It has been two years since I last sent something out for publication, and almost three years since my last publication. One of my goals for 2026 is to start sending stuff out again.

I am starting with a book-length manuscript of my poems and am asking Sue (my wife) to help me compile it. One thing I think I’ve learned about myself recently is that I am not necessarily a good or accurate judge of my own work. I have a tendency to overvalue sometimes the sheer amount of work I put into writing a particular piece or the difficulty of the constraints I put upon myself to overcome.

Contrary to Robert Frost’s famous line about rhyme and tennis, all poetry (all successful poetry) has some kind of constraint, even if it is not obvious to the reader. Rhyme and meter are just two.