About 15 years ago, the woman I dated at the time was getting her Masters in African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and she was responsible for getting lecturers and poets to come to the school.That was one of the benefits of dating her; through her I was able to meet some very influential people like Desmond Tutu, Louis Farrakhan. I was also able to meet two of my favorite poets, Amiri Baraka and Maya Angelou. I made sure I brought my favorite books of poetry of theirs to sign.
Maya Angelou had a Q & A after her lecture, and I was sitting in the front row. I asked her if there was any advice she could give to us aspiring writers, and she said :
"I can sum it up in three words. Revise, revise, revise. Before I first had Phenomenal Woman published, I wanted to revise it everytime I looked at it.I had to force myself to accept that it was ready."
That's how I've been for the past 10 years.
My book of poetry, The Love Experience, Pt 1 is ready, I believe. It's a collection of 150 romantic poems. I've been revising the poems every time I looked at them, but there comes a time when I have to decide that it's ready for me to send to publishers.
So, in my spare time, when I'm not looking for affordable vacation rentals for my trip to Paris in November, or writing novellas for my collection Designer Strait Jackets & Other Novellas I'm also looking for literary agents, for book publishers, and even publishers of poetry magazines.
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