April 15: Finishing a Chapbook, Building a Wall, "Rye" Dip Monday

I spent most of the morning cobbling together a poetry chapbook.  And when I say cobbling, I mean it.  Some of the poems I included are over seven years old.  The newest ones were written within the last year. 

The process of putting together a cohesive chapbook of poetry is a little puzzling to me.  It's like fitting stones together to create a wall, to borrow an image from Robert Frost.  I've never really understood how to do it.  I've read magazine articles about it.  I've asked friends who have won chapbook contests.  One friend told me that, for her first chapbook (she's won two chapbook contests), she simply threw her poems together in some kind of order that made sense to her and submitted it.  Another friend told me he wrote a collection of poems specifically for the chapbook contest he won.  Both of these approaches were successful.

Thus, I have come to a conclusion:  there is no winning formula for constructing a chapbook.  It's all about talent and chance and good luck.  It depends on the judge(s).  It depends on the publisher.  I suppose it could depend on the font and paper quality and time of day, as well.  Who knows?  However, I have a book, and I will submit it to a contest.

My question for Rye Dip Monday should be pretty obvious by now:

Will I win the chapbook contest with my manuscript?

And the answer from J. D. Salinger is:

...I went around the room, very quiet and all, looking at stuff for a while.  I felt swell, for a change.  I didn't even feel like I was getting pneumonia or anything any more.  I just felt good, for a change...

Well, I guess I couldn't ask for a more positive answer than that.  My finger landed on one of the few pages in The Catcher in the Rye where Holden is actually feeling happy.  That's enough for me.

Like Holden, Saint Marty is feeling swell.

Yes, it really is a subjective process....