I had a poem published yesterday in Backchannels Journal‘s Pandemic Issue, an instant publishing opportunity. I’ve been trying to write a poem every day in April, and the poem published was the one I wrote on April 1st.
The poem is sort of a to-do list, or it contains to-do lists that are a little glib, but a little serious. As I deal with staying at home all the time, I have been trying to keep up certain routines. Make a to-do list. Reflect on the week every Sunday. Schedule the days, even if the even is as simple as “Eat dinner.” And so on.
But sometimes these routines dissolve. Sometimes I make a to-do list and don’t do anything on it. I am trying not to beat myself up about this, try not to get too bogged down in a remembrance of who I was before staying at home. I used to pride myself a little on the fact that I could stay on task, that I could fill up the boxes of my planner and do every. single. item. I could sit for hours in the library knocking out several thousand words of a novel. I could, I could, I could.
Right now, though, it feels like there are a lot of things I couldn’t.
Anyway, for you writers established or emerging, if you feel moved to write about this current pandemic moment, I hope you submit it to Backchannels Journal.
Header image from Pixabay.
Caroliena Cabada 