i received a rejection from Nerve Cowboy today. upon reading the poems they sent back, i realized i'd made a grave error in having written them in the first place; nevermind sending the damn things out as a submission.
i forgave myself this once, though. i was a bit rusty in my selection process as this was the first submission i'd made after my extended hiatus.
really, though. the poems sucked. it's kind of embarrassing knowing i sent them the poems.
i have another submission out to them (i hedged my bets and sent another, stronger stack of poems), and i'll update on the verdict when it arrives.
15 comments:
Well, at least you sent something! I haven't even gotten there yet.
But here's a good thought, I think! :) What if they took them? And poems you think suck were published...and other people read them! This happened to me once. Thank God, the website they are on no longer exists. But they were sucky poems and I didn't know it at the time! Later, I was like, ACK! Those suck! My friend Mick, who actually makes a living at writing, tells me this means I'm a real writer now! :) I am not sure I agree!
Also, I haven't read anything by you that has sucked, justin! Okay, maybe one of the challenge poems wasn't a "justin" but really! I love your stuff. I bet they didn't suck!
:)
It's late...I'm tired...the website they WERE on. Sheesh! I'm not much of a writer tonight.
:)
Oh well, better luck with the next batch. I haven't had a hit with Nerve Cowboy for a long time, either ...
I guess, though, they DID publish my chapbook. Ha!
*Ducks and runs*
Casey-
Glenn and i have talked many times about this phenomenon: where you fill out a submission with something that isn't quite up to what the other 3 or 4 were, and that one gets taken as the stronger ones get rejected.
it's funny.
just goes to show that we are never good judges of our own work.
oh, and thanks for the attempt at the confidence boost, Glenn! :)
by the way, the book Glenn is talking about is called "methinks i see my father" and it is very good. a split chapbook with Michael Estabrook and it's a killer.
tough shit. you must be a terble wreeter. giv it upp, you looser.
nerd cowpoy is the greetest.
er, sorry bout that. well, at least it proves that both YOU and JOE SHIELDS know good AND bad poetry. ha!
hit em again. and then hit em again.
s'worked for me. I never ever get rejected from anywhere.
we know that's not true, Chris.
and Owen is definitely lying. i've never seen his work there. but, that's because he's never submitted there.
i plan on hittin' 'em until the day i die or the day they fold, whichever comes first.
i definitely know bad poetry. i've read a bunch of it. i've written a bunch more.
i'm a poetaster. and damn proud of it.
oh, and el bastardo needs to work on his spelling. i believe it's not wreeter but righter. am i write?
What Justin says is true: more often than not, editors accept the "filler" poems and reject the stronger stuff that I submit.
Or maybe I'm just a bad judge.
It's not just editors, either. When Justin and I send each other recently written poems, we invariably hate the one that the writer thinks is the strongest, and like the ones that the writer thinks were weak.
Go figure.
I can never judge my own work...unless I get that hum in my head. Am I nuts or what? I know when I'm writing something good if my head sort of gets that feeling before a headache. I know, I'm weird. But it's been so long since I've written something that makes my head hum.
and i bet those are the best poems you've ever written, eh Karl?
just kidding, you know my thoughts on your work.
it's funny, though, he's right that sometimes, no matter how well we think our work would fit, some editors just don't like our stuff. it happens.
all we can do is keep trying. or move on.
Glenn's right. we often will swap our new poems, looking for insight or suggestions, and invariably each other's favorite poems don't coincide. and usually one's favorite is the other's least favorite. weird.
Kat-
judging your own work is difficult, but a very important skill to develop. obviously we can never fully detach from our work and see it as objective as we need, but the ability to be honest, to know when something works and doesn't is invaluable.
good points.
oh, and Karl...try the cereal box to Cap'n Crunch. it's exceptionally lyrical. and, the contents are delicious.
Dylan left "Blind Willie McTell" off Infidels. Which just goes to show that being a bad judge of our own work is something that even the immortals are guilty of.
further proof that we (none of us) know a damn thing.
definitely.
Glenn:
Sometimes I throw in a poem to the two or three poems I think are good, and they take the throw in. Perhaps I just don't know a thing and somehow believe they will like the throw in, because if I thought the throw in sucked, I wouldn't include it in my submission.
Kat:
You've taken a throw in, I won't tell you which one, or when, but thanks! As for those headaches, see a doctor and get rid of them. Just kidding.
JB:
And then there are those poet seekers from Turkey, who took one of my boxing poems from the remark boxing issue & put it up in the Turkey Daily News, & the German editor, who translated my poem, Shine. To me that was kind of cool, getting a poem in Turkey or in German. It blows my mind.
I sent a new submission and some doodles to Nerve Cowboy. It has been a while since one of my poems made it in.
Karl:
Never got into Slipstream. Perhaps I should change my name to Louis Smith or perhaps my poetry sucks major ass.
Luis- Hmmm...now you've got me thinking. Was this recently? :)
I think since taking over "remark." I've gotten MUCH better at what works and what doesn't...in my own stuff and others. In fact, I think I'm much better at other people's stuff. My own stuff...the ones I love...are the ones other people think eh-so-so.
I keep trying...keeping learning everything I can about poetry and reading as much poetry as possible. That's all you can do, right? :)
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