Dear Editor, When You Rejected My Poem I Think You Were Mistaken.

Dear Editor/s,

I know you rejected the attached poem from the last issue of X, but I honestly, and quite objectively I believe, think you made a big mistake. The poem is one of my best, and it’s also perfect for your publication.

Bearing the above in mind, please take a fresh look at the piece and re- consider it for your next edition. I sincerely hope you see the light.

Yours,

Maxine Beneba Clarke
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Of course, I didn’t exactly send the above email. But what I did do was re-submit the exact same poem to very next issue from the issue of the magazine it was rejected from, with no accompanying explanation.

I re-submitted the poem because I really believed in the poem, and because I could think of no more perfect home for it than that particular journal (which has now, incidentally, accepted the poem for publication).

After months of silence, I figured the editor/s were baffled at the cheek of me in re-submitting a piece that had already been rejected, and probably wisely decided not to encourage my egotistical indignation by responding to my submission in any manner at all.

Then came the acceptance email. Different editor/s? Different submission standard? Genuine re-think?

In any case, the moral of the story is, the editor’s decision may not be final. Just don’t go quoting me on that.