“Bloodwork” wins Honorable Mention

I was overjoyed to hear that a poem of mine won an honorable mention in a contest. While it would have been nice to win first or second place, the very fact of having a piece of poetry read and respected goes a long way in the heart and mind of a writer.  Poetry has such a small corner of the publishing world that finding readership is the proverbial hunting needles in haystack task. It is one thing to spend time writing poetry, arguably the hardest part, but another thing altogether to then search out places that might accept your work, read it, publish it.  So I am grateful to the unseen faces, to the unknown judges who decided that this poem was worth “mentioning” among 150 submissions.

In the larger context of writing about illness, caretaking and medicine, there is a growing appreciation of the role that the arts has in healing.  More on that and the new, wonderful anthology, The Healing Art of Writing, currently available, in my next blog.

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