A Writer's Notebook, Two-Thousand-And-One-Hundred-And-Sixty-Six

I received another rejection today.  It is for a manuscript that I have been sending around, and if I am honest about it, I feel like it is a good piece.  It is probably the best manuscript of poetry that I've composed, and a large part of that is because the work is laid out in a way that builds a larger piece out of the individual poems in a way that I found very satisfying.  The rejection, of course, hurts, as it always does, though I do feel buoyed that the editor felt moved enough by the work to send me a personal note instead of the usual form letter, expressing an appreciation for the work and implying that the decision not to publish it was not without some discussion between those involved.  As I said, it is never fun to receive a rejection, it does make a difference to have that kind of response and I can't help but hope it is, perhaps, a positive sign of things to come.

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