[stylist] Advice to Poets

[John Lee Clark]

Dear friends:

I don't know if you are familiar with the found poem.  A found poem is a
poem made up of quotes and lines from different writers, different sources,
almost like a collage of cut out images from magazines but which makes up a
coherent whole.

Well, I made a found poem which I call "Advice to Poets."  Except for the
very last part, all of the lines are drawn from editors' comments found in
the 2003 Poet's Market.  Many editors would explain what they were looking
for, what they liked and what they didn't like, and they'd also offer bits
of advice.  Most of the advice is quite good.

The found poem is below my name. Eenjoy!

John

Advice to Poets

Gather round, my children.  
Oh, come closer. Closer, 
don’t be shy. Okay,
scoot back, that’s too close.
Now listen closely 
as there’s something 
uncle Sammy wants to tell you.  

Billy, get those fingers out 
of your ears and listen.  
I’d like to give you a little advice 
about submissions. Submission
etiquette goes a long way. 
Please learn to type. 
Remember to spell check your work
and always be courteous 
to the publisher.

Do not send work apt to be accepted 
by the multitudinous 
valentine and academic 
journals and presses 
that clog up the piping 
of the nation’s bowels.
Send poetry that you believe in, 
not something you just scribbled 
on a napkin. A poem
must have a reason for existence, 
some universal tendril.

Please let your work make sense.  
Random images, navel-gazing, 
and intentional obscurity usually 
don’t work. Turn off the Internet!
Surf through a book of poetry.  
Read, read, read!  
Write, write, write!  
Revise, revise, revise!  
A matter of vision 
is often a matter of revision.

Don’t expect miracles overnight.  
Practice makes imperfection 
and imperfection makes room 
for the amazing. Hit me
with your best shot. Knock
the neon striped toe socks off 
my feet! Fear no art—stretch.

Take advice. Never offer 
yourself excuses. Go beyond
yourself. Feel strongly;
then write. Write as if
your life depends on it . . . 

and I say as if,
write only as if
your life depends on it
because it doesn't.
 

[Found in the 2003 Poet’s Market, from the editors of The Idiot, Bathtub
Gin, Creative Juices, Sensations Magazine, The American Dissident, Feelings
of the Heart, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, The Third Half, The
William and Mary Review, Words of Wisdom, The New Renaissance, Skylight
Literary Magazine, LUNGFULL!, Insects Are People Two, Stray Dog, Soul
Fountain, Thorny Locust, Psychodyssey, Long Island Quarterly, Crazyhorse,
and half of the advice from the eidotors of Chapultepec Press before I add
my own words in italics.]


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