Hey guys! Gosh, I've missed you all! I am home from the hospital now and feeling much better. My mom has gone back home and life is getting back to normal. We had lots of fun while she was here, though. [link]
Went hunting for ghosts, visited Edgar Allen Poe's grave, took lots of pictures of dilapidated barns. Naturally I have four million messages to get through here, but I am very happy to be back. I hope you've all been doing well.

And I am now a DLD Poetry Admin! I am so ridiculously excited about this! DLD is one of my favorite things about dA. Please read my guidelines below and send me suggestions!

My  Guidelines:

First, a bit about Daily Lit Deviations:

Daily Lit Deviations is a club dedicated to showcasing five high-quality literature pieces in a news article every day.

A Daily Lit Deviation is not the same as a Daily Deviation for Literature. DLD is not affiliated with the Community Volunteers who award Daily Deviations. If you'd like to suggest a Daily Deviation (please do - anyone can), the four current Literature Gallery Moderators are:

`Halatia

^Beccalicious

`nycterent

$wreckling

However, DLD is widely respected within the literature community, and literature featured by DLD sometimes goes on to be awarded a DD as well.

I can only feature poetry, not prose. If you'd like to suggest a prose piece, please send it to one of the prose admins listed here. [link]. Likewise, if you'd like to send a poetry suggestion to a different poetry admin, you can choose one from that list as well. However, please send your suggestion to only ONE ADMIN AT A TIME. This helps avoid a lot of confusion. If a couple months go by and your suggestion has not been featured, then you can feel free to suggest to another admin.

I'm happy to look over any suggestion sent my way, but I am human and so I will naturally have preferences so certain works over others. To me, the most important aspect of any poem is emotional impact. Whether the emotion is raw or buried in imagery, if it is strong, I am likely to be a fan. Of course, emotion cannot be the only thing the poem has going for it. Strong imagery, interesting structure, clever concepts - these are all things that I feel make an exceptional poem. And those of you who already know me, know that I'm a sucker for supernatural/fantasy/mythology themes, as well as nature imagery. Yet you also know that I have wide-ranging tastes. The basics must be present too, however. Proper spelling, grammar and punctuation are a must. As such, rough drafts are not accepted. Mature content is welcome, fan fiction is not. This is the official policy of DLD, because the club wishes to emphasize original writing.

To give you guys an idea of what I'm looking for, here is a mini-feature of poetry I've either featured as an admin so far, or suggested to other admins before I became one. Enjoy!

A Textual AnnealingA thousand thousand generations
misinterpreting the lightning,

A tumult of attempts, many
mumblings while we burn - each time
most is lost, some survives.

At the whistle of illusion that awakens,
day drops dream on me. I am
thick with swerve: If there are giants
there is a world they walk on.

And for the final faith
to be an inversion: We are
the electricity lunging toward the sky.  AfforestLast darkness will fall like autumn leaves
(wandering)
Dusky ground covered with many coloured twilights
(do you see all the lovely greys?)
Underneath which ghosten happiness lays buried
(spring was too far away. Alas)

Last darkness is falling like autumn leaves
(wondering)
Dusky ground covered with beaten light's corpse
(do you see all the dimmed colours?)
Underneath which darkened May Day lays buried
(spring is too far away. Alas)

Last darkness has fallen like autumn leaves
(withering)
Dusky ground covered with still-frozen time
(do you see all the solemn blacks?)
Underneath which deadened Freya lays buried
(spring will be     CiertosIn the wake of multiple futures we break apart.
You find the point where the sun rises
solamente al cielo and I go to the river
where wind falls into my watery eyes
and cascades over the back of my neck

and here I know how life throbs
caught in flesh, I know the hearts
of lonely people sin alas tenues
serpentine and thrashing.

You had given me a full look, a look with all
the cycles in it, a look that made
Hudsons of my jawlines, por supuesto

we were serendipitous, and
I couldn't keep my hands off you

and sure, it was temporary para siempre

but we will return to classic rock
and Atlantic conversations,
I will return to kis  CecileI want to feel your
Skin
I want to excavate what you hide within
Your soul, behind
The wall that stands between
What I am and what I want to be
What you want me to be
What they want me to see
Oh-

I want to feel your

Bones

B
Oh
nes
Tracing every mark of the scaffolding that keeps you
Upright
Ali-ive
Insi
ide
Your fragile breaking point when you begin
To fall
Apart
I want to know if I can fix you
I want to play you like a melody, and I can't even bring
Myself to see
When You Blind Me

I'm blinded

I want to feel your
Cells and nerves on fire
I WANT your vessels to lift you high-er
I want your lungs breathing me in
I WANT your heart and your   The Puppet MasterSheltered by a solid tower,
Upon a throne of ivory,
Dwelleth he at every hour,
His shadow falleth down to thee.

And his very shadow's crown
thou blindly wanderest along,
until thou seest its piercing end.
Thine eyes thou humbly keepest down,
although the urge is truly strong
thy field of vision to amend.

