I received another rejection by email yesterday. They didn’t say why, just that the poems didn’t ‘fit the current issue scheme’. This time the submission was for a collection of six poems which I have shared on my blog – that was allowed by the magazine, as long as they weren’t physically published. They were:
I would have liked some constructive criticism to give me an idea of what is actually required and help me with the collection I have put together to submit to another magazine for a pamphlet competition.
If there is anyone out there who is a poetry critic and is willing to give me some feedback on these rejected poems. I would be very grateful.
writing in north norfolk 
I’m not a critic so can’t comment on your poems, but I can sympathise. I can also assure you that your experience is common. Poems get rejected more than accepted and getting feedback is very rare – I’ve never had it. Don’t be downhearted, one day your poems will find an editor who likes them. There are people who give feedback; I think the Poetry School does so, but you have to pay. Good luck.
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Thank you for your welcome comments. I might take a look at the Poetry School if all else fails – money is also a problem these days!
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Kim, I am not a critic, but an English teacher. I know that I yearn for constructive criticism myself. I really benenfited from purchasing Rob Brewer’s little tutorial on editing poetry last year. With that said, I will go through each one of your peoms and put my 2 cents worth in…. okay with you?
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Yes please!
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Seaside Octain: I would print this poem with a lot of space between the lines and then take a scissor and cut each line into a little strip of paper. Then, rearrange those lines – some of the stanzas would benefit from having the order changed up a bit. Also, see how many ‘the, and’ type words you can remove without damaging the meaning.
My last thought: write the logline for your poem(s) – that one-line sentence on the copyright page of a book that gives the essence of it. This really helps me focus. I hope this is not too much! Jilly
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Oh, thank you so much, Jilly. This is so helpful. It’s the sort of thing I would tell students and other poets to do but forget to do myself – and you have taken the time to read my work and give me advice. 🙂
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I really feel like all the components are there with Seaside Octain, sometimes it’s just a matter of submitting to the right place at the right moment. We persist. 🙂
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😊
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