Send them out? Perhaps. Then if they get dismissed, it’s not as painful as rejection of recent poems about your current truelove. In fact, old boyfriend poems could serve the purpose of getting you used to those chintzy polite slips, barely an eighth of a page, that say thanks but your poems aren’t worth so much as a quarter sheet of rejection.
But then what if they get published (that’s good) but what if he reads them (that’s bad) and then thinks you still care (which you don’t)? The proper response? “Thank you for inspiring it, now go away.”
They seemed like such good ideas at the time.
What to do with them depends on how fondly you recall the boyfriend. Did you and he part with rueful affection and sadness for might-have-been? Or was he a great big jerk who screwed around with your best friend and never picked up a check or his dirty socks? If the former, sensitivity and discretion is in order. If the latter, all bets are off.
Posted by: Laura Orem | November 20, 2009 at 08:39 PM
I'd say send them, names intact, to the old boyfriends, and let them hold the moment like a delicate small bird.
Posted by: Rob Harrison | November 23, 2009 at 01:50 AM