Recently, I received a very kind rejection note from a publisher to whom I had sent a copy of SIGHTINGS: Selected Writings (2000-2005) - [title borrowed from Jerome Rothenberg, referencing here the visual quality of the poems and their site-specific quality where written for collaborations].

Here's what the editor had to say:

I've read through your manuscript SIGHTINGS with great interest.

I wish we were publishing as many books as we used to; instead of four a year as previously, however, we are down to three every two years.... SIGHTINGS just isn't at the top of the pile, sorry.

But you have lots of talent and you know how to assemble a provocative and enticing manuscript. Your speculations on language, the visual, gender, and poetic lineage show an original and inquiring thrust of mind. Why wait until you're old and gray before putting together a book of selected poems? It may be daring, but in your case, well worth the effort.

Thanks for sending us the portion of the book. I expect that you won't have a lot of difficulty placing it with another firm that is ready for you now.

I have to say, this was the most compassionate letter I've ever received from an editor in my history of publishing. The reality of small press publishing (and the financial resources needed to actually print a book) weigh in my mind lately, as I begin to contemplate the project of partner-based collective publishing and financial investment in my own work, i.e. alternative models to getting the work out there. Why shouldn't I invest in my own work? Why indeed wait until old and gray? What difference do age and experience hold - i.e. what difference do these aspects make in giving me "credit" in the "bank" of poetry? Who is ready for my work now? I am ready for my work now. And where there is will, there is a way.