Every poem deserves a decent read-through. Once. Twice. Three times. In a perfect world there would be communication between poet and editor after the read-through. But this is a rarity. Why?
Because our world isn't perfect
Because first readers often reject your poetry before editors read it
Because editors are busy people
Because publishing is a business
yes, no, maybe is an insider's look at developing your craft, a view into what editors look for in a poem, and a sometimes painful examination of why poems are rejected. Most importantly, yes, no, maybe is a tool to help you find a home for your poems.
Because our world isn't perfect
Because first readers often reject your poetry before editors read it
Because editors are busy people
Because publishing is a business
yes, no, maybe is an insider's look at developing your craft, a view into what editors look for in a poem, and a sometimes painful examination of why poems are rejected. Most importantly, yes, no, maybe is a tool to help you find a home for your poems.
Brilliant or Simply Fragmented?
When I was living in Eugene, Oregon, my poetry group became fascinated with fragmentation. As the world suffered from warmer temperatures, plastic gyres in the ocean and with still another unnecessary war, our personal lives mirrored this fragmentation. We used our discordant feelings to write differently, to allow ourselves to experiment with staccato lines and abstract stanzas. We all bought and voraciously read, American Hybrid, the anthology of experimental poetry.
With ultimate freedom, I wrote some of my best work. Or at least I thought I had. Coming back to those poems I recognize the joy I felt in not having rules or in breaking the rules. What I did not consider was my reader. Did she follow from one wild stanza to another or walk away from the confusion? Because I was lost in a mystery of my own making, leaping from image to image, did my reader give up and look for something else to read? Most people were reading Mary Oliver and I was writing like Neil Gaiman. Although a seasoned reader might stick with my poem, someone nervous about poetry would not.
In defense of fragmented or experimental poems, I find it thrilling when I come across poems where the poet has flung tradition to the wind and written exactly what she intended to write. If well-written, the unexpected poem is exciting. My one hope is that the poem has substantial content and is not just wordplay. Although wordplay can be exciting, too.
Ask yourself if your poem looks like a poem. If it doesn't, the poem on the page may represent something new and/or disturbing. Literature often interprets chaos by developing new forms. Fears associated with a worldwide pandemic or war may require a literary counterpart that mimics our thoughts. Some poets choose more structure, more control to reign in their anxiety. Others use the hybrid poem to express their distress.
I have heard poets defend their complicated poems as if someone has told them their newborn is homely. They may name the newborn:
interesting
intellectual
experimental
or brilliant
They may accuse the reader of being too ignorant to see their beautiful creation. Ultimately, insulting your reader is never a good thing. And if he or she cannot follow your thoughts, no matter how successful you consider your creation, will your reader or an editor see your brainchild as worthy of her time?
An editor who is confused by your word usage or your flights of imagination is most likely not going to stick around to ask what you meant. Your poem won’t be seen as mysterious, but difficult. No one, especially busy editors, wants to read a poem three or four times to understand the poet’s meaning. It is your job to clean up any mystery, preferably in your cover letter, so the editor understands that you intentionally wrote a challenging poem. Let your editor know that you used numbers instead of letters, four spaces between stanzas, diagrams, and white space purposely.
If you have written a wildly different poem, series of poems, or a book manuscript you believe in, one that says exactly what you wanted it to say in the way you wanted to say it, be your bravest self and send your work off. One more suggestion: Do your research and submit your experimental work to journals who are not afraid to publish hybrid poems. Once you’ve established yourself as an experimental poet, as someone who interprets the world differently, publication will become more frequent.
And . . . Be honest with yourself. Is your work experimental AND comprehensible, or are you tempting fate by sending out work editors will swiftly reject?
All poetry is experimental poetry. Wallace Stevens
Colette Jonopulos
April 12, 2022
Photo: 95 Poems by E E Cummings - First Edition 1958 - Vintage Book, Poetry, 1950s
When I was living in Eugene, Oregon, my poetry group became fascinated with fragmentation. As the world suffered from warmer temperatures, plastic gyres in the ocean and with still another unnecessary war, our personal lives mirrored this fragmentation. We used our discordant feelings to write differently, to allow ourselves to experiment with staccato lines and abstract stanzas. We all bought and voraciously read, American Hybrid, the anthology of experimental poetry.
With ultimate freedom, I wrote some of my best work. Or at least I thought I had. Coming back to those poems I recognize the joy I felt in not having rules or in breaking the rules. What I did not consider was my reader. Did she follow from one wild stanza to another or walk away from the confusion? Because I was lost in a mystery of my own making, leaping from image to image, did my reader give up and look for something else to read? Most people were reading Mary Oliver and I was writing like Neil Gaiman. Although a seasoned reader might stick with my poem, someone nervous about poetry would not.
In defense of fragmented or experimental poems, I find it thrilling when I come across poems where the poet has flung tradition to the wind and written exactly what she intended to write. If well-written, the unexpected poem is exciting. My one hope is that the poem has substantial content and is not just wordplay. Although wordplay can be exciting, too.
Ask yourself if your poem looks like a poem. If it doesn't, the poem on the page may represent something new and/or disturbing. Literature often interprets chaos by developing new forms. Fears associated with a worldwide pandemic or war may require a literary counterpart that mimics our thoughts. Some poets choose more structure, more control to reign in their anxiety. Others use the hybrid poem to express their distress.
I have heard poets defend their complicated poems as if someone has told them their newborn is homely. They may name the newborn:
interesting
intellectual
experimental
or brilliant
They may accuse the reader of being too ignorant to see their beautiful creation. Ultimately, insulting your reader is never a good thing. And if he or she cannot follow your thoughts, no matter how successful you consider your creation, will your reader or an editor see your brainchild as worthy of her time?
An editor who is confused by your word usage or your flights of imagination is most likely not going to stick around to ask what you meant. Your poem won’t be seen as mysterious, but difficult. No one, especially busy editors, wants to read a poem three or four times to understand the poet’s meaning. It is your job to clean up any mystery, preferably in your cover letter, so the editor understands that you intentionally wrote a challenging poem. Let your editor know that you used numbers instead of letters, four spaces between stanzas, diagrams, and white space purposely.
If you have written a wildly different poem, series of poems, or a book manuscript you believe in, one that says exactly what you wanted it to say in the way you wanted to say it, be your bravest self and send your work off. One more suggestion: Do your research and submit your experimental work to journals who are not afraid to publish hybrid poems. Once you’ve established yourself as an experimental poet, as someone who interprets the world differently, publication will become more frequent.
And . . . Be honest with yourself. Is your work experimental AND comprehensible, or are you tempting fate by sending out work editors will swiftly reject?
All poetry is experimental poetry. Wallace Stevens
Colette Jonopulos
April 12, 2022
Photo: 95 Poems by E E Cummings - First Edition 1958 - Vintage Book, Poetry, 1950s
Your voice is wild and simple.
You are untranslatable
Into any one tongue.
― Anna Akhmatova, The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova
You are untranslatable
Into any one tongue.
― Anna Akhmatova, The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova
