The Poem Nobody Wanted

One of the first books I ever read was called Jason: The Dog Nobody Wanted.  It was a good book.That's the inspiration for this blog post's title.

I'm getting very sick of the dismissive attitude towards poetry in our culture. (Yes, I see the irony in returning to this theme after the last post.) Our society honours the great poetry of the past but gives no platform to new poetry (unless it's ghettoized in open mic nights and the like). It's a similar attitude to that of people who want organized religion to be there but never bother turning up at church, except for Christmas and rites of passage.

Magazines, newspapers and publishers who don't publish original poetry, or only a minuscule amount, are hypocritical when they quarry classic poetry for titles, allusions, themes and literary prestige. None of those classic poems would have ever reached an audience these days.

I've decided to pick one of my poems and send it to as many magazines, newspapers, websites, radio channels, and anything else I can think of, to see how many rejections I will rack up. I will send it whether or not they "accept poetry". Being ignored counts as a rejection.

The poem is a sonnet called Author and Reader. I can't post it here, because I want to submit it as a hitherto unpublished work. But I'm happy to email it to whoever wants to read it. It's no great shakes, but at least it makes sense, rhymes and scans... something that can't be claimed for most poetry today.

Why am I doing this? To prove a point, for a lark, as a protest, to perform a feat.... something along those lines.

Wish me luck...bad or good, either will serve my purpose. (If it is published, at least I've pushed against the tide.)