So, I've been reading submission guidelines while I search for places to home my poetry. A lot of them leave me scratching my head.
"We want poetry that makes our heart go POW and our head pop off the stem of our neck spouting blood like a geyser. We want work that zings our strings and causes a rabid dog to bay at the moon. Send us work that has the diversity of fungal infected wildflowers and the factory installed parts of a slightly used car. Come whiffling through the tulgey wood, and burble as you come, with thematic intent."
WTF?
All I really want to know is whether the magazine wants free verse, forms, more traditional, prose poems, experimental, or political. Do they consider rhyming poetry? Non-traditional? Edgy? Short? Long? Tattooed on your left hand? How can you tailor your work to the magazine when you can't decipher the code? Back issues don't always help.
I'll take utterly clueless for $500, Alex.
Maybe my poetry magazine to poet translator is busted.
Maybe I'm getting old.
Maybe I should stick to writing fantasy.
Maybe I just throw my poetry at the submissions wall and see what sticks. Yep, I like this option.
(And when I do find a place for my work)—
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
She chortled in her joy.
