In Which Obstables Appear and the dichotomies of being a writer
- At July 12, 2012
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
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So, of course, after a post about realizing that we might be already living our perfect life, how we can reach out and improve our communities, being grateful, etc…I’ve had a couple of days of sad news, setbacks, rejections and unexpected problems. Terrible surprises. A little bit of a health scare on top of it. Right now it’s hard to see the upside, the benefits, the possible blessings that will come out of the many slaps in the face, “no” messages from the universe, and just plain bad news.
One of the weird things about being a writer is the dual expectations – we have to be at least somewhat inward-facing, shy, introspective, and focused on art to be writers at all, much less good writers – but we also have to be aware of audience, focused on messages and marketing, extroverted enough to connect to others, someone who can not only write poetry well but get out and read it and sell it and teach it. Hard work. Some weeks, harder than others.When your own dreams get knocked over, can you turn around and inspire others to pursue those dreams themselves?
I am wishing good thoughts to my friends who are going through hard times. I am wishing for myself for faith and more courage and I’m wishing for unexpected solutions to problems that seem hopeless to me right now. I am hoping for better outcomes for all of us than we might expect.
Jeannine Hall Gailey served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and the author of Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and SFPA’s Elgin Award, Field Guide to the End of the World. Her latest, Flare, Corona from BOA Editions, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She’s also the author of PR for Poets, a Guidebook to Publicity and Marketing. Her work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, and JAMA.
