Lately I’ve been involved in revising some poems, focusing on some line spacing and line break issues. There are also problems with transitions between sections that make the meaning more cryptic than it should be. Revision is usually a tough slog, but these revisions have been particularly problematic. Usually, the solution involves stripping out all the indents and starting over with arranging the lines. The poems getting this treatment have been rejected a few times by various literary journals, like Deluge, Rattle, Arsenic Lobster, Blackheart, Up the Staircase, and Gobbet; that seemed an indication they needed more work.

On Saturday, July 9, I heard back from Mark Young, editor of Otoliths, that he would use three poems for issue 42: “The Eggshell Skull Rule,” “The Dark Night,” and “Code within the Code.” The happy news came at a good moment, because I had spent many hours that day wrestling with revisions, and I needed the encouragement to stay in the game. You can find the poems on this page in the online journal. It’s especially nice because Otoliths is one journal I’ve enjoyed reading and find inspiring. There’s a big selection of visual poetry and other experiments to create a dynamic mix of styles.

Browsing the Otoliths site while preparing this post, I discovered they also have print versions available, including a copy of Issue 41 which also contains some of my work.