Yeah, they are looking for poetry, but exactly what kind is a mystery to me.
I used to enter the Margaret Reid Traditional Poetry Contest, and the first few submissions did okay. I received some highly commended and commended awards. They even included small cash prizes. The last time I won any sort of kudos from this contest was in 2009. By this time, there were no more cash awards at the level I achieved.
I have also entered several pieces in the Tom Howard/John H. Reid Poetry Contest and never received so much as a nod from them.
Additionally, I have submitted poetry to several literary magazines. I was published in one, the only compensation being a free copy of the publication. When I received it, it was apparent to me that it was a very low quality magazine in terms of design and materials. I'm certain the magazine is no longer published due to lack of subscription sales.
This morning, I received an email from my most recent submission. Here is what it said:
We regret to inform you that your poems have not been selected for inclusion in the winter 2012 issue of Off the Coast. Be assured that although over 1,500 poems were submitted, your poems were read by at least three members of our editorial board.
I actually only sent one poem. It was obviously a form email sent out to us losers.
Losers is such a negative term, right? I probably should have said nonpublishees.
None of this rejection hurts me. I don't feel like a knife has pierced my heart, that I want to wrap myself in black and spend my days weeping over dead flowers. There has been too much real hurt in life to get overly bothered by rejection from poetry judgers. It doesn't even prevent me from continuing to write.
I have been juried and judged in the past at art shows. It was back in those days that I realized there is no firm formula for what is going to be lauded by the judges. Oh, there has to be a certain level of competence displayed in the submission piece, whether it be writing or art. But beyond that, the judges' determinations are based solely on their subjective tastes.
In other words, their personal likes, dislikes and opinions decide who will win.
So the whole process becomes rather hit or miss when trying to figure out what to submit.
I try to be as objective with my own work as I can. Long ago, I categorized my own poetry as good/strong, passable and just not good. After some consideration, I placed about 10-15% of my poetry into the good/strong category, another 30-40% in the passable category with all the rest deemed as just not good. I understand that my rating of my own poetry may be unrealistically generous. Maybe only 5% of my work is only passable and all the rest is junk.
But, hey, others have already been judging my work. I may as well judge it myself.
The problem is that even if I consider it to be good/strong, no one else is. An English professor I had in college has pointed out some pieces I've written and told me they should be submitted for publication somewhere. I've tried that as well with no positive results. Maybe he doesn't know what judges want either.
If I was a disciple of Norman Vincent Peale, I would keep thinking positively about this as I forge ahead knowing that somewhere, someday I will break through and become a famou poet laureate. However, I keep poking at it rather lethargically and wonder why I'm wasting my time. It's a real lesson in behavioral psychology. Besides, there's still no guarantee that positivity on my part will affect the subjective opinions of those who hold the gavels.
It's all left me rather apathetic.
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