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  #11  
Unread 09-11-2021, 06:07 PM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is offline
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Cameron, it's been a very respected journal for years, one of the best that routinely publishes poems and translations using rhyme and meter. If they stopped doing so, it would be a loss to those of us who write that kind of stuff.
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  #12  
Unread 09-11-2021, 07:39 PM
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Maryann Corbett Maryann Corbett is offline
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That E.R. doesn't focus on form is not something new. I can remember discussions here from quite a few years back lamenting that it was not easy to get formal poems taken there. I suspect, but can't prove, that the guideline being quoted dates from the time when Measure and Evansville Review were both run out of U. of Evansville and it was useful to keep the two missions distinct.
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  #13  
Unread 09-11-2021, 10:41 PM
Julie Steiner Julie Steiner is offline
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I always find it amusing when editors think that poets who submit mediocre work know that it's mediocre, and will keep it to themselves after a stern scolding to send only their best work.

Isn't it more likely that the poets about whom they are passive-aggressively complaining actually did submit their best work, and it was still crap?

Last edited by Julie Steiner; 09-11-2021 at 10:44 PM.
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  #14  
Unread 09-12-2021, 05:37 AM
John Isbell John Isbell is offline
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Julie, that is sad and pithy and hilarious. I also think, based on my personal case, that various poets may have trouble telling their good work from their bad work - it's hard to step outside the poem into the reader's mind. Maybe our very best work, though, is easier to spot.

Cheers,
John
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  #15  
Unread 09-12-2021, 07:10 AM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is offline
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I wonder if they prefer the best work of a bad poet over the second-best work of a good poet?
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  #16  
Unread 09-12-2021, 09:54 AM
Matt Q Matt Q is offline
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Julie,

People do send their second-best out knowing its not their best, and oftentimes they send it places which they think aren't as good -- or prestigious -- as the places they send their best poems to. Somewhere in Eratosphericals, someone says of a magazine something along the lines of, "It's OK, but I wouldn't send my best stuff there".

That's why, I think, for a magazine to need to say "only send your best work" might be seen to imply something about that magazine -- that they're the sort of magazine that tends not to attract people's best stuff, for example -- as I think Sarah is saying in her post.

Last edited by Matt Q; 09-12-2021 at 09:59 AM.
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  #17  
Unread 09-12-2021, 10:07 AM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is offline
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But some poets' second best poems are far superior to other poets' best poems. And it makes no sense to say that a poem cannot be truly excellent just because the poet also happens to have written even better poems.
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  #18  
Unread 09-12-2021, 11:43 AM
Matt Q Matt Q is offline
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I'm not sure poets whose second best poems are truly excellent are the sort of poets who are sending poems to the sort of mag that says, "please only send your best poems".

But yes, it's a fairly pointless message, though that doesn't mean it doesn't communicate something, intentionally or otherwise.

In the UK, people selling things in small ads / classified ads, often put "no timewasters", i.e., don't come and look at the second-hand washing machine I'm trying to sell unless you really want to buy one. I think the intent here is similar, though the hint of physical threat or verbal abuse should you waste said seller's time is absent.
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  #19  
Unread 09-12-2021, 12:25 PM
Julie Steiner Julie Steiner is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt Q View Post
But yes, it's a fairly pointless message, though that doesn't mean it doesn't communicate something, intentionally or otherwise.
Yes, and I think John is right in his original post in this thread.

Frankly, I appreciate the editors' having taken the time and trouble to post a pre-emptive "Meh...strict form is not really our thing, although we might make occasional exceptions." Especially if it's a publication that only comes out once a year (if that), and might tie up a good poem for ages, only to reject it.
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