Not Use

A roundel regarding a rejection letter received from a journal for a recent poetry submission.

If helpful, you may listen to me read the poem via the player below.

“Not use”, your note, written back to me
On my poem by which I deduce
That your statement of merit, impartial decree
Means my words are unwanted, no use.

This, my rejection; you mean no abuse.
You’re being efficient not crappy,
Not poetic, just clear, not abstruse.

But these words keep coming, won’t let me be—
Whisper in rhymes, with phrases seduce
To turn the lock, use imagination’s key,
I try to resist, but it’s no use.

9 thoughts on “Not Use”

Oh dear…

I have a few of these. I hope the next is both a word to the positive, and something less succinct.

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randamir on October 14, 2017 at 11:38 am said:

Thanks. Brevity is its own for of poetry, I guess. Haha

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- Pleasant Street on October 14, 2017 at 12:30 pm said:
  
  I love your positivity haha! True, a few more words you’d have a haiku
  
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- randamir on October 14, 2017 at 12:37 pm said:
  
  Yes! How about:
  “Not use”, you reply.
  Without caring. Rejection.
  Never write again.
  
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- Pleasant Street on October 14, 2017 at 12:50 pm said:
  
  I can not use
  your opinion, falling
  snow on the fire
  
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- randamir on October 14, 2017 at 12:44 pm said:
  
  Although I guess it should have a nature theme like:
  “Not use.” Cold reply.
  Snow falls in obscurity
  Cold, alone, like me.
  
  Haha! This is therapeutic!
  
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- Pleasant Street on October 14, 2017 at 12:49 pm said:
  
  I am cut deeply
  words like arrows find a mark
  birds in their nests sing
  
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