The PSN Selects: Poems

I WAS, of course, flooded by poetry submissions after I made the announcement for The PSN Selects 100 Project. (Deadline: Sept. 30)

My first call was for letters. Plain, simple, honest letters. But literary, creative, imaginative, not pedestrian. I received less than ten submissions. Only three passed my standards.

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I also called for essay submissions. So far, only three have been submitted. I’m considering one for publication. But I might end up just saying No. It is well written, but it isn’t that great. Not saying something new, nothing earthshaking. I’ll rest it for a while, and look at it again after two weeks.

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I haven’t officially called for poetry and stories yet. But, it is as I said, I have been flooded with poetry submissions.

Sadly, most of these poems will be turned down, if they haven’t been already. I’m turning them down because it would seem that these poems have not been informed by my over 15 talks (mini-lectures) on poetry that I have made available on my online resource hub on Facebook: Poets And Writers International (PAWI). These blind submissions are so blind that they have no chances at the get go.

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If you want to submit a poem to a magazine, try to read that magazine and understand what kind of magazine they are (I know you are thinking of magazine as “it is,” but let this go).

You cannot submit a pornographic poem to a Catholic magazine! Well, actually, you can. But they’ll burn you in hell.

I’m making things easier for writers. Think about me as your first reader!

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Again, there are at least 18 poetry talks on PAWI. But to reiterate, I hate rhymes that do not soar. That do not take me anywhere special.

The sad truth is: forced rhymes in Filipino poems (and they include poems written in English by Filipino writers) often tie the poems down to the ground instead of letting it off to fly to new heights. 

So, No! Elementary rhymes do not impress me. But original rhymes, organic rhymes, orgasmic rhymes? Yeah, yeah, yeahhhhh!

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And what’s this victim culture? This “sorry self me” voices in poetry? Do people really think their heartbreak is good material for poetry? Depressing. Just depressing!

I mean, I want to have a good cry. But over well written breakup poems. Not clichés of walking in the rain, of being left behind by someone who didn’t understand.

Hello, your lover left you because you write bad poetry! If you’re any success as a poet, it takes a really stupid lover to leave you.

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Let’s have a sample poem about love. It’s not great. It’s not even my personal best. But it is fun, and I think this would do for an example:

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We are cannibals 

Eating each other 

Until we are left 

With only our hearts.

— Peter Solis Nery

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Some of you may think of this as poetry. I don’t blame you. It has poetic images, and some poetic thought/idea. It’s also Instagrammable. But is that enough?

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What do I mean when I say I want more play in poetry?

Well, I guess I mean control over language. Control over my readers. Putting them under my spell. Making them read line after line until the last word and/or punctuation. Taking them for a ride, a journey where familiar words create a special world. Strange, weird world, but emotionally true. Words that lead readers to a new way of seeing. Witness:

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OF LOVE AND HUMAN REMAINS

In the morning, you ate my toes, my legs.

At lunch, you nibbled on my fingers 

And chewed off my hand, you said

My beautiful arms are for dinner.

I love you. I love your belly fat, your ribcage

Your kidney, your liver, and your spleen.

I love that thing between your thighs

I can choke on that forever, believe it is big

Love, but all this consumption, all this

Consummation of earthly desire is just food 

For our hungry hearts craving for some

Essence, some spirit, the deep soul behind 

Those tender, juicy, tasty eyeballs.

—Peter Solis Nery

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Thirteen lines. I know I have enough mastery of the language to expand it, and write a few more, and probably juicier, lines. But why ruin it? Juicier is not needed when you have already written something great.

Know when to stop. When to keep your readers begging for more. Then, write your next poem./PN