Writing

Rejection.

We writers

Open our souls

To the whole world

To see and to judge

What we labor to bring forth.

Sometimes it’s spectacular, inspired, or even divine;

Other times, it’s nothing but garbage

Wasting good ink and paper.

Or worse, merely average.

Running in circles

Saying nothing

Important.

Note: This one came to me late at night. If there’s a name for this poetic form (with word count increasing by one on lines 1-7, then decreasing back to one), somebody please let me know!

17 thoughts on “Writing

  1. Debbie, I have no idea what this form is called but I REALLY like it!

    As I was reading your words, they reminded me of when I was still acting, because like writing, acting places you in a very vulnerable spot of often being rejected and then doubting your talent; wondering if you should continue to pursue. Like all creative forms, we put ourselves out there (or as you shared, open our souls), so it can feel very uncertain. However, I do believe that every effort we make to express our talents (even things we share on our blogs) is a way for us to stay open to our talents.

    FAB post, my friend! Have a super week!
    X

    • Ron, your lovely thoughts warm my heart — thank you so much, my friend! Yes, I imagine acting is very much like writing. Any creative venture is, really. We put so much of ourselves into what we create that it’s hard not taking things personally when someone doesn’t like it. I think that’s why blogging is so special — most people are so encouraging and supportive of our efforts that it give us courage to continue.

      Enjoy your week!!

  2. Re: the form… I had an interesting experience after I posted my little geranium poem. One of my readers said it showed up on his mobile device as a paragraph. When he read it on my site, he said he liked it much better “divided up into lines.” That’s one of the cool things about poety — the form is so important, for supporting and clarifying the meaning.

    I like this one. As for rejection? That’s interesting, online. Just as important as the people who leave comments are the ones who disappear, or who don’t comment on posts that deal with certain topics. I don’t know how many people take the time to notice who’s not cmmenting, and when, but it can tell you a lot.

    • I, too, have noticed that viewing poems on my phone completely misses the visual experience, Linda. I guess mobile devices have a ways to go in displaying things the way PCs do — and what a challenge that is for us web designers, ha!

      Thank you for your compliment — I can live a long time on a good one, you know! And yes, you’re right on about commenters. If I regularly visit someone’s blog and leave my thoughts, but they never comment on anything of mine, I scratch them off my list. Time is too scarce and precious to agonize over the ones who got away. I suppose we’re all guilty of that! I generally try to be cordial, but some things we can’t soft-pedal. I don’t believe any of us is the final expert on any topic, and I’m a big proponent of disagreeing without being disagreeable!! (Now, let me hop down from my soapbox, ha!)

  3. I like both the words and the poetic structure, Debbie! I don’t know if there is a name for this metric structure but I do know that there is a word for the poem’s message: Amazing! You’re right that as writers we judge ourselves a lot. I’m trying to be nicer to myself and hope you are too. HUGS!

    • Ah, Christy, how sweet — thank you!! Some of us writers have really insistent inner editors, and we fret over how to say something so it won’t be misunderstood. Then, invariably, somebody comes along and misunderstands anyway. ‘Tis a puzzle, huh?? Being nicer to yourself is great advice, and I should take it, too. Hugs right back at you, my friend!!

  4. Pingback: 45.000 or bust! | Karavansara

  5. I can relate to this. In October/November, I actually made an effort to submit some writing to magazines and contests. I’d forgotten about it, until I got another rejection a couple weeks ago. Just kick me while I’m down, haha!

    • I don’t guess editors/publishers care very much where we’re at in our personal lives when they fire off those rejections, do they, Janna? Still, keep in mind that a rejection isn’t something we should take personally — it merely isn’t what they want, when they want it. So … head up, shoulders back, and forge on, knowing that every No is leading to the ultimate Yes!!

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.