"drowning"

Here's the poem I entered into the World Poetry Movement contest that I promised to share! :)

"Drowning"
The sky emptied its tears on me today
Sometimes the heavy burden is too much to bear.
I'm drowning in that lake the rest of you call self-pity
Hopelessly drifting among my cries no one ever hears or answers.
Life is like some twisted movie
Too bad we aren't the ones writing the script.
We all know the inevitable end.
Terror and disgust rise in my throat
But I choke them back down and walk on.

Copyright 2012 by Jennifer Ricketts
Please do not use any part of my work unless permission is granted. Thank you.

I had to give up on my cell phone sending pictures to add to this post. :/ I searched the web but couldn't find any photos of this particular book. The cover is so cool...I really wanted to share it! Ah well.

Here's how this poem came about--at the time I was working at Goody's in the stockroom, a clothing store that was between my home and college. I was nineteen or twenty years old at the time and did a lot of thinking while working since I didn't have much interaction with customers. I was on my way up to collect the trash and empty hangers from the cash registers near closing time one night when the first couple of lines popped into my head. I gathered up the trash and hangers as fast as I could and ran to the back of the store, heading for the break room. I found scrap paper and wrote down the words before I lost them. The rest of the poem took shape that night when I went home.

I went over and over it, changing a couple things here and there, and working on making it into a piece of work I could be proud of. That's exactly what it became, and almost twelve to thirteen years later, I'm still very happy and satisfied with what I produced.

That was a period of time in my life when I was struggling with the next phase of my life--attending college, deciding what to do with my life, and becoming an independent adult. I was also struggling heavily with the weight from the loss of my mother five years before composing this poem. I literally felt as though I were drowning in grief and melancholy. This helped me explain how I was feeling to my family and friends in a way that resonated more than if I had just tried to simply explain my feelings. I had never been so inspired and ended up writing several more poems. Those need some work to shape them into pieces I can be proud of, too.

So there you have it! :) Any constructive criticism, comments, questions are welcome. Don't be afraid to tell me the truth! I need it! :D

the contest

I entered a World Poetry Movement contest, received a letter stating my poem had been chosen to be published in their next anthology, and was thrilled. I had my doubts when they asked me to pay for the book and thought it was strange that they weren't sending me a copy for free. My husband was so proud of me and knew how excited I was and how much this meant to me, so he bought a copy for us.

I soon found another writer on Twitter who had also entered the contest and had also received a letter that he would be published. He sent me a link to an article about writing contests to watch out for, and this contest was one of them. Writing contests should not require the entrant to purchase anything. I still felt okay because I had pretty much figured out on my own that something wasn't quite right, thus the reason I used Twitter to seek out anyone else who had also entered this contest. 

The book just came in the mail on Monday, and it looks even better than I thought it would. I will post a picture of the cover as soon as I can--I really like it. The way I feel about this whole experience is actually positive. I was surprised and touched by how supportive and excited my husband was even when I shared my doubts about this being a true contest. He didn't care; he still wanted the book.

Seeing my poem printed in a book with an entire page dedicated to my work has given me twice the amount of motivation to keep going, to keep working as hard as I can to reach my goal of becoming an author. This is a victory for me, a small one, but a victory nonetheless. I am proud of this accomplishment. I wrote this poem over ten years ago, and I still find it one of my best pieces to this day.

I would like to share my poem with all of you, and I will tomorrow!