Stephen–too bad you can’t tell Dixie to send some of the backlog over to us . . .

If you see part of your mission as educating both readers and poets as to what good poetry might be, perhaps you might consider an ongoing feature where a strong poem is published with a much earlier (and weaker) draft. Accompany this with either commentary from the poet as to why the final version is stronger, what changes were made, and why. This helps demystify the writing and revision process while simultaneously creating more interest in the individual poets (which is never a bad thing).

If your submission volume is still small and manageable, take time to offer a little constructive feedback for the poems which come close, but don’t quite succeed. When I first started Boxcar Poetry Review (www.boxcarpoetry.com), I would write a personal response for almost every rejection I sent out, taking time to point out which poem(s) were close, what I had liked about them, and where things didn’t seem to work out in the end. I hoped that doing so would help poets glimpse our journal’s vision and goals. I made a decision never to compromise on quality, regardless of who sent me work. So, despite having submissions from well-known poets, if the work wasn’t up to par, I still said no. If the work was strong, but the poet were unknown, I’d publish them. In the end, it was the work that was most important. Set a high bar and people will respect it.

Good luck with Segullah!

Poetry is important. I know that. The best is as good as prayer to me.

Logan Lamech
http://www.eloquentbooks.com/LingeringPoets.html

So do you know whether you are you receiving lots of high-quality submissions? I wonder if Sunstone gets more than we do because of longevity, or whether the same poets are contributing over time, or what.

Emily, you’re so good at helping poets improve!

The on-line workshop might be a good thing. At AML, we used to sponsor a writer’s conference, but we’ve discontinued it for several reasons, one of which is that other organizations are having writer’s conferences here and we felt we were not offering anything that the others weren’t offering. An on-line workshop is a different thing, and is even different than what’s happening at nauvoo.com. Worth pondering.

I’m still hoping to hear from Stephen and Kristine and Benjamin about poetry in their publications.

I think a good place for you to start revising this would be to take a few of your abstract words and brainstorm concrete, specific images for them. Take “alone.” What does alone feel like, sound like, taste like, smell like, etc.? Write a few fresh, new images for each abstract word. Then go back and incorporate them into your poem.

Then take that version, and show it to someone, and incorporate those comments too. Revise and repeat. Several drafts later, you’ll have a poem that helps the reader experience all the powerful feeling that made you want to write the poem in the first place.

I teach a writing workshop for my ward’s Enrichment program, and I had the women do this exercise. It was very successful–it helped them see the difference between abstract ideas and concrete images. It’s impossible for readers to experience vague meanings until they are tied down to specifics in some way.

It’s also important to realize that the way the poem first comes out is hardly ever how it ends up. Revision, over and over, is what will turn your writing into something great.

Have fun with the revising, and keep writing!

My question is- Does a workshop need to specifically focus on helping Mormon women? If I were to attend any old poetry workshop would the empathetic ear be available for such a “peculiar” sub-genre? Is there a need for outreach to Mormon women who want to be creative but, like me are scared of poetry? Is this a specific voice that needs to be heard from more often?