First Poem

#2: ZEN AND THE ART OF REJECTION MANAGEMENT

David Jackson

Your carefully crafted letter

Is scanned by some minimum wage slave,

With a check list that won’t let her

Grant you the interview you crave.

But she hopes that this decision,

Won’t in any way deter

You, from applying for other positions

That in the future might occur.

And those monthly competitions

Where your efforts seem pre-doomed

Where the winners and the short-lists

Seem just aimed at Mills and Boon

And that first time you submitted

Your novel to critical gaze

Though for months you’ve had no answer

They cashed your entry cheque in days

And it all tests your ability,

As rejection follows rejection,

To maintain an inner stability,

To keep calm, not succumb to depression.

And always remember, what you learned in CBT*,

Each time you get rejected, just apply your ABC.*

Footnotes/Glossary:

CBT – Cognitive Behavioural Therapy – a popular counselling technique  ABC – principal tool of CBT – Action, Belief, Consequences – when an action happens (e.g. being rejected), what do you believe it means, and what therefore are the consequences for your feelings and behaviour