Piedmont Literary Review

From the diary: “February 28, 1985

“Got a reply from latest haiku submission to Piedmont Literary Review. [The editor] says she’ll accept one if I change a couple words. I agree with her suggestions, so I’m gonna do it.”

I was sending work out, trying to get my poems in print. I’d never seen a copy of Piedmont Literary Review but if they were willing to publish me I was willing to have them publish me. The magazine had editors for different genres. The main poetry editor seemed uninterested in what I had to offer so I turned to the haiku editor. I assiduously counted syllables for the 5-7-5 syllable lines and tried to capture a nature moment in that wee net. (For a haiku purist there are rules upon rules for making haiku, from the necessary “season word” to the absence of metaphor to … I forget what all.)

Did they publish only one of my haiku? I think they took two or three.

When I got my contributor’s copy I was surprised by how much the editors crammed into the magazine. I was disappointed by the poetry for the most part – but that’s not a particular knock on Piedmont Literary Review as I seem to dislike much of what I see on the printed page. But my haiku seemed lost among those print-dark pages.

Would I have preferred rushing forth against a crowded and narrower gate, likely not getting published so quickly (or ever)? I told myself so. I don't know.