New Jersey Poets

I recently found out that of poem of mine is going to be published in the Journal of New Jersey Poets. I'm proud to be a part of this worthy and unusual journal, which only publishes poets with some connection to New Jersey. New Jersey, of course, has produced some of the country's finest poets, including the original American everyman, Walt Whitman. As it turns out, I was born in Camden, N.J. (which, coincidentally, was written up in the 1970s as the worst city in America due its thriving drug trade and abject urban poverty) -- hence my eligibility for this journal. It's rewarding and satisfying to experience this connection to Jersey again after so many decades in Texas. Because I was born in New Jersey, I will never be considered a "Texan" by many of the residents here, but, like Whitman, I think I'd rather celebrate the beauty of moving around this great country rather than being identified with a single place and culture.