Sulk

[annaswirls]

Just got rejected by the Austin Poetry Festival anthology, which should not be surprising, but this one really hurts!

I listened to the winners read their poems last year, and I thought I could fit in.

Here is the thing. I actually registered to go to the festival this year and now I am so pissy that I don't even want to GO anymore! I would want to go as a poet and not as just a spectator.

So. I am sulking and wondering why I even try to venture out there into the big world of poetry. I write because it is what I do and I know it is not important to be accepted, so why does this suck so much??

What is your most effective way to get over rejection??? Maybe I need a drink? A bubble bath? A new toy? Maybe I should just shut up and get over it.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xneZfKiFJWM/SSa6pwRtprI/AAAAAAAAAcM/lSjZvjm3c8M/s400/loser.jpg

 

[The_Fool]

I whine lots. Tell myself they don't know what they lost. Tell myself, Someday, they will be sorry.

Then I drink lots. Or a little bit.


That I wonder who I am kidding thinking that I can actually write. But that is another story and not an issue that you have.

 

[Angeline]

I just remind myself that I am not writing poetry because I want to be published or read at a festival or whatever my rejection was. I write because I love language and poetry, and I need to express myself this way. Some people paint; I write poems.

Mind you, I would LOVE to be published or to take part in a festival, but it really isn't the main thing for me and I know it isn't for you, either.

You are so not a loser. You have a great gift, you really do and you know I don't say these things lightly. And your writing will only improve. So you know, Shakespeare said revenge is a dish that tastes best cold, and you just need to
keep writing.

 

[Tzara]

Just got rejected by the Austin Poetry Festival anthology, which should not be surprising, but this one really hurts!

I listened to the winners read their poems last year, and I thought I could fit in.

Here is the thing. I actually registered to go to the festival this year and now I am so pissy that I don't even want to GO anymore! I would want to go as a poet and not as just a spectator.

So go as a poet who, for whatever reason, wasn't picked to read. That doesn't make you a bad poet, just one whose style didn't mesh with the selector's taste. You've been an editor and, I would guess, didn't accept just anyone who submitted work to you. Stuff gets rejected, even good stuff. Even Pulitzer Prize-winner's stuff.

Sure, it's a disappointment. But trying to be a poet is kind of like a definition of disappointment. No one, other than perhaps other poets, wants to read you, and you will never make any money.

For your festival, you're probably at the disadvantage of not having an MFA and hanging out with the people doing the selection. The "hanging out with people" part is probably much more important. If they know you, they're probably much more likely to select you. Not guaranteed, of course, but more likely.

You're a good poet, Ms. Swirls. You have the ability to write memorably about experience in a way that makes it real to someone (well, me) who has not had (or, often, cannot have) that same experience. You can't teach that part, so you're way ahead of the game.

So hang in there. And don't feel stupid. Go to the festival and listen to how stupid a lot of the poems are, then think about whether you want to write dopey poems just to be on stage at some poetry festival.

Anyway. Go or not go, as you decide. Just don't get down on yourself. You have talent.

Well, I think so, anyway.

So. I am sulking and wondering why I even try to venture out there into the big world of poetry. I write because it is what I do and I know it is not important to be accepted, so why does this suck so much??

Because you're human and we want to be accepted by groups that we think matter, even if we really don't value them. I mean, for God's sake, think about high school.

That should be 'nuff said.

I think one of the reasons I stopped sending work out is that I have never been rejected (at least for poetry). That got me thinking that the places I sent things would accept anybody (which I know is not true) and scared that I would send something out finally to someplace that would reject it. I was originally expecting rejection, but when it didn't happen, I got kind of freaky about it, like I'm pitching a perfect game in the eighth inning and I don't want to step on the baseline, or look at anyone in the dugout, lest I break some kind of spell.

So, I guess I'm better at giving advice than heeding it, but I'd say you should get over this. You're a good poet. You are. Poets get rejected. Celebrate by sending the poems that got rejected elsewhere.

