Poetic License?
Poetic License?
OK ... now I have to tell you a sad story and admit to feeling somewhat embarrassed as I tell it. This is about a public exposé of something Karen (cynicalgirl) and I deduced a while back. I write poetry. Several people suggested I submit some of my poems to an online poetry contest. Finally I did and they sent me a letter saying I was a semifinalist. The letter was pretty complimentary and I would be less than honest if I didn't admit to being pleased about it.
I suggested that Karen submit one of her poems. Imagine our surprise when she got the same letter with the same compliments! And the same offer to publish her poem if she bought a book for a special price of $49.95. Imagine our further surprise when we kept getting offers to include our poems on plaques, have them professionally read on CD ROM and various other marketing ploys. How long do you think it took us to realize they weren't interested in our poems as much as in our pocketbooks?
I don't expect to get rich writing poetry, but I don't expect to be exploited either. There are plenty of organizations that actually do promote the work of poets, but the International Library of Poetry is not one of them. The local NBC affiliate recently did an expose of poetry contests run by ILP. They recruited twelve people to submit poems, including a 6-year old girl. Of the twelve poems entered, ten were semifinalists in the monthly competition, including the Ode to a Nose Hair! One of the contestants, who drives the satellite truck for the television station took the ILP up on their offer to publish his poem is their coffee table quality book. He also purchased coffee mugs, T-shirts and other items offered at exorbitant prices by the International Library of Poetry. In all fairness, I must report that they did publish his poem. And they nominated him for poet of the year. All he has to do to find out if he wins is register and attend their national convention. Does he have talent? Is there a future in writing for this poet? You be the judge ... check out his poem.
If you want to see your work published, there are a number of avenues to pursue. You can publish it online here at Xisti, and we won't inundate you with marketing offers. We might even invite you to submit your work for publication in our next volume. But you should beware of offers that are tied to investment in exchange for publication. The ILP site claims to have over 3 million poems online. I find that sad. And I wonder how much money they have siphoned from those people. What they do is not illegal. They do deliver merchandise. I questions the ethics of getting people to submit poetry to a contest they have virtually no chance to win. I guess it just proves that P. T. Barnum was right when he supposedly said "There's a sucker born every minute." Or perhaps it just proves that we are never so susceptible as when someone appeals to our vanity.
Peggy Erickson
05/12/01
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