Success

“But it is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man cannot be great. Failure is the true test of greatness. And if it be said, that continual success is proof that a man wisely knows his powers — it is only to be added that, in that case, he knows them to be small.”—Herman Melville

This blog has been on (unplanned) hiatus recently due to vacation and then a very busy work schedule. However, when I ran across the above Melville quotation for the second time in less than two weeks (today on the Maud Newton Blog, previously while reading White Heat, Brenda Wineapple's excellent book about the friendship between Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson), I took it as a sign. As Miss Dickinson put it:

Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.

Read the full poem.

Chronogram Update

My poem is now viewable online at Chronogram. While you're there, take a look around the site.

Packing a New Pub!

I just received word that Chronogram, a free culture and arts magazine published in Upstate New York, has accepted one of my poems. You might be able to get a copy by following the link to their website. I assume it will eventually appear there as well. In the meantime, you can see it in its published context here: Packing My Books. Or if you just want to read it:

Packing My Books

I’m wearing an old shirt
a half-size too large
that my brother gave me.
The books go into boxes
as I think of you
at the other end
of the world,
or so it seems
tonight.
Dust brings tears
to my eyes and dries
my throat so I stop
for a drink of water
and remember a day
when I was fifteen
and home from school,
sick, wearing an old shirt
of my father’s, and how
good it felt, so soft
against my hot skin.