Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Rant of the week

I realize that editors of journals and 'zines have many things to do, and I understand if what I have sent them isn't going to work for them (see below). Still, when they request SASEs, I include one. How hard can it be to grab for one of those pre-printed rejection notes (see below), stuff it in the envelope, and drop it in the pile of out-going mail? Seriously, I have waited 335 days for Earth's Daughters, 256 days for Chattahoochee Review, and 227 days for Alimentum. It is rude. Plus, I use my interesting stamps--the Robert Rauschenbergs, the kelp forests--because I know I will (or would) appreciate them when (if) they show up.

The poem you see below is to be read down each column, then across both lines. The first column is taken verbatim from a form rejection letter (in one of those SASEs) that the editor did send me.

Co-axial Response to a Snippy Form Rejection Letter


Since poetry is…….…sparks against darkness, conceived
in general……………..in private, so easily snuffed by
such a subjective…….random draft, made yet not made. Seek
art, I’ve found………..no solace; try to wait, go make a place,
it better not…………...be here. Fear makes us hasty;
to comment…………..too soon is like cursing the unborn,
poems simply do not….like locking up fledglings in a wooden prison
suit……………………that forbids turning to see. But never mind
my personal…………limits. Sparks transform wood.
taste………………….Only what results, emerges—nothing else concerns us.

3 comments:

  1. Wonderful, Karen.

    I think it's cruel to keep writers waiting and yet this is a very old complaint. Paper debt is just as bad as fiscal debt and the world is drowning in both. Plus the 'zines are probably run by, you know, artists.

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  2. now there is email
    my daughter got a rejection notice by email yesterday and was briefly bummed out
    even landlords get rejected
    sometimes I show an apartment to 20 people before someone rents it

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  3. It's not being rejected (although of course I'd rather it were different). It's when the editor can't be bothered to use the means at hand (SASE or, yes, email) to let me know the decision.

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