In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “These Horns Were Made for Tooting.”Today, share something you love about yourself  — don’t be shy, be confident! — but that few other people know about you or get to see very often.

I don’t have very much patience for submitting poems for publication or entering contests or trying to find agents or publishers. I’ve played the games at times but it never seemed worth the time spent. One exception was when I decided to enter a number of contests at once. I believe I entered ten, but it may have been less. Rejection after rejection came in. There were a few near-misses where I was a semifinalist. Then, the last letter came in and lo and behold, I had won first place in a national poetry contest. My notification was accompanied by a check for $500! The judge’s comment included the statement that she had awarded me the prize for my sheer audacity in submitting a poem that took twelve minutes to read. Ha. Here is the poem. I will grant a special prize to anyone who makes it to the end! (I believe this is a shortened version of the poem I submitted.)