Yes, it means you are supposed to be giving, and that explains why you are getting all of these e-mails from journals and magazines that once (or three times) rejected your poetry but now promise NOT to reject your money.
I could get jaded and do a narrative eye roll here, but I fully understand these magazines’ plights. I have signed on to two new poetry journal subscriptions in the past month. Truth be told, I didn’t know “Giving Tuesday” existed, so I jumped the gun. But no one seems put out, so it’s all good.
But really, if we’re going to talk giving, we have no choice but to talk books, because everybody (and his sister) knows that the best gifts are books. Sure, it’s more fun to receive books, but this is Giving Tuesday, not Receiving Tuesday, so let’s get over that technicality ipso fasto, ‘K?
If you give a new (to you) poet some support by buying his book, that is a major give on an otherwise ordinary-looking November Tuesday. That can be done by taking your giving mood over to Amazon’s “Lost & Found” Department, where you’ll find a shiny new copy of Lost Sherpa of Happiness. Check out these “giving” reviews:
The New York Times: “A dark horse!”
TIME Magazine: “Below the radar no more!”
The Washington Post:” I know this guy!”
Best of all? Your gift of poetry is matched. That’s right. It counts for the person you give it to (even if it’s yourself, in which case your secret’s safe with us), and it counts for the starving artist and his small, independent publisher (in this case, Kelsay Books in full Dickensian mode).
Sound tempting? God, I hope so. Waxing poetic for no reason at all would be such a drag!