From the Present:

So, after a week of posting journal entries, most of them have been regarding about rejection from a girl in my second grade class who liked a kid named Kyle instead of me… Maybe this was good training for me as a writer, because rejection is part of the game for emerging and even established writers. You’ll receive far more rejection emails and letters than those fleeting acceptance letters. In the life of a writer one of the most important parts of our gig is to find a way not to get discouraged from rejection.

Here is how I deal with rejection:

Here is a rejection letter from the editorial assistent at the at the Chrysalis Reader:

Dear Luke,

We sincerely regret that we are unable to use “A Temporary Acorn”, “What is Only Human”, “I’ve Decided to Believe in God again”, and “Seaside Grace” in The Chrysalis Reader at this time. Thank you for the opportunity to review your work.

Sincerely,

Connie

Here is my response:

Hello Constance,

No worries about not being able to publish my poems. Thanks for the opportunity and taking the time to read them. Actually, even if I never get these poems published I feel like they have MORE than served their purpose for me.

When I met a beautiful girl in a bar last month, I didn’t have a place to write her number, but luckily, and thank God for this, I had a printed out copy of my poem “A Temporary Acorn” in my pocket and I wrote her number on it. Since then we have been out on a couple dates. I think she might be the one. I think I might love her….

As for “What is Only Human”…Well, boy did this little poem come in handy. There I was at the open mic night on my first date with the girl whose number I wrote on the printed copy of “A Temporary Acorn” and all these guys were doing really impressive things on the open mic. So I was all like, Geeze Louize, this girl is going to think I don’t have any talents (I really don’t). But luckily, I had “What is Only Human” memorized and I had someone drop a beat and I rapped the thing into the mic much to the elan of the audience. The audience worshiped me after that! I think this is when the girl started falling in love with me. Did I mention I think she might be the one?

And what can I say about “I’ve Decided to Believe in God again”? This little piece of poetry sure got me out of a pinch when I was out to dinner with the Pope last week…

And when it somes to “Seaside Grace.” Thank Jehova for this little verse. So there I was Constance, with a horrible case of laryngitis, handcuffed to my desk and a little kid was about to fall of the balcony in the adjacent building. This little kid was teetering on the edge and I thought, OH HOLY COW THIS KID IS GOING TO FALL AND DIE! I tried to scream to alert the janitor who was sweeping the floor below that THIS KID WAS LITERALLY GOING TO FALL AND DIE! But blast! my laryngitis prevented me from screaming. Then I looked down and in front of me was a printed copy of “Seaside Grace” I crumpled the poem into a ball and threw it at the janitor’s head. It was a direct hit and at first he turned around angry. He looked all like “Hey! Why the F did you throw that at me?” Keep in mind our janitor lifts a lot of weights and he could kick my ass if he wanted to. But then I motioned up like, “Hello! Kid about to FALL OFF THE BALCONY AND DIE!” And then he was all like, “Oh,” and he rushed to save the kid.

So once again, thanks for your consideration. But if these poems never do anything for me in the future, I’d say they’ve done enough.

Take care and best of like with The Chrysalis Reader,

-Luke

Please help this acorn of a site grow into a mighty oak. Share and repost!