Monday, July 26, 2010

POEM PUBLISHED AT HAGGARD AND HALLOO

Yesterday I had my third poem published on the Austin, Texas -based literary journal Haggard & Halloo. It's a silly little ditty titled "Jealous Justice."

In case you were wondering, I was in a thrift store on Mission in San Francisco, digging through a bunch of crap, disappointed the shop didn't have better stuff for sale. Upstairs I came across the book section and noticed how the stuff on the shelves was all best-sellers, celebrity cookbooks and those paperbacks with Fabio on the cover. It felt good knowing that people might buy this stuff, but they don't hold onto the works in both the literal and physical sense. This poem was my way of acknowledging that while these writers enjoy financial success, they don't make a lasting impression on many of the people who buy these books.

The posting of this poem is the quickest turnaround from writing to publication in my short poetry career. I wrote this poem in a hotel room in San Francisco in June and submitted it to H&H a few days after I returned home from my vacation. A few days later, their editor gave me a publication date and I was very excited to say the least.

In the past, I've found that having my non-journalism work published can take a very long time. Sometimes it takes months for publications to reply and by the time my work comes out, I forgot I sent the work off in the first place. So you can see why this is so exciting for me. One day this poem didn't exist and six weeks later, it's available for the entire world to see.

On another note, H&H is pretty awesome and I say that not because they are planning to re-publish my short story "Brown Eyed Girl" next month, but because of all the literary journals I read online, I actually really enjoy this one. The people running the site have similar taste in writing as I do, which I don't come across very often. It's quite an honor to have a site I like accept my work, so thanks Haggard & Halloo!

Click here to read "Jealous Justice."