A Bad Fall, and a Return

I had a bad fall. As in the season. My mood generally turns dour around September, but then usually gets better by Thanksgiving. My birthday is in September, but I’ve never felt that that was a factor. On the other hand, I don’t recall my family celebrating my or my siblings birthdays in any way. So, maybe that fact is a factor?

My fall started earlier, in 23. I publish a tiny online literary and art journal, Exist Otherwise. In August, one of my contributors, a person whom I had published a few times and a person for whom I had gone out of my way to accommodate with many requests for special consideration, accused me of hijacking one of their poems for my own personal gain.

My transgression involved using the title of a poem I had recently published in a blog post to promote my journal. Medium has a paywall, and I get a few cents each month from people who read my articles. In this case, I posted the promotional article outside the paywall, meaning I would receive nothing for it.

The gist of the offending article was this: “This really great writer posted this really great poem on my tiny lit journal. Here’s a link to read it.”

I was floored when they sent me the accusatory email. It was harsh. They wrote angrily that they felt violated, demanded an apology, and that I delete the article. They accused me of trying to…