Laurence Musgrove’s latest project, Texas Poetry Ballot, published my poem, Conversation at the Gates of Hell yesterday. He attracts a lot of very fine poets, English professors, and several Texas Poet Laureates, present and past. It’s somewhat intimidating company. This is my third poem he’s published, so I’m getting the idea that maybe I belong in this group.
It’s like going to Black Belt camp and feeling like an impostor. The following week is open to anyone and I notice I’m right where I belong.
When I read interviews with or attend presentations by more established poets, they frequently talk about projects they are working on, a collection of poems written to a specific topic or title. I have two draft chapbooks (Coyote and Lost and cancer poems) I put together from existing poems. The above poem seems like the kickoff poem from a project called Conversations at the Gates of Hell. I have earlier poem that fits in the project. It sounds like a collection I’d like to read.