Introducing No Crime in Rhymin’
mission statement, submission guidelines
There is a time and place for poetry that is introspective, emotional, gut-wrenching, inspiring, uplifting. But we felt that a dedicated home was lacking for poetry that dares to be silly, quirky, edgy, irreverent. Poetry that delivers entertainment, and maybe even a profound message here and there, without taking itself too seriously.
Introducing No Crime in Rhymin’!
Please have a look, and by all means, send us your tired, your huddled masses, your playful couplets, your whimsical verses.
a few words on form
There is more to funny poetry than limericks!
Villanelles and sonnets, cinquains and tankas, sestinas and triolets, odes and elegies, free verse — we will gladly consider them all.
Rhyme patterns tend to give poetic compositions an added element of humor and playfulness, but (shhh, you didn’t hear it from us), a poem doesn’t even need to rhyme to be good.
on the shoulders of giants
We don’t intend to draw writers away from all the great publications that serve poetry already. For political and social commentary, there is no better home than
’s Resistance Poetry. For declarations of unbridled love — ’s P.S.I love You. For sex-positive lyricism — ’s Intimately Intricate. For pure celebration of the form — ’s Poetry in Form. For your day-to-day haiku needs, there’s Haiku Hub, House of Haiku, Haikus-R-Us … you get the point.Perhaps these wonderful, overworked superstars of Medium will not mind if a few oddball submissions trickle over from their cornucopian queues to ours.
how to become a contributing author
Leave a comment below!
Alternately, you may hit the email icon 📧 on our homepage.
submission guidelines
- Submit drafts (… →Add to publication → NCiR’), to allow the Editors to review and evaluate your work for suitability and form.
- Submit new and original work, rather than pieces already published in print or on other digital platforms (though we’ll make exceptions for poems already on personal blogs and Facebook groups).
- At most one submission per poet per day, please.
- Use single-spacing between lines of your poem. This is accomplished using Shift-Enter. If your poem is structured into multiple stanzas, separate the stanzas with double spacing, by typing a simple Enter for the carriage return.
first stanza first line
first stanza second linesecond stanza first line
second stanza second line
- Em dashes, or long dashes, are an effective way to indicate a pause to the reader of your poem. If the pause comes at the end of a line, type an extra space after an ordinary hyphen to turn it into an em dash.
incorrect -
correct — - At most one link to a story published previously here on Medium — either one of your own or a story by another writer that you wish to recognize as your source of inspiration. No links to websites outside of Medium.
- Choose 5 descriptive tags for your submission. It probably makes sense that one should be ‘Poetry’, and the second either ‘Humor’ or ‘Satire’. Avoid rogue tagging, as defined in the Medium Dictionary.
- Give some thought to creating an appropriate subtitle! Medium provides a standard formatting option for the subtitle — it is optional, but we highly recommend it. The subtitle appears on landing pages and email digests, and can be very effective in grabbing the reader’s attention, and foreshadowing what your piece is about. With poetry — when at a loss, choose a catchy line from your poem, or go with “a poem”, “a sonnet”, “a satirical poem”, etc.
- Our editorial team loves to collaborate. While we aim to respect the poet’s voice, we will actively review all submissions, and let you know if something is off with formatting, or if we think a rhyme or meter can be improved. If you would like to actively solicit our advice, highlight the title of your draft and send us a private message.
- We have a strict 3-minimum coherent stanza requirement for haikus. We put in the extra effort, and ask the same of our writers — especially for a poetic form so versatile, yet so … compact.
- Similarly, if you send us tankas (5–7–5–7–7 syllables) or limericks, we ask at least 2 coherent verses.
- Zero tolerance for AI-generated content. Because of course.
Generally, no topics are off limits when it comes to genuine, good-natured humor. However …
- No content that is defamatory or derogatory against anyone based on gender, race, sexual orientation, religious affiliation or lack thereof, or age will be tolerated.
- Submissions should avoid gratuitous use of curse words, and explicit references to sexuality or violence. Implicit sexuality is highly encouraged.
Remember,
- Silly rhymes should still be well-constructed, thoughtful, beautiful works of art. Read your composition out loud to yourself. Listen for cadence, rhyme and meter. Pay attention to syllable count. Be your own toughest critic.
ah, one last thing
Unlike some publications, we do not discourage you from writing for certain other, massively growth-oriented publications, nor do we pretend to be elitist champions of high art, but we do ask that you read and acknowledge these tongue-in-cheek rants:
