Happy holiday season to you, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or any other winter specific holiday. I hope it is filled with family, joy, light, and love.
Often at this point of the year, especially with it expediently coming to an end, there’s a period where we take time to seriously reflect. Be it on our accomplishments for the year, the things we want to tackle in the next, or our “failures”. Remember, failure is an instructive tool. It’s proof you even tried at all. That’s where I find myself currently, with 5 days (at the time of writing this) until 2022 completes its curtain call. Pondering all that has happened this year.
Mostly, I’m pondering how this year (and for that matter, last year) were proof to me that delay is not denial. As you hopefully no doubt know by now, I have two published poetry chapbooks, i love you means nothing and Melanin: Black, that came out this year. I also have my debut full-length collection, Crossroads, coming out in early February of next year. None of which would be possibly if I stopped after receiving my first rejection. My first failure.
Let me tell you something. With the exception of Melanin: Black, none of my books were picked up on the first try, and or by the first publisher I sent them to. I got rejected twice for Crossroads before it got picked up. In the midst of which, my creative spirit pulled me back to the manuscript, which I revised at least twice before its acceptance. Though i love you means nothing was never rejected, it was accepted by the third, and subsequently last, publisher I sent it to. Art, and life for that matter, is sometimes a waiting game. But waiting doesn’t mean that you won’t get the desired outcome. It just means it may not come when you would like or prefer, but rather, maybe closer to when you need it. Or perhaps, it will provide you time to revisit things in order to make them better. Much like I did.
As you and I look towards 2023, remember that delay is not denial. What wasn’t accomplished this year can be accomplished in the next. What wasn’t market ready this year may be in the next. Just don’t deny yourself simply because you’re caught up in a delay.
Dre Hill 