Honey in the Dark by Lee Colin Thomas
My goal in signing up for The Loft’s year-long poetry project was to gain insight into how poets assemble a cohesive collection out of individual poems. I had been writing and publishing poems for many years, and I entered the program with a working manuscript in hand. That manuscript had been through several iterations and had even reached the finalist stage in a couple of publication contests. But I had yet to break through, and I was feeling pretty stuck. I signed up for the program thinking that it could provide new perspectives, energy, and tools to help me start again.
One thing that attracted me to the program was the fact that Gretchen Marquette’s curriculum included reading collections from a number of poets, including Ellen Bass, Patricia Smith, Ross Gay, Jude Nutter, and others. I craved that kind of structured study of published authors, perhaps because my formal degrees are not of the MFA variety. Discussing all the books with Gretchen and my cohort was really enjoyable, and the experience helped me see some of the many different shapes poetry books can take.
The guest speakers were another aspect of the program that I really appreciated. They included a couple of authors who’d recently published a first book, a poet with a 40-year publication history, and an editor at a local press. The insights and perspectives they shared gave me a broader view of the publishing landscape and how to navigate it without coming unglued. Not to mention, it’s just plain fun to connect with smart, talented writers making beautiful work.
Those guest speakers, my cohort classmates, and Gretchen encouraged me to keep going and not give up. I’m grateful to all of them for that and especially to Gretchen. She really provided individual attention and personalized guidance to each writer in our group. She worked hard at it, and her commitment to helping each writer grow was so evident.
It’s been a little less than a year since I finished the program, and my first book has just been published. (I’m waiting for my copies to be delivered as I write this!) It’s exciting, and it feels like an accomplishment. At the same time, I’m eager to write the next poem and to see where it leads me.