I\u2019d assumed there would be enough very good poems to force some really difficult choices.\u00a0 That hasn\u2019t happened yet, though there are enough to make me open every folderful with interest and in hope.<\/p>\n
This may be because of the way we choose poems.\u00a0 We read and read, every now and then accepting a poem, until we\u2019ve got enough for the next issue of the magazine.\u00a0 The winter issue is starting to fill up.\u00a0 So soon there may be a race between poems and time.\u00a0 It could go either way: we might have to turn down a few poems we like a lot because the magazine\u2019s almost full, or accept a few we\u2019re less sure of because it\u2019s time to get the issue out.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rialto-poem-folders-1024x7683-300x225.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
I\u2019d assumed there would be some imitation-Wordsworth and neo-Georgian poetry.\u00a0 There\u2019s very little of either.\u00a0 Maybe those who would have written it are no longer here.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s fairly easy to tell from a submission what generation the writer belongs to, sometimes not.\u00a0 Not that I try to tell – it’s one of the many signals a poem can give out.\u00a0 (There\u2019s more to say another time on who is sending in.)<\/p>\n
Reading the poems is very enjoyable.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t assume that.\u00a0 I was afraid of getting depressed by the sheer weight of poetry, and possibly also by its quality.\u00a0 Instead, I\u2019m amazed and drawn in by the variety; the amount of thought, craft and creativity that\u2019s out there.\u00a0 Also, I know what it feels like to print off some poems, address and seal the envelope, walk to the letter-box, take the next and irrevocable step\u2026<\/p>\n
Most poems are in free verse.\u00a0 The best show skill and a knowledge of contemporary poetry.\u00a0 They fly \u2013 take off in form and language, make new.\u00a0 Others are competently written.\u00a0 Quite a lot have not been worked on enough.\u00a0 Some read like diaries or postcards, with flat linebreaks that tend to go automatically with the syntax and do nothing to give the poem music or pace.\u00a0 Some are inchoate.<\/p>\n
Specificity makes a connection with the reader.\u00a0 Abstractions \/ generalised descriptions have to be earned; and made new. \u00a0All roads lead to Ezra Pound.\u00a0 This passage is to remind me, as both editor and writer, never mind anyone else:<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t retell in mediocre verse what has already been done in good prose. Don\u2019t think any intelligent person is going to be deceived when you try to shirk all the difficulties of the unspeakably difficult art of good prose by chopping your composition into line lengths.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Against this background, striking subject-matter stands out, though if the poem hasn\u2019t found its form etc then it won\u2019t prosper.\u00a0 What\u2019s important is often less the subject than getting a good angle on it; and making form, music, tone, language, metaphor all work together for take-off.\u00a0 I said \u2018often\u2019, because of course sometimes the subject matter is so original and\/or engaging that it plays a part in a poem\u2019s success.\u00a0 I can now see why poems with unusual content often win competitions.<\/p>\n
By the way, The Rialto<\/em> gets sent plenty of bird poems, maybe chosen for bird-watcher Michael Mackmin, a few of which fly straight into the magazine.\u00a0 I\u2019ve only seen two cat poems so far, maybe for the same reason.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s interesting to see whether the poems in a submission are similar or different in form.\u00a0 Sameness (except when it has a purpose, as in a series) can<\/em> mean that the writer has a default mode and is not challenging him\/herself.\u00a0 That\u2019s a broad generalisation with many exceptions \u2013 the writer may have found a golden vein of form to exploit.<\/p>\n
Since the two calibration exercises described in my last post, Michael has given Abigail Parry and me our own sets of poems, from which we\u2019re bringing shortlisted ones to a meeting, with a view to reducing the backlog.\u00a0 To start with I read everything twice, with a gap in between \u2013 conscious that this was a luxury Michael, who gets dozens of submissions every week, couldn\u2019t afford.<\/p>\n
Now, for the first time, I\u2019m reading most submissions once only.\u00a0 Then interesting and borderline ones a second time, and a third\/fourth\/fifth if necessary.\u00a0 (By the way, we are now reading poems that arrived in August, though Michael is still going through a few from May.)<\/p>\n
I suppose this means I\u2019ve gained confidence, which should be on the basis of having learnt something\u2026\u00a0 After reading a lot, it\u2019s easier (or at least, I think it is) to identify what stands out: is original, truly interesting and engaging; creates its own space on the page, and inhabits it; takes off.\u00a0 I\u2019ve learnt not to judge a submission from the poem on top, because there may be a better one lower down.\u00a0 And points of detail from Michael, for example: if a poem has a quote as an epigraph, it mustn\u2019t need to lean on the quote in order to stand up.\u00a0 I\u2019ve also learnt from Michael \u2013 who\u2019ll say at a meeting, That\u2019s enough \u2013 to stop reading submissions as soon as my concentration level starts to fall.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m still haunted by a short, quiet poem that Michael spotted back in September when the three of us were all reading the same set of poems.\u00a0 It had passed me by.\u00a0 How many others have, or will?<\/p>\n
Fiona Moore<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I opened the first yellow cardboard folder full of poems, I had no idea what I\u2019d find.\u00a0 That is still the case, though now I can make some guesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5920,"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776\/revisions\/5920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therialto.co.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}