A. D. Winans
Trade off
when I was publishing
Second Coming Magazine/Press
I would get telephone calls from
poets at all hours of the day and night
some of the callers had high pitched voices
some were near hysterical
so much so that I could barely understand
a word they said
some wanted me to publish them
some were angry because
I had not published them
some male poets were willing to barter
promising me a reading
with a big name poet
at a benefit reading they were doing
some female poets were willing
to share my bed for a night or two
all for publishing a single poem
these poets all had one thing in common
they didn’t seem to place much value
on their work or themselves
they complained that the grants were rigged
they blamed the establishment
for their lack of success
not one of them blamed themselves
most of them had never worked
a blue collar job
seeing poetry as a holy thing
too holy to dirty one’s hands
if these poets had spent half
as much time writing
as they did complaining
they might have produced
a good poem or two
I never published these poets
in Second Coming
but with the passing of time
I would see their names in print
and sooner or later
I’d see the name of the
editor/publisher appearing
in a magazine edited by one
of these very same poets
many years have passed
but I notice the game
has not changed that much
only the names of the
players are different
Page(s) 15-16
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The