None of these fit with us

None of these fit with us

some of those magazines

noses in the air,

the joy of rejecting

poet's lives upended

pens throttled

imagination awash

reigned away by the 

rulers of editing esteem

to a belittled nothing

some of us withstood

some of us bided our time

some of us are still here

many of them faded

their thrones imploded

now they are barely a glint

in memory's eye

a passerby's inkling

wrinkling yellow pages

now defunct

to attic boxes

but 

some of us are still here

still writing

still thriving

our pages not brittle

from the belittle

but strong and turning

with readers yearning

for more.

erin-cilberto

9/29/22

Reviews

[keith]

i have never submitted any write of mine to any publisher
some suggested i do so ... but the authors and writers i knew had been rejected so many times it was a dark cloud looming about them ... and they were still poor like most artists

you captured the essence of failures fed by those with their noses in the air, the experts they say, the conniving lawyers with contractual screwings ... all well hidden by hope and dreams of those submitting their words to the slaughterhouses of publishing

well done jacob you might make it yet!

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you, keith,
j.

[Lorry]

I've only ever been published by accident, or when someone has asked, for the simple reason I do it for me and wouldn't want to give the illiterati the pleasure of sounding like they knew what they were talking about, about something I don't even understand. Write for myself, and my imagined screaming hordes mistaking me for the Beatles, is how I rock n roll. 😊

[jacob erin-cilberto]

geez, and I thought you WERE the Beatles...
my funniest rejection was hand written on a piece of paper and just said "Nope"
j.

[Lorry]

Not very poetic, but gets its point across. 😊

[Zeb Smith]

Seamus Heaney said at least once that we write for ourselves. If you write enough, and have the courage to submit your work, you'll get enough rejections to paper the walls of your house. Still, we write. I like the simple language here. Good rhythm, and the line breaks work well, especially the last two lines. I also like what I read as grit and resilience. If you don't have those qualities, among a few others, you'll not write long.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Yes, we still write....I have been for 52 years now...so have hung in there...either grit or stupidity...
thank you, Zeb,
j.