Charts (Hah) (What are they good for?)

Apologies to Edwin Starr

Xmas was lovely, it was great to have my mum here with us, to talk to the extended family via various Zooms or Facetime, and to have had some nice evenings with friends, but I was kidding myself that I was well. This cold/cough seems to be a bastard in the sense that it lulls you into a false sense of security/well-being and then comes back to clobber you twice as hard.

And so, this hasn’t been the end to the year I’d planned. I had hoped to continue my streak of not being ill at Xmas. I’d hoped to have got my running back on track by running a half-marathon on the morning of NYE. At the time of writing that is looking unlikely. I had hoped to have got organised enough to have found a poem to publish, but I’ve barely read anything in the last two weeks and haven’t had the chance or wherewithal to get permissions to share.

I note this blog managed to maintain its place on Matthew Stewart’s end of the year blog round up, so I’m grateful for that. This post may see me removed. And it’s always nice to discover new blogs. One I’m saving up to read is Jeremy Wikeley‘s I”ve had his article about reasons to unsubscribe from blogs and mailing lists saved for a while, and while it seems to have been removed from the blog it promises to be a good read. (Message me and I’ll forward it on). It feeds in nicely to Matthew’s other post about the future of poetry blogging

Personally, I have no idea what I plan to do with this in 2023. I’d imagine it will be more of the usual gibberish. I’ve enjoyed the selecting of poems, so I hope to do more of that. My book is finally due out in 2023 (Woo hoo, it’s becoming real), and I’d said ages ago that this place might describe some of that process…so there’s that, you lucky people… I don’t know if I’ll manage a weekly thing—it felt like a good discipline, but it’s entirely self-imposed and so I can change it if I want to. I can’t imagine there will be much clamour if the frequency changes..(This is not a “Woe is me” moment—that was when I mentioned the illness. It’s more a case of there being too many things to read).

2023 will, I hope, be a more productive year. And a better year for everyone and everything. It’s hard to recall good points of 2022 when it all feels quite bleak here and abroad. I’m sure there are thing that will come back to me.

However, 2022 has been a year of less running and less submitting. The former has been because a mixture of injury and illness. the latter was partially driven by the first half of the year being about working on poems for the book, many of which have already found homes. This has, in turn, meant I’ve written less new stuff to send out. There’s also been a general malaise about me that I’m slowly emerging from. I’d also argue, and I don’t have the stats for this, that I’ve written more reviews this year and that has also had an impact.

In the week that I’ve entered the longest wait for an acceptance* and because I’ve made them, here are the charts for this year. Apologies to Edward Tufte and the like, there is much I could do to clarify things and improve these, but given that’s part of the day job, I’m letting that slide. I know there’s a day left to go, but I can’t seen any editors accepting anything this side of 2022.

* I won’t withdraw them yet as it will mess up the charts…

Headlines
Submission numbers are down year on year by a third
Acceptances are broadly in line. They perhaps could be better based on the TBC number, but if wishes were horses, etc

It’s nice to end the year on a publication, and if it can’t be a poem, it should be a review. So here’s my hot off the press review of Jo Bratten’s book, Climacteric.

Update on 31st Dec, the very next day Nell published this review of Sarah Heming‘s Night After Night In the Quiet House. It made more sense to post this in 2022.

I hope your 2022 had many high points and your 2023 has many more. Thank you for reading. See you on the other side.

THE LAST WEEK(and a half or so) IN STATS

HEALTH STATS
11K running. Piss poor this week due to illness
7 day without cigarettes…really, really need to knuckle down here to help with the above
3 days since drinking.
1 sleepless night
1 sore foot and a slightly achy knee
1 cough/cold and a relapse

LIFE STATS
1 Xmas lunch
2 x boardgames
5 boxes of tissues
6 new pairs of socks

POET STATS
0 loose ideas/articles gathered (this allows me to kid myself I am writing all the time)
0 poems finished: Caution, Horses
3 poems worked on: Caution Horses, Popular Mechanics In The Local Night Spot, Personal Bests
1 submissions: Resonance
0 acceptances:
0 readings:
0 rejections:
24 poems are currently out for submission. No simultaneous subs
80 Published poems

0 review finished: Sarah Hemings: Night After Night
0 reviews started: Sarah Hemings: Night After Night
0 reviews submitted:
2 reviews to write:

1 more week that I’m not having an affair with Eva Green

* To date, not this week. Christ!!

READ/SEEN/HEARD/ETC

Read
Ben Wilkinson: Don Paterson
Seamus Heaney: New Selected Poems 1998-2013

Zooms: None

Music
The Archers
Terry Hall:Home
The Specials: ST, More SpecialsCourting: Guitar Music
Rachika Nayar: Heaven Come Crashing
Aoife Nessa Frances: Protector
The Innocence Mission: Geranium Lake, Glow, Hello I feel the Same, My Room In The Trees, See You Tomorrow, Small Planes
Elaine Howley: The Distance Between Heart & Mouth
Pixies: Doggerel
Pale Blue Eyes: Souvenir
Panda Bear & Sonic Boom: Reset
Sylvan Esso: No Rules Sandy
The Oh Sees: Levitation Sessions Vol.2
Charlotte Cornfield: Highs In The Minuses
Vince Guaraldi: Merry Christmas Charlie Brown
Matthew Halsall: Salute To The Sun (Live), Fletcher Moss Park
GoGo Penguin: Fanfares

Watched
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Batman Trilogy
Avenue 5
The White Lotus S2
We Own This City
Santa Claus: The Movie
Knives Out: Glass Onion
Brassic
Violent Night
Detectorists
Banshees of Inisherin
The Grinch
John Wick
John Wick 2 Pearl Jam: The Ten Show
Ghosts

Ordered/Bought
Christopher James:The Invention of The Butterfly
Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal #9
Strix #8

Arrived
Book Flo ordered
Xmas presents Chocolates & Beer from work-related things
Christopher James:The Invention of The Butterfly