Those of us who cherish the book, a thing to hold in the hand, sometimes a literary object that also has visual beauty, find the new world of poetry publishing morphing into something electronic so fast you can almost hear the quarks fizz past.
Tonight I encountered the inevitable consequence of the increasingly new way to submit poems, using online "submission managers." Concomitant with online submitting is getting rejections via email, which means even on your cell phone. Tonight I was having drinks with friends and during a quiet moment in the conversation, checked my email and found a batch of poems had been rejected by a zine. Now, the note was cordial, signed by an editor and all, but I really missed that envelope bringing a piece of paper that had a signature scrawled on it. Maybe if I had to send out all those rejection letters, I'd do it by email too. I'm just thinking, if it can be made a little easier via email, perhaps a little something more personal can be said. Using a little of the time saved.