Who Are We?

The short answer, the one you might want to hear is, we are poets, we’ve been there, we know how it is and what we like. What that means in terms of a new magazine is, we will try to be fair minded, open and receptive to ideas and input from people who treat us in a like manner. Submissions will be replied to, hopefully in an expeditious manner, but we aren’t making any grand, final promises we might not live up to as to when that will be. Quickly is the goal, as within a couple of weeks.

While we know what we like, how we go about doing the writing thing, we don’t claim to have all the answers or the final word on what writing is all about, or life either.  No one died and appointed any of us Elvis. We are all, basically, down to earth, intelligent people with a sense of humor, just the way you are.

We will read poems that have been published in print journals but don’t want to receive batches of old poems recycled under the guise of never-been-published stuff. If you printed the poem in Wordsworth’s Socks in 1987, please says so and we will give the editors credits. And yes, Virginia, there was a magazine named Wordsworth Socks, and there are still copies of it in the archives.  You might be surprised how comprehensive the archives are. We said we were poets, and that means, extensively published poets over five decades. Still, we would like to see work you felt strongly enough about to write about it today; captivate us,  entrance us.

Our goal is to reach an audience of people who love literature in general, actually read poetry in particular, with an open mind as stated in our guidelines. We are not allied to any particular school of writing, or highly motivated biases, by which we mean hateful, prejudicial or downright sick and perverted stuff.  Please reserve sentiment for your next viewing of  whichever version of ”Brian’s Song” floats your boat. The same goes for “Field of Dreams” and the book it was based on. 

Be a square peg in a round hole. Be part of a dying breed, the last mustangs in a Nevada desert and the cowboys who want to track them down, capture them and sell them for pet food. And the one who sets them free. And, please, please, don’t forget to be real. 

Alan Catlin: Alan Catlin has been publishing since the seventies. In addition to more than sixty books and chapbooks of prose and poetry, he has won a number of national contests and awards. He has been a finalist for the Brittingham Book Prize from the University of Wisconsin Press, the Lena Miles Wever Poetry Book Award and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, twenty times, in both fiction and poetry. 

Jennifer Lagier: Jennifer is a retired information specialist/tech support geek who also scribbles.

Gene McCormick: “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king",” which is why Gene McCormick has sequestered himself in a  small Illinois village where habitants speak in words solely of one syllable.