Fundamentals/Poetry
How Poetry is Different from Other Genres
Hooking the Reader in the First Line
“If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” — Emily Dickinson
Poets are often called the dreamers of the writing world. We tend to write close to the heart. Poetry is a complex genre with what seems like many rules, and at the same time, no rules. You may have been taught poetry in terms of type — sonnets, ghazals, acrostics, or haiku. But I am here to tell you, none of this matters if you don’t hit the four fundamentals of poetry in this article. Form does not equal quality.
As an editor, I’ve read thousands of poems from hopeful writers. Reading slush (unsolicited submissions) with a journal or magazine is a great way to learn what about a poem makes it stand out among the crowd. Because it requires reading hundreds and hundreds of poems in a short time, slush reading quickly identifies the poems that are special from the poems that are just fine. Editors and slush readers are looking for submissions that quickly set themselves apart.
