A professor (Carmine Simmons), who taught me some of the best things I know about literature and poetry is (was?) an editor for the mag.
Ever since I picked up one of the journals for myself, I have wanted to see my poetry in it.
I received a rejection letter in the mail a couple of days ago letting me know that they can't accept my poems for publication at this time.
Normally, this wouldn't be such a sad thing for me. I have learned to embrace rejection. Sylvia Plath used to collect rejection slips and I'm thinking of following suit.
So what's the big deal? I tried to check out their website as I usually do, expecting to see the usual names and sample poems that have been published in the journal.
Instead, I saw in its place one of those sites that come up when you misspell a web address. You know, the ones that come up as a shitty white page that claim you can "find what you are looking for here" with "related searches" with links to magazine subscriptions, auto quotes and car insurance.
Confused, I checked to see that I had spelled http://www.goodfootmagazine.com/ correctly.
I had.
I then Googled them to no avail. All I found were online literary sites who linked to the good foot's old website.
I think I know what has happened. They ran out of funding. This is only speculation, but literary magazines come and go because its hard to fund them. They didn't charge for submissions and the journals were quite affordable.
Actually, when I saw this mag being sold in a bookstore I picked volumes 4 and 5 on separate occasions, hoping to do my part in funding for $8.00 a pop.
Perhaps in hind site I should have subscribed for the annual fee of $14.
The magazine was full of great poetry and photography and if it's truly gone then I hate to see it go. If it is gone, consider this a eulogy from someone who was truly touched by the work and the editors who made this magazine such a masterpiece.
If it's not gone and I'm just missing something, please let me know!
