One sip at a time eventually equals a cupful

What a gorgeous day, 90 degrees, sunny and gusting wind. In four short hours the temperature is expected to drop fifty degrees. That sort of plummet reminds me of stormy writing moods.

We are ecstatic when we write an outstanding piece or receive an acceptance from an editor; our mooods soar and we are on an emotional high for awhile. A rejection can plunge us into despair.

The answer is to get up, not give up. Your determination will determine your success.

I witnessed determination in action at McDonald's today. The cutest two year old, saucer-faced boy with dark hair and bright red cheeks was overheated from heavy play at the park. He stood beside his grandma who was second in line behind a poky dad with three undecided kids. The little guy kept tugging on grandma saying, "I tursty."

She assured him she would get him a cup so he could get a drink. He waited and waited, then he walked over to the soda fountain, reached up and retrieved a teeny paper ketchup cup. Every time someone passed by or came to fill their cup, he handed his "cup" to them and said, "I tursty."

We laughed everytime he suckered someone into filling his mini paper cup with a sip of THEIR favorite soda. By the time Grandma came he had quenched his own thirst. That little tyke was determined, and you should be too.

Write a poem, perhaps about the weather. Don't write poetry, you say? Start by writing a 99 word essay. Faye Adams, Missouri's senior poet laureate, instructed us to do this at the St. Louis Writer's Guild meeting Saturday. You will be amazed at how 99 words can evolve into a poem if you do two things, go back and eliminate the unnecessary words and then put slashes in where you think line breaks should be. It is an amazing technique. It doesn't have to rhyme. In fact, prose poetry is in these days.

All of you out there saying, "I can't write poetry!" start with a sip, like the little guy did, and keep refilling your little cup until you have a fizzing full poem. April is poetry month. Are you up to the challenge? I will share a poem later in the week that I wrote and submitted for Father's Day.

I Won! I Won!

What do Richard Simmons and I have in common? He and I both have a personal essay in the newest Chicken Soup for the Soul book. He also wrote the foreword for,
Shaping the New You. His story is on page 1 and my story, The Cookie Chronicles is on page 79. I received my box of books yesterday. My story is humorous about hiding a stash of Christmas cookies.

Then I looked at the stack of mail and spied my SASE from Lucidity Poetry Journal. I hate to see an envelope addressed to me in my own handwriting. I opened it, saw the folded small yellow rejection slip, or so I thought. It was a list of winners. My name is on the Honorable Mention list. Woo Hoo! There were 236 entries from across the USA and four foreign countries: Ireland (home of the O'Connells), Canada, South Africa and the Netherlands. First, second, third place winners took a nice monetary prize. There were also twenty Honorable Mentions (a small stipend, copy of the book and certificate). I am ecstatic and so inspired that I checked out Hope Clark's post (on the right side of my blog) and discovered a limmerick contest for The Saturday Evening Post. I penned three limmericks pertaining to the photo of a child clinging to her mother on what appears to be the first day of kindergarten. Having taught for over three decades, I wrote from all three perspectives, the teacher's, mother's, child's. This is a no fee contest, and wouldn't you like to say that you have been published in The Saturday Evening Post? Why don't YOU write a limmerick too, but nothing naughty.

My odds are getting better. Out of thousands of Chicken Soup submissions, mine was one of the 101 stories chosen, and my poem was one of the twenty-three chosen out of 236 entries in Lucidity. Oh yeah! I'm happy dancing.