Yesterday that batch of poems got rejected again. This is what the editors said this time:
Thank you for your recent submission. We truly enjoyed reading your work. Unfortunately, we didn’t find it to be a good fit for 6 X 6. We wish you the best with your future writing.
I included a SASE, but asked them to recycle the manuscript rather than return it. I’m guessing whoever was in charge of throwing stuff out either forgot to or was reluctant to. When it came time to review poems for a new issue my poems were still lying around and got included in the considerations. Since there was no SASE the editors spent their own money on a stamp and envelope to send me the bad news. Nice of them, eh?
In the first rejection they “really enjoyed … some truly amazing moments.” This rejection they “truly enjoyed [the] reading.” Considering the silence that’s the usual response even to published work, I got a pretty good deal. Two letters claiming to have gotten pleasure from my poems.
