The Saying of It Will Take Over

Posted on December 18, 2017 by Jan Wilberg

Poem Book

I have a poem in this chapbook.

Because I’m not a poet, I had to look up the definition of chapbook.

“A chapbook is a small collection of poetry, generally no more than 40 pages, that often centers on a specific theme.”(Writer’s Digest)

When the call for poetry submissions was posted by Margaret Rozga, a Wisconsin poet with a national reputation, a long time college professor and advocate for social justice, I hesitated. I write a blog, I write essays. My genre is creative nonfiction. I’ve written some things that were structured on paper to look like poems. But were they poems? What is a poem?

To me, a poem is an economy of thought, an idea distilled to its cleanest, sharpest expression. But beyond that, I know nothing about poetry. It is a lane I never drive in. So I hung back for that reason. Who am I to…

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