"Your majesty?" thou callst for him,
as thou drawest nearer to his throne.
The light beginneth just to dim
as earthquake in its dreadful tone,
a roaring sound of rumbling stone,
it covereth thy fearful moan.

Soon thou seest two skillful claws,
which keepeth each a wooden stick
with strings robustly tied around,
to which thi  she was everyoneshe wrote useless phrases on her wrists and
hipbones because she wanted to be
poetic
.

she would count her ribs under the
sheets wondering what she might do if there was suddenly
one less than the night before.

she wanted to find meaning in the smell of rain
and the darkness of her room but
the only place she found truth was at the bottom
of the beer bottle and the space
between his hands and inside of her thighs.

she was bitter that it was only beer she could stomach -
it seemed she could not even be beautiful in the
destroyed lost sense of the word.

she couldn't get to sleep before
midnight and
scabs that were pro  Paper-CutsI missed you yesterday.
So I started folding paper planes,
But I knew they'd never reach you.
Aerodynamics      paper         really     up.
             plus       doesn't        add

I switched to folding boats instead,
And they looked strong and sharp.
But they sank even
                   faster
                          than
                               my
                                  heart.
And, no one ever taught me how to sail.

Then, I tried my hand at paper cranes,
Because, I read somewhere,
"One thousand cranes are good for one true wish."
But I stopped after forty-three,
When I ran out of square paper and ban  SpringSoft licks of sunshine upon your breast,
delicate blossoms go down the flesh.
Besotted bumble bees swoon
for the newly opened flower.

How sweet the honey is
as it melts on the tongue.
Once sensitive shy buds
now confident, unstrung.

The lilting breeze climbs, climbs, climbs -
flooding the smooth air
with spring's exquisite gift.  Bruises and InfidelityYour lipstick bruised his cheek,
It was still there when they found him lying face up,
So they asked  me what shade I wore and I told them I didn't,
That's why he said he loved me.

The bullet bruised his heart and
It was still there when I wiped my eyes with a borrowed
Handkerchief and watched them lower him down with a  little effort.
You threw down some dirt.

Your hand bruised my chest when you
Threw me against the wall and warned me not to pry.
Strong for a little woman, and beautiful. You told me he would not be dead
If I had been just a little more exciting.

They washed your lipstick bruise away, like
They deleted his nam  the hanged manThis little red book you call the human body:
take it up and shake it. Shake the flaking pages
out of it, shake it from endpaper to endpaper
until the last of the phrases are gone; shake it
until it's aching and empty, the soul of a bird.

I will give you new words.  -That Wind-I've become that wind
The wind that cuts fearlessly through the tree tops
Howling with the evening dogs, bathing in starlight rain
Waiting for the rising moon
Can you hear me?
Listen from your dreamless sleep

This is my time of insanity  
I'm leaping through the last days of youth
Clumsily, I tumble into the yellow grass
Falling again and again
Remembering my Indian summer romance
I'll dream in chocolate vision once again

I've stolen everything the sky had to offer
Even so, my heart is insatiable
Send me another comet out of the hopeless silence of space
Fly it over this island drifting through the night
Into the genti
Please also check out my steadily growing "DLD's I Have Featured" folder here for more of an idea of what I'm likely to feature.

I'd like to stress again that I will gladly read over any suggestion sent my way. These guidelines are just here to give you a general idea. 

Yes, you are more than welcome to suggest yourself. Don't be shy! However, please keep in mind that my one reservation about applying for this position was fear that I might have to reject a friend's suggestion, and thereby cause hurt feelings. It is never my desire to hurt anyone's feelings. So please don't be disheartened or upset if I do not feature your suggestion. DLD is dedicated to showcasing the very best poetry on deviantART, and as such, can be picky at times. If your suggestion is not featured, it does not mean your poem is bad. Seriously. Also, it might not even be up to me. I send in suggestions, but not all of them are necessarily featured. It is a group effort. Also, it important to note that deviants can only be featured by DLD once per month, and that pieces which have already received a Daily Deviation (DD) are not eligible. For a complete, updated list of Featured Deviants, please see the scrapbook, and select the most recent month, to check if the deviant you wish to suggest has already received a DLD within the last 30 days. [link]

So how do you suggest? Please note me with a thumb (or a link, but I prefer thumbs) of the literature deviation you'd like to see featured, along with a short description of the piece and the reason why you'd like to see it featured. This description will likely be used in the actual article. For example, please see the descriptions on this article. [link]

As far as replying to your suggestions goes, I'm not sure yet. I might just not have time, I might be unsure whether I'd like to feature a piece and will need to think about it, and so on. So for now, I will not be replying to suggestions, except to say thank you.

I think that's all. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Now get suggesting!

Guess what? Today is my 6th wedding anniversary! I am so incredibly lucky.

Oh, and if you haven't checked out my contest yet, please do!

In keeping with tradition, here is a mini-feature. I'm going to show you my favorite artist, *AkuBaka's newest work. She just gets better and better.