Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Reject This

At the end of the week I had something arrive in the mail that I forgot even existed. Last year I had entered some of my writing into the Des Moines Area Community College writing contest and my essay took first place. I opened up a packet from DMACC and inside were two copies of the West Campus publication that had winning writings from 2009-2011. I finally held in my hands a printed, published copy of my writing.

That feeling was inspiring. I have felt the urge to write and submit some more. I've decided to put pen to paper and start writing more new things. And this motivation came at the perfect time...

Because yesterday I got an email back from Poetry magazine with a polite rejection of the poems I submitted to them.

Normally I would go through a phase of lost motivation because I sent them what I felt was the best of the best. But today I really feel like just submitting even more things.

Because I know my writing is good enough for publication. I have physical proof of that on my desk right now. If it is good enough for one, it is good enough for others. I just have to find the right place at the right time.

So I'm going to send out a flood of submissions this week. And if I get a flood of rejections, hopefully there will be at least one pearl that washes up with an acceptance.

And those publications who reject me have only strengthened my resolve to continue writing. And inspired this poem:

Reject This

Reject this poem
Like you have rejected many others,
You aren't rejecting me;
I am not this poem.

Reject this poem
So that it can move on
To be rejected again and again;
That is its fate.

For if a thousand publications
All read this and reject it,
At least it will be read a thousand times.

  And the reason I write
Is so that others can read, so
Reject this poem.


I'm linking this post up with Yeah Write this week so they can all read and reject this poem, too. Feel free to share this with others so that it can get rejected 1,000 times! :)

14 comments:

  1. Wow, congratulations on your publication AND on finding your inner compass. Good luck on your future publications. Erin

    ReplyDelete
  2. "For if a thousand publications/ All read this and reject it,/ At least it will be read a thousand times." Great perspective. Congrats on your prize-winning, now published work!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congrats! And good for you for the positive perspective - keep it up!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congratulations on the publication! What a dream that would be to hold your words in printed form...and so inspiring. Makes me want to go send something of mine off :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good luck on all the new ones you're sending out!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Congrats on your publication! That's truly awesome and good for you for pushing forward. It's hard to in the face of rejection, but it's what we have to do.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Good for you that you're not letting the rejection get you down and congrats on getting published!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Congrats on your published work. I say pull that out everytime you find regection starting to bring you down.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Good for you! One more thing to put on the resume, right?

    ReplyDelete
  10. i love your poem - from someone who's had many, many rejections, i can tell you those pearls are always so, so worth it. congrats!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Congratulations on your published work! I love how you have reframed rejection in your poem. So much of publishing seems arbitrary, but it is really looking for the right place. Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Congratulations on getting published!

    And kudos to your positive attitude.

    ReplyDelete
  13. What a great post. I struggle with issue so much. I love the line in your poem that says "You aren't rejecting me; I am not this poem." It is so easy to get personally attached and invested in our writing (and why wouldn't we? we are pouring our hearts our after all) but ultimately we are a separate person and our worth is absolutely NOT attached to how others may feel about our writing.

    Congrats on getting published! Keep it up.

    ReplyDelete
  14. right on! :) (or should that be "write on!"? heh)

    ReplyDelete