A Letter from the Editor

[Ali Znaidi]

Dear [anonymous submitter],

 

Thank you for your latest submission titled “A Rose.”

 

After giving it some reads, my nose has not smelled any scent in your piece.

 

Let me just remind you that it is the embryo inside the dark womb that keeps reminding the hopeless soul to stick to the dream of life, and to believe in the future because the embryo persistently wages peaceful wars inside the womb to one day smiles to the world. It is this story that keeps reminding the poet to wage wars on the paper, language, and thought and to dream of that poem that hasn’t yet been written.

 

I notice that your poem is just a compilation of beautiful words and well-written sentences, but they lack that sparkle, which reminds me of a house built with polished stones without any design.

 

Do you get it when you are in a bus stop beside a beautiful woman whose fragrance just lingers in your nose after going away?

[Ali Znaidi]

Mike: Thank you for alerting me to that mistake! As you know inattentiveness happens. 

[Ali Znaidi]

Cita, Bill, Gita, and Mike: Many thanks for your comments.

[Cita]

Damn.  And here I just wrote a "nice diversion" to quote B. Floyd.  Glad I read this, though.

[Bill Floyd]

It would be a thoughtful editor indeed who would send this instead of a form letter.  But you've captured the reason many of our stories lack the depth to become truly meaningful rather than simply nice diversions, and I love the comparison to a beautiful woman and her scent.  

Top notch.

[Gita]

I hope I never receive this in the mail. But I enjoyed reading it here, very much, and all the more so because English isn't your first language.  This really struck me as the best analogy for pretty but pointless writing: a house built with polished stones without any design.

[Mike Handley]

Should be "whose" vs. "whom her," but this is otherwise outstanding. Writers of both prose and poetry should take note.