Rejection Letter

It is amazing how small minded the poetry magazines can be.

 

 

Dear Sir

We have declined your current submission

And offer some friendly advice

 

Your words lack rhythm

It is unlikely that you will gather many fans

To follow your style of writing

 

Your descriptions were too graphic

Our readers have a sensitive nature and

Might be offended by such raw emotion

 

Your poems need to be left aligned

Centered poems are considered to be

Amateurish

 

We hope that you will try

One of our poetry contests

For a small fee

 

 

Read more about Alex at:

www.Suburbanfiction.com

 

Author's Note

This was a collage of absurd statements from several actual rejection letters.

Reviews

[Poeticpiers]

Editors and readers are so far out of touch it is almost unbelievable.At the moment they seem only to consider free form despite their comments about rhythm and ryhme. Poetry competions on the whole are scams and will publish anything to extract money from hopeful writers Ithink the way ahead is self publishingFor myself I am quite happy with the feedback I get from readers on the net No body grows rich from writing poetry.Having said all that I enjoyed your poem

[desertsky]

Hmmm. Maybe I should submit a poem. The ones for books are much less amusing. =)

[huma]

hahahaha! love it

[Neva Bryan]

Think of rejection letters as the building blocks that strengthen you. Writers must have thick skins. This was a good way to handle it, doing something constructive with it.

[Black_Ink]

I have submitted one poem to a magazine for "new writers" (sic). However, when the said "ground breakin"
publication was released to the public it was literally stuffed with the same authors as the previous ten!!!...no space for me eh.
To find a vehicle from which to parade "new writing" other than the internet, is nigh on impossible anyway...especially in the UK. I could go on forever, but one has only got to look at the stuff kids have to read to understand why poetry has such a bleak future...who wants to read Chaucer!!!...not exactly exciting but that's conservatism and elitism for you. Good luck and keep kicking against the pricks.

[Don Stabler]

Hi Alex, too much, I have a dozen of these. don't the ones saying "...no unsolicited material considered"
get to you! deja vu, man. as it is may those suckers regret it. good poem

[waywithwords]

That is a great piece of writing you have written but I am shocked that anyone could utter such words about your beautiful sincere poems. Give then your poems for free then they would have you on a pedastle my friend. HUGSxxxxxxxxxxAnne

[Adam Chambers]

Alex, this is humorous and clever yet it makes me very angry at the same time. I have read some of your stuff, and loved every word of it. The, as you say, small-mindedness, that is on display here, is annoying to say the least. My thinking is that if that is their attitude, then they aren't worth your time anyways...
Best of luck,
Adam

[Antonionioni]

Ha ha, spot on Alex. I can recognise these sort of statements although in the main I haven't had any feedback at all, but what's the point of such s**t feedback anyway? What counts is what you think. These companies are run by individuals and run according to their individual tastes or else a slavish following of the market, i.e. what was the last big seller - put out five books in that exact genre with the same type of cover design and everything.

[Beautifully Tragic xPoe..]

That seems really ridiculous.Well this is a lesson learned, I'm not going to bother sending my work to publishers if they are so concerned about guidelines and rules. Poetry is far more than that, or anything learned at school.

With that said, I enjoyed your poem.
Rayne

[Amanda Bokovoy]

Last time I checked, poetry was about personal expression, not rules and guidelines. It's graphic, intense description that captures a reader's imagination and involves them in the story! And I happened to like centered poetry, thank you very much...

Well, that's just the way it is, I suppose. Not everyone has enough sense to recognize every good poem out there. They said Einstein would never be successful in life and that he was an idiot. Look how right they were.

But, at least it gives us an excuse to write amusing poetry. ;D Way to go!