SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
NOTE: the Poetry Revolt will have a special section for satire and humorous poems.


Not for the Poetry Revolt:

• a muted, distant tone, a stance of confusion and bewilderment
  
  
• "wonder" poems expressing bafflement about things in nature, reality, etc. where the poet cannot figure out what is happening as the light dwindles, things fade, fly off, or disappear . . .
  
  
• disjunction, incomprehensibility, surrealism
  
  
• themes of disconnection, distancing, remoteness, derealization
  
  
• long clusters of painstakingly observed details: leaves, raindrops, dust, gravel, etc.
  
  
• explorations of the unknowability of nature, reality, stuff you see. (The journals love these so why waste them on us?)
  
  
• elliptical poems. Please send poems on nominalism, nihilism, and numbed clueless contemplation of the vertiginous abyss to academic journals.
  
  
• explanations of what the poem just said, e. g. "He snarled as he spoke to the old man. He hated him."
  
  
• repetition. Feel free to develop and deepen--we do not consider excessive conciseness a virtue--but do not restate.

Poems the Revolt yearns for:

• experiences that are vivid, intense or--yes!--hyperreal:
  
  
  Little poppies, little hell-flames
  Do you do no harm?
  -- Poppies in July, Sylvia Plath,
  
  
  We hear our hearts grate on themselves
  -- Sonnet 48, Gerard Manley Hopkins
  
  
• poems that dramatize a need, threat, dilemma, paradox, emotion, conflict, or visual scene, aesthetic experience, philosophical quandary, etc.
  
  
• poetic surprise, unexpected twists, originality, daring
  
  
  Lark drives invisible pitons in the air
  And hauls itself up the face of space.
  Mouse stops being comma and clockworks on the floor.
  -- Movements, Norman MacCaigs
  
  
• a lively, responsive tone, and a strong persona
  
  
• a fairly swift and above all dynamic progression, driving the poem forward (e.g. Kay Ryan, Syvia Plath, GM Hopkins)
  
  
• poems that "do something with language"--using the sounds rhythms and associations of words to enrich meaning
  
  
• poems that are musical and rhythmic, and that use assonance and rhyme (not necessarily end rhyme, but that's cool, too.)
  
  
• mockery, ferocity, wit, and satire are welcome, though not required.
  
  
• we love lyrics, narratives, elegies, threnodies, fables--and we would welcome light verse and social and political satire.

How To Submit
The Poetry Revolt accepts only poetry. Each individual poem should be under three pages in length. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome throughout the year. We accept simultaneous submissions.

We are currently accepting submissions for the Fall issue.

Poems that depart from the Guidelines will not be accepted.

Send between 1 and 4 poems in the body of one email message to poetryrevolt@aol.com. The subject line should be:

SUBMISSION: your name, the number of poems submitted.

Please include a few lines of biography, and the certification statement that appears below. Copy the following text into the email after your poems:

I certify that I am the author of these unpublished poems, and that should one or more pieces be selected for publication, I will grant PoetryRevolt the right of first publication and I will cite PoetryRevolt as the place of first publication. All copyrights revert back to the author upon publication.

NOTE: please be sure to add our email address (poetryrevolt@aol.com) to your spam blocker software so that you can receive email from us.