Three Years Ago I Use To Be A Poet

Back in 2008, I had a few poems accepted for publication by an online literary magazine. I was so excited and I told everybody in my family and a few friends. I thought it was the start of something big for me. I had been writing poetry since I was eleven and I didn't keep most of it but what I did keep I would turn in for grades at school or turn into love letters for my friends significant others as I got older. When I was in high school, I wrote a poem for my English class entitled Love Is... the teacher liked it so much she chose it as the best poem in the class and took it to the local newspaper to have it printed for the next week's issue. I read it along with half the town after it was published and kept a copy of the paper until it crumbled to pieces and I finally had to throw it away. After I graduated high school, I began keeping a journal of poems that I would write and I wrote poetry off and on for about five years, throughout my undergraduate and graduate years in college. I kept trying to find publishers who wanted to publish poetry books or simply poems in their magazines. Little did I know the writer's market was not interested in poetry so I saved my poems. I continued to write some good poems and others that weren't so good that will probably never see the light of day. It wasn't until March of 2008, that I had recieved a request asking me for permission to publish two of my poems on a literary online journal called Midnight Times. They informed me that it was a small publication that published poems, stories, and some book excerpts. I was informed that I would not receive payment but I could use them as a publication credit for future reference. I didn't really care, I was simply excited about finally getting my poems accepted and published. My confidence went through the rough and I suddenly got the wild idea that I didn't have to wait for a publisher to publish my poems, I could self publish and that's exactly what I did. I took about thirty of my newer poems and self-published a book and I called it Confessions of a Twenty-Something Virgin. The book was my little baby and I was confident enough to believe that it would propel me as a writer. In June of 2008, I published Confessions and realized that only part of my poems would be recognized so I decided to combine all the poems I had written in my college years, edit and proof them, and design a book to put most of my good poems in. Played around with a lot of different names for this new version of my work before settling on one name that I thought would fit. I entitled my second version as Burn This Book. Confessions was published in June of 2008 and Burn this Book was published in July 2008 both by a company known as Lulu. Confessions was advertised and is still for sell on Amazon.com and was for sell for a limited time at Barnes&Noble. Burn this Book is for on the Lulu.com website. After one year, nothing happened and I was very disappointed, after two years i gave up on a career as a writer and went back to my day job as an educator. Even though my success with self publishing was not so great, I am still glad I had the experience. My books will forever be a reminder to what confidence and belief in one's self and abilities can accomplish even if it is for a short period of time. So to all the dreamers out there keep dreaming and work to make your dreams a reality. Anything is possible if you believe.