is it arrogant, elitist or a form of censorship for an editor of a publication to pass judgment on any type of submission including poetry? NO. it’s their job. There are many different things an editor can look at in making that judgment.. much of it is subjective. Some care more about subject matter and message vs clarity, word choice, grammar, line breaks, etc- while some are very strict about what they’re looking for in that regard. My own definition of shitty poetry is lazy poetry. It used to annoy me to no end when other poets would tell me you need to read, read, read and find your voice if you want to write good poetry. Basically, because I’m lazy. And here i’ll throw myself under a bus and give you an example of shitty poetry…

http://homepages.which.net/~panic.brixtonpoetry/mcdann.htm

years ago when I decided to get serious about writing poetry, I wrote to these people and begged them to take that shit down. I received no response and now i’m glad. It serves as a reminder of what can happen when you think you know it all without bothering to educate yourself in the least bit. If you don’t know what you like, what you’re going for… how do you figure out how to get there?

The extent of my exposure to poetry at that point had been in the form of song lyrics (mostly Metallica and Guns n Roses), Edgar Allen Poe (I slept through the Shakespeare unit in High School) and the one poetry book I found at the local library- Joyce Carol Oates. I know i’ve said before that they had a copy of a bukowski book but now that I think on that more, someone gave me that book. One of my weirdo friends who wrote death, die skull teen angsty poetry who truthfully was probably just trying to get laid. (no comment)

I don’t know if those people at panic poetry really liked those poems or if they were just publishing anything and everything that came in. Point is.. that first publication wet my appetite. I ordered a copy of Poet’s Market, looked up everything I could online and ordered a bunch of crap journals. The only one I remember liking even slightly was Spinning Jenny and it still wasn’t what I was looking for. I joined a critique group online (gimme a break, I live in Jacksonville). THAT is when the real work began. It took me a while to find a small group of people on that site who were doing stuff that was interesting to me and that would respectfully challenge my writing beyond the “this is some weird stuff” comment. That went on for about a year and in that time my writing changed drastically. Then one of those people suggested I check out Zygote, Indite Circle, Remark Poetry and My Favorite Bullet. Jeezus, I felt like I hit the mother load. I became a greedy, greedy reader. Following links from one publication to the next and searching out publications listed in author’s bios. My idea of what I want and like to read in a poem continues to change to some degree but there is a baseline i’m working from. My own writing, I hope, will continue to grow and change. And at least I realize not everything I write should be sent out for publication (you’re welcome.). I’m sure you’ve heard before that in the end, we’re writing for ourselves. Have to be happy with our own work. It’s true. But if you don’t have any basis for making that judgment.. you’re more than likely to just be sending out shitty poetry.

The other point I wanted to make about shitty (lazy) poetry submissions… is inappropriateness. When you don’t bother to read a current issue, back issues, mission statements, about page, submission guidelines… nothin. I understand the want to challenge the editors within their guidelines but why ignore them? You must have more time than I do. After all that reading and submitting, I realized a couple things. 1. you can get anything published somewhere. This is not always a good thing but you can if that’s what you’re into. There’s room for everything. Opinions are like assholes. 2. you can ignore the guidelines and the bent of any particular publisher, just don’t get all pissy when they reject your work and go on to use big words like “censorship”. It just proves how lazy you are. I’ve learned plenty of other things but it’s off point and involves me calling people bad names.

I think in general the definition of censorship is an individual or group actively trying to push their idea of appropriate, moral, good etc on anyone else. Regardless of their intent. It’s a little bit different but worth discussing the idea of self-censorship. So an editor or a publication will not publish work because they view it as racist, sexist, homophobic, whatever. Is that a form of self-censorship? Sure. Do I defend their right to do it, absolutely. Just don’t tell me or my publication what we have the right to publish. But let’s be honest and I think this is especially important in the independent small press.. what one person would deem racist, sexist or homophobic- another would not. That is a judgment call. The simple fact of including the words nigger or cunt in a poem is enough for some people to call it racist or sexist. For others it goes more to intent and the promotion of hate or domination of any one group. And there’s a time and place for everything. If i’m looking at something for red fez, I wouldn’t say I would err on the side of ‘safe’ but I would be more likely to reject a submission if it’s clear to me that the author is a douche racist. If I was in charge of Citizens Online (which i’m not), I would have to spend a little more time looking at it. Is it good writing? What’s the intent, etc. and yet still, that kind of talk bothers me sooo much that I would probably impose self-censorship unless the poem is so extreme that it would be obvious to the average person that it is complete ridiculous bullshit. That being said, rules are made to be broken. I have a poem that will be published soon that uses some of those ‘bad’ words. I tried to make it obvious that people who hold those words up and use them in a certain way are retarded (oops, another non-PC word) but i’m sure it will still piss some people off. It’s all good. Just don’t threaten the publisher with a lawsuit or death threats if they don’t take it down… that’s Censorship.