What is your most effective way to get over rejection??? Maybe I need a drink? A bubble bath? A new toy? Maybe I should just shut up and get over it.

I might off-handedly suggest G&T's, a rubber ducky, and a shared, bubbly jacuzzi with you, m'dear, but I suspect the wife might not think that was therapy. For you or me.

The best therapy is probably to send stuff out again. That, and a back rub.

You really are a good poet, you know. Just sayin'.

 

[EroticOrogeny]

Anna - don't worry about them - you (and we) know you're a good poet.

 

[annaswirls]

oh y'all got me all re-energized. Amazing. Thank you.

More
soon

 

[butters]

Just got rejected by the Austin Poetry Festival anthology, which should not be surprising, but this one really hurts!

I listened to the winners read their poems last year, and I thought I could fit in.

Here is the thing. I actually registered to go to the festival this year and now I am so pissy that I don't even want to GO anymore! I would want to go as a poet and not as just a spectator.

So. I am sulking and wondering why I even try to venture out there into the big world of poetry. I write because it is what I do and I know it is not important to be accepted, so why does this suck so much??

What is your most effective way to get over rejection??? Maybe I need a drink? A bubble bath? A new toy? Maybe I should just shut up and get over it.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xneZfKiFJWM/SSa6pwRtprI/AAAAAAAAAcM/lSjZvjm3c8M/s400/loser.jpg

it's all a part of the process for most, but Tzara hits it on the head with this:

So go as a poet who, for whatever reason, wasn't picked to read. That doesn't make you a bad poet, just one whose style didn't mesh with the selector's taste. You've been an editor and, I would guess, didn't accept just anyone who submitted work to you. Stuff gets rejected, even good stuff.

if you can get things straight in your head, still go. listen, and you might realise some aren't what you'd call 'hot to trot', or they might be brilliant pieces. or even decent poetry that ends up sucking donkey balls because a lot of people are rubbish at reading their work aloud. One group i worked with (a book was put out) recorded our same pieces onto a c.d - most of those poems (including mine) got ruined by us reading them. sigh. it's life anyway, perhaps the selectors had some sort of theme in mind as they chose the works that would be read out, like a poet often has to theme a body of work for a work and not just have random pieces taking the reader in all directions at once.

rejection sucks, but hey - move on

 

[bflagsst]

When I've been rejected from a big time magazine I just assume they haven't really read what I've written, maybe skimmed the title and first stanza and then went with the people they already know by heart. How is Bflagsst going to draw readers in? They can always stick in some Bukowski poem recently discovered in one of his private letters. They've already accepted their editor friends from Emory. I don't take rejection well on an intellectual basis.

 

[bronzeage]

Just got rejected by the Austin Poetry Festival anthology, which should not be surprising, but this one really hurts!

I listened to the winners read their poems last year, and I thought I could fit in.

Here is the thing. I actually registered to go to the festival this year and now I am so pissy that I don't even want to GO anymore! I would want to go as a poet and not as just a spectator.

So. I am sulking and wondering why I even try to venture out there into the big world of poetry. I write because it is what I do and I know it is not important to be accepted, so why does this suck so much??

What is your most effective way to get over rejection??? Maybe I need a drink? A bubble bath? A new toy? Maybe I should just shut up and get over it.

[G]

I know this feeling quite well. The world of poetry would be a much nicer place if the poets who choose other poets weren't such a bunch of dumbasses.

 

[Sunndance07]

Come back with a better poem and style...re-invent!

 

[ishtat]

When I first came here a few years ago you posted something and I thought what a load of crap. Then a month or two later I read it again somewhere else and thought blimey this woman is amazing, this is so good, you had improved so much. Then I looked back to the original and had to acknowledge that it had not been changed at all, it was my judgement which had changed.

So much depends on the perception of the reader (editor) within their
context.

You are a talented writer, it's the nature of the process which makes rejection hurt.

