Sometimes we fear rejection so much that we don’t want to try, but try we must. Maybe you haven’t sent out that first poem, uncertain whether your poem fits a journal’s or e-zine’s style. Maybe you have a chapbook collection that you’re not sure will win the contest. I encourage you to send your best efforts into the world and “just do it.” As I read in a magazine this past week: do it afraid, the courage will come later. If the rejection does come, at least you know you tried and can try elsewhere. There are countless opportunities to present yourself whether you’re a poet or trying to gain employment, so why not try? Courage is pursuing your passions despite the fear.
Good luck to all of you, thanks for dropping in. Please drop in next Monday for another featured site…
Dear Poet Hound, now you know me... this post of yours makes me think about my recent submitter's personal history: I have always been afraid of rejections but I have submitted and submitted and submitted and I have been rejected and rejected and rejected and once in a while accepted and, ( almost timidly!) again somewhere else accepted...so I have accumulated some hundreds of acceptances and thousands of stubborn rejections of every sort...and then?
ReplyDeleteWell, blogging started and the world goes on feeling oneself as a speck in a big crowd, jostling in tides, striving for one's own singular voice....AND a bit tired, very tired, of form rejections and submissions ( with a same damn submission manager!!) that sound like buying a lottery ticket.
Tomasso:
ReplyDeleteYes, I can relate to what you describe above, but I find it all fascinating and worth trying to continue onwards, I'm happy you are doing the same.
PH