What Does it Mean to Succeed as a Poet, and a Little Recipe ("50 First Weeks")

Bright sunshine here again, 20 degrees...

In retrospect, last week's "50 First Weeks" post feels a bit like a metrical filler--somewhat unnecessary words added to a poem to make it rhyme or scan. With the clocks having gone forward yesterday for the new beginning of a premature spring, I want to make today's post an earnest "50 First Weeks" effort, in keeping with the spirit of the original idea that every week could represent a renewal.

So, I'm going to share some thoughts about success as a poet, and one tiny little recipe inspired by this glaresomely bright day.

Success as a Poet
In our "resolve to write" event in January, I said that I wanted to be recognizable as a poet, to myself and to everyone, and that I would do everything I could to put my work out there. Now, I've had a poem win second place in the Statewide contest. On Saturday night, I had the odd experience of performing that poem over speakerphone as part of the reading by the winners up in Fairbanks!

But is this small and sweet success more significant than the fact that that same poem may have inspired a friend in one of my writers' groups to write about a difficult but important topic she hadn't previously been able to find her way into? Is it more significant than the fact that another friend has been finding solace from another of my poems during some difficult times in her life? And what about the poem I wrote for my friends whose son just died, and the consolation it offered them?

Superficially, winning contests and chalking up publications are the markers of progress, recognition, success, "making it." But I confess that lately, especially with my own tendency to doubt my worth or even my deserving of air and space, these personal responses, these graces that have come about through those poems, have filled me with gratitude and--yes--validation, deeply and touchingly.

Of course, I want both! I've been way too busy to submit more poems, and I'm highly motivated to work that process back into my schedule. But with these personal and profound responses, I'm finding that this motivation is as much about hoping to reach more people and create more personal connections than it is about my own recognition.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to renew this commitment to putting my work out there, and to have the feeling that it is, at least in part, an act of service.

A tiny little recipe
This tiny little recipe has no calories and won't make you a meal, but it will refresh. It's a tribute to the juxtaposition of bright sunshine coloring the photo and all the snow in the glass.

Refreshing rose cooler
1 cup mineral water (e.g. San Pellegrino)
1 cup of snow (use crushed ice if you're not in AK!)
1/8 tsp stevia powder (or a few drops of stevia liquid)
1 tsp rosewater
Simply mix all together.

I scooped the snow out of a tall snowbank, digging down carefully to avoid flung grit from the path. But there was still a residue of sand at the bottom of the glass! Thankfully, it didn't affect the taste at all.

What does success as a writer mean to you?