There are many who are writing beautiful poems that need to be shared with
others, but they never seem to get around to doing what is necessary to market their work.  Sometimes we get the attitude that "what happens, happens.".

I used to participate in a group-counseling program with young people who were
in trouble with the law.  Once a month we would meet at the county jail and work with these juveniles about their future.  One question I would always ask them is, "What are your goals in life?  What do you want to do?"

I typically would get unrealistic answers.  The first and foremost answer was, "I
don't know."

The other answers was usually very unrealistic.  Either. " I want to be a
professional ball player, or I want to be a policeman."

Keep in mind that these were children who had broken the law!

I often used the illustration that if we wanted to go to Dallas , Texas from
Michigan , we would need a plan.  We would have to know when we were leaving, what mode of transportation we planned to use, what route we would take, how much money we would need to accomplish this, and so on.

Unfortunately, many of us live our lives as those young people.  We have a vague idea of what we want to do, and we plan to do it someday.  If you feel God has given you a gift for writing poetry, and you would like to share it with others, let me suggest a few helpful hints to get started:

1.  Decide that someday is today.

2.  Set aside a certain amount of time each day to write.   Even if you can't
dedicate an hour or hours, set aside a number of minutes dedicated to letting God speak through you in the form of your poetry.  It's about fifteen hundred miles from my home to Dallas , which is a very long way,  but I can certainly get there one mile at a time.

3.  Put your goal(s) in writing.  It doesn't matter if it's big or small.  For instance, I
want to market my poems to the local hospital gift shop by the end of this year.

4.  Determine what needs to be done to accomplish this.  For instance, what kind of poems would customers in a hospital gift shop buy?  Does the gift shop have anything like yours?  Who does the buying?  How much expense do you have involved with your time and materials?  How much profit do you need to make for this effort to be worthwhile?  As you think about this, you will find there are many other questions to answer.

5.  Make sure your goals are realistic.  If, for example, you have no concept of
grammar, you might want to take a grammar or writing course at your local college as part of your goal.

6.  Don't accept defeat.  If you get turned down at our fictional hospital gift shop,
remember that there are many more throughout our great land.  I love the story about Thomas Edison.  It's reported that someone asked him what it was like to fail 10,000 times when he was trying to produce the incandescent light.  He replied, "I have not failed 10,000 times.  I have successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.”

Until next time, God bless.
Larry Howland
Larryhowlandpub@aol.com