Nice Rejection?

No updates on the novel today - still working on reading and outlining.  Hopefully I can get some done over the Christmas weekend, we will see.  Anyway, here's an interjectory post about some poetry submissions and rejections, etc.

So, as someone attempting to get some work published, it is often the case that there are rejections involved.  Lots of people have written on the topic, even if talking about more *personal* rejections is generally taboo frowned upon not highly recommended if you want to get published.  Still, it is a fact of life that your work is not always accepted everywhere you send it.  That said, I have, for some time, been sending poetry around the submission circles, and I currently have somewhere between thirty and fifty poems out on submission right now.  As such, you can expect that I have received a few form rejection letters. What I would not have expected, however, was the number of personal rejections that I have gotten.

The most recent one came in the mail yesterday, and was quite curious.  First off, it was from a contest, and I did not win the contest.  The letter was a half-sheet of paper, containing the form rejection part at the top.  However, below the "Thanks again" section, where the signature would ostensibly come, there was another small piece of paper taped on, with some very specific and encouraging words about one of the poems in particular.  So specific, in fact, that I had to go re-read the poem to familiarize myself with the context for the particular comment.

Anyway, suffice it to say, I was happy to see something personal in there, and I am more encouraged to submit back to the same publications that take the time to let me know what they liked and what they did not like, outside the form.  Now back to get the next round of submissions together, ha.

Let me know if you have any thoughts/preferences on rejections: form or personal?