Acceptance and Rejection

Having recently received three rejections in a row from three different magazines/journals, an element of self-doubt can start to creep in – what am I doing wrong, how can the poems be improved, am I wasting my time, etc. Successes are wonderful, celebrated and then filed but maybe its human nature to dwell that bit longer on failure and make it personal.

During my period of procrastination, I remembered a recent essay Kim Moore wrote during her digital residence with the Poetry School, where she describes her path to publication along with some practical hints and tips she learned along the way. But what I found really interesting (and somewhat reassuring!), is the overlap between the lists of magazines Kim’s work has been accepted in and rejected by (have duplicated it below for ease):

There are particular magazines and journals I would love to get into, a few of which are on Kim’s list, so the message here is clearly one of perseverance!

Kim also went onto say that one of her poems was rejected 13 times before being accepted as part of a collection, and then went on to win an award in its own right.

So if you’re like me and have some work that you feel does have a certain something but just keeps coming back (a boomerang springs to mind!) don’t despair, it may just be a case of it finding its home.