Dear Editor,

Your signature matters when you're sending a submission.
Make sure it comes out looking smart and confident!

Submitting poems to editors is an act of faith.

Here's how I do it: I carefully select my poems for each journal, choosing the ones I am sure are going to make the editors swoon with delight. Then, with some kind of ceremony, I sign the cover letter. I use my best pen - the only one with a nib! -- and make sure the signature is flowing and gracious, and somehow also looks smart and poetic.

Finally, I fold the poems precisely in thirds, as though each fold has been exactly considered -- just like the words in my poems.

I even select the stamps, because editors might look at those to make their decision about my poems. I want the stamps to say something. The 61-cent Richard Wright stamp seems perfect these days. It says that I am  aware of current issues in the world (only sometimes true), and that what's in this envelope is no namby-pamby junk; it's honest, and relevant, serious and perhaps slightly controversial...

(Anyway, that's what I expect editors to infer from my stamp choice.)

So, when some months later, I find an SASE in my mailbox so skinny that it seems there couldn't possibly be anything at all in there, an immediate depression sets in.

This is not a post about those times. This is to say "hurrah!" to the editors who take a moment to write an encouraging word on those minute, form rejection slips. Rejections like these are actually uplifting -- not quite as much as an acceptance, but they make me want to get back to my desk and write, or send out another submission.