Some time ago, I received a kind rejection from Clare MacQueen of MacQueen’s Quinterly. Although she declined my poems, she sent me an invitation to submit to the next issue. Not just a standard invitation: a special, jump-the-line one.
When someone solicits work, I think it is a good idea to graciously send some. Even if one of them is a recent poem you think is especially good. Possibly The New Yorker will reject it, and meanwhile the window for generous-hearted Editor MacQueen, who has recognized your talent and desires to promote it, will have closed. Long story short, with breathtaking speed (less than 24 hours), Editor MacQueen chose the best new poem in the bunch, and The New Yorker will just have to wait 😉
Seriously, I am grateful to her for her kind words and invitation, and for recognizing the merits of the poem, “Lion’s Tooth,” which is about dandelions and Ohio and the past. Like a lot of my poems, it just came to me, and I welcomed it. As always, I look forward to reading MacQueen’s Quinterly while waiting for my work to appear there in January.
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