Publication is the Auction Of the Mind

Publication is the Auction Of the Mind

Publication is an auction where your thoughts stand on a tiny stage, wearing their best verbs, hoping someone raises a hand instead of an eyebrow. Editors are careful bidders—they don’t want noise, they want something that hums after the page is closed.

So polish your poem until it stops squeaking. Cut the extra words—they’re couch cushions hiding lost change. Start strong; no one bids on a whisper that arrives late. Follow the rules of the place you’re sending it—every magazine has its own secret handshake.

Rejection will show up wearing a smug hat. Let it. It’s just practice applause in disguise.

Then send again. And again.

Because somewhere, a reader is already reaching for your line, coin in hand, waiting for you to step into the light.

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This bit of prosery was ekphrastically prompted by the title, which is a line from Emily Dickinson, from The Poems of Emily Dickinson Edited by R. W. Franklin (Harvard University Press, 1999) and those bidders with loose change over at DVerse Poets Pub.

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©2026 Christopher Reilley 

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