 

[bflagsst]

I just accept that it's not about your overall quality as a poet when you submit, but whether what you've submitted is appropriate for the magazine. Most places want to post more than one of your poems. What if you submit three poems, one is amazing, the next is a different style but still good, and the last just sours the reading tastes of the editor so they forget about that first fantastic poem? Some poets are probably real good at submitting just the right thing for a magazine, for the reading editor, for the time of year and so on.

 

[EroticOrogeny]

Rejections are always so disappointing.
Sometimes its better to choose another forum. Our last paper got rejected (with some helpful criticism) so we decided on another journal after I made changes. It took them 6 months to get back to us!

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Have you ever considered that you're too good for them? I've tried other sites than this one and they are not interested in doing anything else than patting each others backs for very mediocre stuff bordering on the down right awful

 

[WickedEve]

Just got rejected by the Austin Poetry Festival anthology, which should not be surprising,

I'm surprised. I really am. You are a quality poet.

 

[butters]

Have you ever considered that you're too good for them? I've tried other sites than this one and they are not interested in doing anything else than patting each others backs for very mediocre stuff bordering on the down right awful

it's a case of always consider the source, isn't it?
that has to apply to any critique, any praise, any observations ...

 

[UnderYourSpell]

it's a case of always consider the source, isn't it?
that has to apply to any critique, any praise, any observations ...

Well Anna's poems have made me smile and have brought an unexpected tear to my eye, and anyone who can write across the spectrum like that has certainly got talent

 

[butters]

Well Anna's poems have made me smile and have brought an unexpected tear to my eye, and anyone who can write across the spectrum like that has certainly got talent

oh i agree she's written some really cool work
i was referring to her own thoughts about the standards they display, and how she thought her own would fit in nicely. And no doubt would but, as has already been pointed out, sometimes there are underlying agendas we're not in on when we submit our poor orphans. There might even have been one or two other poems they felt too similar in style or topic and so they ended up not opting for anna's piece.

we just can't allow rejection to bring us down too much. onwards and upwards, init?

 

[UnderYourSpell]

One should sulk, pout and trip over ones lower lip for at least 2 days, eat something outrageously fattening whilst muttering it's their loss then have a good giggle over something naughty but funny, before kicking ourselves up the backside and carrying on

 

[Epmd607]

Some editors just accept crap poetry because they're crap poets.

 

[butters]

Some editors just accept crap poetry because they're crap poets.

and some aren't even poets at all. *nods*

 

[Epmd607]

and some aren't even poets at all. *nods*

Imagine a poetry editor who wasn't a poet. It's not conceivable in practice. An editor doesn't have to have any special writing skills, but a poet has a special set of skills for interpretation that only come about from the practice of the craft. You'd be hard pressed to find someone editing a novel who wasn't also an aspiring storyteller. The editors of Time and Newsweek are probably terrible journalists.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Sulk is the third album by Scottish New Wave band Associates. It was released in May 1982, and reissued as a CD in 2000 with extra tracks. It stayed in the British album chart for 20 weeks, reaching number 10.

Don't you ever stop to think that going round random threads and dropping off odd bits of information might just be a teensiest bit weird reason for coming on a porn site? I do find that sad though

 

[annaswirls]

When I first came here a few years ago you posted something and I thought what a load of crap. Then a month or two later I read it again somewhere else and thought blimey this woman is amazing, this is so good, you had improved so much. Then I looked back to the original and had to acknowledge that it had not been changed at all, it was my judgement which had changed.

So much depends on the perception of the reader (editor) within their
context.

You are a talented writer, it's the nature of the process which makes rejection hurt.

Ishtat, that is a very funny story! I love that you thought it was a load of crap and are willing to tell me that now! Seriously, thank you, I will keep this fresh in my mind. I wonder what changed about your perception, was it getting to know me on a more personal level?

 

[annaswirls]

Don't you ever stop to think that going round random threads and dropping off odd bits of information might just be a teensiest bit weird reason for coming on a porn site? I do find that sad though

I don't think they are really people at all, just bots trying to get you to click a link?