Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

Several of the communications we have received recently had a stamp on the envelope from which the face of Dracula glared out. We trust this has no sinister significance. Editing is a curious business. Strange but interesting. Some of the letters we receive are very businesslike, some very personal and friendly, some idiosyncratic, some even apologetic for taking up our time. In each case, of course, we are aware that there is a person at the other end of the communication. The fact that we are selecting means that we are going to say no to some of those people. It isn’t a very pleasant thing to have to do.

Even more difficult is something we have mentioned before. Poems may have unorthodox punctuation. The use of commas, for example, can be unusual. It’s not always clear when the unorthodox is intentional and it is a delicate matter trying to decide whether to suggest a change. Sometimes the omission of a comma or other punctuation mark is clearly unintentional and we may take the liberty of correcting the omission without asking. Mostly we leave things as they are. Similar problems may arise with matters of grammar. More difficult are those occasions when we feel an excellent poem would benefit from a slight alteration or a little pruning. It’s not often we would have the cheek to suggest such alterations and, when we do, it is with no little trepidation that we contact the poet. After all who are we to make such suggestions?

Another strange thing, resulting perhaps from having so many poems to read, is that a poem may strike us in a very different way on a different day. Sometimes, indeed, the force of a poem which has escaped us on one day, may jump out at us on another.

However, despite the worries, putting the magazine together is very rewarding in the end. We trust you will enjoy this one as you appear to have enjoyed previous issues.