What it takes

A few weeks ago, someone asked me what I would tell a poet who had just published a collection for the first time—any tips or tricks for marketing the book, getting out in the world, and not getting discouraged.

(Or that's how I interpreted it.)

Today, the always-insightful Leonardo was talking about trying to publish a manuscript and not getting discouraged.

I've been toying with the idea of not even sending poems out this summer. Instead, I could let all the poems currently in circulation come back to my mailbox—as regular as rain or swallows returning to Capistrano.

I could plan for September, like the beginning of school, and send poems out again then.

Then today, I heard the story on NPR about not getting discouraged—a wonderful story about a man who worked for years to communicate his thoughts, his revelations.

How do you keep going?