self-reported

As poets and artists we tend to self-report our successes and breakthroughs.

tenfold

The poet knew he was on his way when his book sold in the tens of tens.

found one

He published but one poem in the last year, and it was a found poem.

finish it

The poem that wouldn’t give up on me.

selling short

The poor poet kept trying to sell out.

old maps

They come to poetry expecting much. And for a time language itself delivers all: They write some good poems, garner a little attention; a few poems accepted for journals, a chapbook, perhaps a full collection comes out. They are ours in ars poetica. But then the disappointments begin to mount. The taste of success is found to be exactly that. And they are gone, faded back into the general populace, with a few poems tucked away in a folder somewhere, old maps from their travels through the unforgiving country called poetry.