books, primarily single-author collections but also an occasional craft book or anthology.
Terrapin Books is committed to publishing outstanding books of poetry by outstanding poets. We intend to fully support our poets. We will carefully edit your manuscript and work with you on revisions. We expect our poets to actively engage in promoting their books. We require our poets to maintain a dedicated website and to be a member of Facebook. We regard the publication of a book as a collaboration between publisher and poet.
Our books are 6 x 9, paperback, perfect bound, color cover, with printed spine (poet's name, title, press). Covers are either matte or glossy.
We pride ourselves on the beauty of our covers. Please visit our Bookstore to see examples.
We are committed to publishing accepted titles within six months of acceptance. We do not maintain a long list of books-in-waiting.
We offer a standard contract, a generous number of author copies, a substantial discount on additional copies purchased by the author, and an annual royalty payment.
We welcome submissions from poets at any stage in their career. Some of our poets have a long publication history with multiple books. A few of our poets have two books out. And we are very proud to be the publisher of several debut collections.
