Poetry Friday: “Night Light”

2015 is getting off to a simultaneously wonderful and frustrating start. After everything my wife and I have been through the past couple months – with boilers blowing and electrical panels needing replacement – I’ve finally gotten some great news!

…and some not-so-great news.

The good news that I’m thrilled to share is that I have received the New England SCBWI’s inaugural Marguerite W. Davol Picture Book Critique Scholarship for pre-published authors! I will receive a critique from author Mary Brigid Barrett and will have an opportunity to revise it prior to submitting it for critique by an agent or editor at the 2015 New England SCBWI conference.

(Many thanks to the judges, Jeannine Atkins, Jo Knowles, and Brian Lies…I’m so glad you liked the manuscript! Congratulations also to Mary Morton Cowan, winner of the same scholarship for published authors, who receives a manuscript critique from author/poet Jane Yolen.)

I’m also excited to be a Second Round Judge in the CYBILS Awards, where the Poetry Book finalists have been announced! I’ll be working with fellow judges Renee LaTulippe, Linda Baie, Laura Shovan, and Diane Mayr to pick one winner out of seven fantastic children’s books of poetry.

And now, the bad news…

…is that we woke up to no heat downstairs on New Year’s Day after one of the pipes burst. Alas, if that was the only issue, it wouldn’t have been that bad; the problem is why it burst.

You see, we live in a 100-year-old house that has been added onto and added onto over the years…and apparently, underneath the newest section of the house, there’s no insulation. None. There’s isn’t any barrier of any kind preventing the wind and cold from blowing underneath the house and freezing every pipe it happens upon. The only reason we’ve learned this just now is because usually there’s so much snow up against the house, IT acts as a barricade. But this year, no snow – no barricade.

And yes, you read that correctly – the newest part of the house is the part that needs the most work. The older part of the house is in pretty good shape, ironically.

So, while my wife & I try to figure out how to pay for yet another extraordinary home expense, I thought I’d work on a new book idea. It’s a revision to a poetry collection I’ve been working on for a couple years, and I think I’ve finally found the “theme” I need to make this manuscript marketable. I’ll tell you more in this coming Tuesday’s post – but for now, here’s my latest poem, which I plan on including in the book.

If you have the time, please consider taking a moment and checking out this past Tuesday’s short post about my blog in review – there are some surprising things I learned about what was happening with my blog in 2014! And for all of today’s Poetry Friday links and hijinks, head on over to The Miss Rumphius Effect!
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Night Light

The sun’s reflection on the moon
reflects upon the ground below.

But are we sure that this is so?

Could it be, the gleaming snow
is what gives moon its midnight glow?

– © 2014, Matt Forrest Esenwine

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