![]() Voices Silenced at BirthA Poem by jacob erin-cilbertoVoices Silenced at Birth
"thank
you for your submission, unfortunately, we will not be using any of your poems
at this time" wrote the editor,
gagging on his own laughter--- knowing the discouraged
poet will feel like slitting his tedious
throat, or blowing up his cacophonous computer (riotous sounds of
stonewalled words)
the power of the
rejection, like a discounted
advance asking to dance and
getting a coldly polite "no thank you" (you're too short, not
Robert Redford enough or dressed well enough to
indicate status) and your words as well,
poor panhandling prosy pitiful and plain Jane
"We read your
submission carefully" ( ha ha, yes, he will believe this---) "we get so many
poems, it is impossible to publish all of them" (chortling, as the
editor thinks "i love slamming doors in their pesky little faces---) "oh
do please submit in future, we would love to read more of your work" (even though
we didn't actually read these, we just pretended) and now your poetic ego
is upended
and Sylvia Plath has
company---she is wherever she is now, still trying to get accepted into Frank O'Conner's short
story, writing class--- her embarrassed kids
grown up without a mother, one of them unliving in the same
dimension where she found her peace, at last---"Good God Almighty, peace at last" a damsel of tragically
unfinished business----
editors have the power
to elate and the power to deflate----
and some writers
undevelop as if lacking fortuitous
film they are a photo
finished in flux
critics weigh in so
heavily they smother the druthers to poem. to live to poem
suicide syllables put their mouths into
ego's sheet and no morning comes,
while others gloat over
their dawn coffee never sleeping, just keeping would be wordsmiths
from ever becoming.
erin-cilberto 9/16/17 © 2017 jacob erin-cilbertoFeatured Review
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Added on September 16, 2017Last Updated on September 16, 2017 Authorjacob erin-cilbertoCarbondale, ILAboutOriginally from Bronx, NY, I live in Carbondale, Illinois...teach English at a community college and have been writing and publishing poetry since 1970. I am here to read for inspiration from other po.. more..Writing
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