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GATEKEEPERS
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I COME FROM PHILADELPHIA
I owe nothing
to the gatekeepers of poetry
those self appointed
self important twits
who took it
upon their own slender shoulders
to dictate the world of poetry
for all the rest of us rubes
I owe nothing
to the gatekeepers of poetry
who infect the pure spirit
of the bountiful human well
who try to mandate
their own inane standards
I ignore the absurdity
uf their fabricated pecking orders
and their proclamations
of what is or isn’t poetry
the sterility of their convictions
and the mediocrity of their minds
The human spirit soars
Poets spew out their verse
in manic and off beat tempos
often awkward, often mundane
but true to their own realities
best to ignore the gatekeepers
their smug self-righteous
and banal opinions
have no bearing on
the ultimate truth of poetry
which more often than not
is the truth of a singular voice
crying out rhythmic raps
and barbaric yawps
and unmeasured thoughts and dreams
I owe nothing to the gatekeepers
though decorum mandates
I accept their existence
worthless as they are
they have the same rights
to exist as I
During my undergrad years, I
During my undergrad years, I was shocked to learn that two of the 20th century's greatest Poets, T. S. Elior and Wallace Stevens, were both bullied by the editor and founder of Poetry Magazine, Harriet Monroe. Her flat disregard for the integrity of their early work is astounding when one looks at the great accomplishments of the rest of their careers. I began to publish my own poems before there was an internet, and I ran into a couple of editors from small magazines who were so dictatorial that getting them to publish a poem or two was more energy-consuming than writing the poem.
When I finally arrived at the internet, I found an incredible sense of liberation provided by membership on sites like postpoems.com. I joined the Starlite Cafe immediately, before learning that it had as many rules as any print magazine. But when I came to postpoems, I found that Jason is an excellent publisher: he maintains the site for us, but does not interfere with what we post.
I applaud your poem's succinct and accurate summary of the print-media experience.
Starward
Thank you. There was always
Thank you. There was always a lot of bullshit dealing with the poetry gatekeepers back in the small press days but there are still a lot of tyrants in the online poetry communities. Quality can be a purely subjective matter. Also, a lot of poems that may not be good or great in a classical or technical sense were important and cathartic for the author to write and sometimes find an audience that also finds value in it.