I’ve been a dabbler in writing poetry off and on since I was a kid. Recently, on a whim, I was inspired to submit two poems to an online literary ezine and, much to my shock, they were accepted for publication. Submitting my work anywhere for the first time was a bit scary for me and I never would have done it without the encouragement of one online friend and the inspiration of another on & offline friend.

Nathan Moore, who blogs on Exhaust Fumes and French Fries, has been a constant and encouraging supporter of my poetry for over a year now. He’s also a Community Director for ReadWritePoem, an online “gathering place for those who love poetry — and for those who suspect that, with a little nurturing, they could grow to love poetry.” But I first came to know Nathan through Three Word Wednesday where he first commented on my work. This is also a wonderful site with weekly prompts to stimulate your writing juices and where I first waded into the unknown waters of online writing, so I want to say a big THANKS to 3WW too.

I also want to give a shout-out to Mark at Poems Before Breakfast for inspiring me to submit. If it weren’t for reading about the ezine on his blog I never would have know about it. Thanks, dawlin’. Ironically, my poems will be in the same February 2010 issue as his on The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. Ummmm, a bit intimidating for me, I must say, because his poetry is seriously da bomb.

So I had to take down the two poems from Zouxzoux, “Delaronde Street” and “Purple, Green, Gold” but they’ll be back up after publication.