[stylist] Poem - "Pagan" - First Draft

[William L Houts]

HI Jackie,

Thanks so much!  I've only submitted poems to the Paris Review and to 
Poetry Magazine;  might as well start at the top is my thinking.  But 
they rejected the poems I sent along, so I'm strategizing now.  I guess 
I only need to do some research on the Web, and also might submit to the 
Seattle Review, which is pretty classy, and local into the bargain.  
Plus I'd like to submit to other, smaller magazines and journals, once I 
read and evaluate the stuff with which my work will be sharing space.  
I've really been kind of lazy about publishing.  Or maybe it's just a 
different focus --I've been so prolific during the last two years and 
haven't even given much thought to publication.  But now I'm thinking 
ahead towards publishing a book.  Do you know anything about how that's 
done?  I mean, are there publishers who'll cover the cost of producing 
your work if they like it well enough?  Or is it strictly a 
by-invitation thing, where book editors see your stuff around and offer 
you a chance to publish with them?  See, I'm sophisticated enough when 
it comes to writing my stuff, but when it comes to the professional side 
of things I'm a big fat dodo, LOL.

Thanks again for your kind comments.



--Bill




--Bill



On 6/6/2014 10:56 AM, Jackie Williams wrote:
> Bill,
> Another fine poem, self-revealing, honest, so encompassing Of the kind of
> Gods in all of our lives, past and present. Where are you submitting your
> poems? Any plans for a book? They are contest worthy, and book worthy.
>
> Jackie Lee
>
> Time is the school in which we learn.
> Time is the fire in which we burn.
> Delmore Schwartz	
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of William L
> Houts via stylist
> Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2014 9:03 AM
> To: Writer's Division Mailing List
> Subject: [stylist] Poem - "Pagan" - First Draft
>
>
>
>
> Hi Gang,
>
> Here's this morning's effort.  Not a lot of literary poetic jazz in this
> one, but I think it's a little charming anyway, and tells a little bit
> about where I've been soulwise.
>
>
> --Bill
>
>
>
> ---
>
>
> I was a priest of sorts,
>
> and honored the gods.
>
> Hermes, Herne, Dionysos,
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> the pantheon regulars, as well as
>
> gods of kitchen, timetable, bus,
>
> the ones we worship without quite
>
> knowing it, and pleasing anyway, or not.
>
> I even kept an altar, no joke,
>
> though it was a gesture, mere and sad.
>
> When I went Catholic, I once told
>
> a startled roomful of my pagan priesthood.
>
> "No shit?" a woman said.
>
> "Well," I replied, less shit
>
> than I thought at the time."
>
> But I finally came to a place
>
> where wonders met with ruin and I
>
> decided to settle for beauty.
>
> Magicians are fine and all,
>
> but poets get all the boys, and anyway,
>
> I'd rather smell roses
>
> than pray to them, and praying, forget.
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-- 

"Do one thing for me, Sredni Vashtar!"

           --Saki