Submisssions

Try not to eat your words though. It may have been acceptable practice or practise back in the day but with the advent of ebooks on laptops and mobile phones you might get a bit of a shock. And don't be fooled by the Apple brand into thinking it's also a tasty snack. Many a tooth has been lost by that sort of wishful thinking.

Hello Denzella---writing poetry is very subjective. And so difficult to critique, since poets are very sensitive. We think every word uttered by our precious lips and working its way to print is priceless. Ha. My short term advice is to Google Literary Magazines, and top 50 poetry magazines and read, read, read, read, read. Their guidelines should answer your questions on submissions to them. I suggest you post your brilliant finished poem on your ABC site and send to a publisher at the same time (too many take six months to a year to get back to you). However, never copy someone's else's style; develop your own niche. Most poets do not read other people's writing. True. Most poets do not purchase another person's poetry book. True. So why do we write? This would make an excellent post subject for those willing to reply to that question. I write because I must, and every poem I write is the absolute best I can do with the theme being worked on. In the past editors often berated me for writing Nature Poetry. Imagine. Most of my 200-300 single poems published in poetry journals, in print and online are about Nature. Many editors don't have a clue. True. So don't let any editor who gives, not helpful remarks but nasty comments, like 'this is a poem?' the time of day with further submissions. My career in social services brought me into contact with almost every conceivable foible and limitation of human existence. Yet, I discovered within the mess of broken dreams, a passion for survival by my clients. Thus, my writing is a combination of nature and contemporary issues. I try to elevate those forgotten or overlooked circumstances, and to remind any interested reader, life is still worthwhile. My surviving from a stroke in 1999 accentuates my thoughts in this area. Experimentation with your writing is also wise in order to flex word muscles. And always use the dictionary and thesaurus; such useful tools, not for discovering fancy words but to express the same thing in a new creative way. Now get to work and have fun while doing it. Richard L. Provencher