Rejected Poems

I’ve been writing and sending out work for over 30 years now. My poems get rejected a lot. Over 97% of the time. Last year, October 2001-October 2022, I sent out work to 100 journals and publishers. I had just one acceptance. This whole po-biz process is a huge time suck that keeps me from writing, spending time with family, going outside to look at the little birdies, etc. So I’ve decided to stop sending out as much. Pretty soon, I’ll be publishing rejected poems here (after 20-30 rejections–and if I still believe in the rejected poems). I’m guessing that, eventually, I’ll build a pretty sizable collection of rejects on this site. Which is probably better than the alternative: a bunch of poems sitting on my computer or piled up in a drawer somewhere. 🙂

“Empty Chair, Empty Desk”