Doubt

For the last few months, I've been publishing my From Picture to Page series every Monday at noon (for the most part). I was happy with the exercise. It even led to me having more visitors to my blog.One or two of my pieces might even be published elsewhere.

Despite all that, I may be closing this project down by the end of the year.

Part of the reason why might be accepting my limitations as a photographer. I lack any formal training and any quality pictures have come more from luck and tenacity than any nohow or skill.

Because of my tenacity, my pictures are being used more in Oddball Magazine, and I have even been invited to submit both my poems and my photography to other literary journals. I don't know if I can keep this series going if I want to branch out more with my work in the future.

And speaking of quality...

I've put a lot of work on this blog to share with the world. This means I've potentially missed a lot of publication opportunities, which didn't bother me until another poet brought it up a while back. It's bothered me to the point where, one night last month, I had taken a great shot of the city that inspired a poem I was excited to write.

It would have made a great From Picture to Page entry. But I couldn't do it. I wrote the poem but have since planned it for publication elsewhere.

The thought of putting up what could be my best work in a while and likely never having it go anywhere else was just too much for me to handle.

It's affecting me still. I had a good idea for a poem based on a photo I took on Saturday, but I want the poem to stand by itself. So I set it aside.

For today's poem, instead of using any of the photos from my trip to Maine (like the one above), I went out for one of my late night walks yesterday and took a very quick picture on Broadway Street for today's poem.

So if I'm afraid of throwing away good work, does that mean I'm saving my subpar work for here?

So yes, I'm bugged. Maybe I'm just overthinking this. Maybe I'm just overworked. Let's see if I have any epiphanies between now and the last Monday of December.