What about Poetry Magazine?

[desiresjab]

Aren't they an arm of Poetry.com? They say they pay $200 for a poem of fifty lines or less. Is this another scam to get you to sign release forms, or have they gone semi-legitimate? That is good jack for a short poem.

And what about Poetry Foundation? Are they legitimate or scumming scammers?

The thread on ILP is frightening. Twenty-five years ago I submitted a poem to a similar outfit (maybe one of these) and got all the letters and notification of winning. They actually did send me my twenty-five dollar prize and volume, though I never purchased a volume from them. Sometimes they must give one free copy to a winner in hopes of selling several more to him.

{Revision} I got my foundations, libraries and magazines mixed up.

Poetry Foundation seems pretty legitimate, and they are the ones who publish Poetry Magazine. Poetry dot com are the sharks, among others, I am sure.

[MorpheusSandman]

Poetry Foundation is indeed the same as Poetry Magazine. They are as legit as legit gets in the poetry world, and it's a dream of most poets to get published there. I don't know about Poetry.com, but it sounds like a scam. Most legitimate literary magazines pay for work they accept, but not much, and they only publish a small fraction of all the work that's submitted. It can be difficult even for good, established poets to get consistently published; Annie Finch tells the story in her A Poet's Craft about her sister (IIRC) treating her to free meals for every 100 rejection letters she got, which gives you an idea of how common it is. Here's a good list of reputable publications: http://cliffordgarstang.com/?p=3348 A few left off the list: Poetry East, Tar River Poetry, Southern Poetry Review, Tower Poetry.

[desiresjab]

That is very helpful. Thank You. I submitted some poems to a magazine, and after reading the scam thread I was weary and worried for a moment that I had sent them to Poetry dot com, but it was actually Poetry Magazine. I probably should not submit anymore from desiresjab, since there is a connection to the crackpot poster here, who they say hates all contemporary poetry, finds it rhythmless, etc..

[MorpheusSandman]

I probably should not submit anymore from desiresjab, since there is a connection to the crackpot poster here, who they say hates all contemporary poetry, finds it rhythmless, etc..LOL You'd hardly be the first poet to hate poetry from their own time. This is often what drives the most revolutionary/innovative poets to create what they do. It's hard to imagine Blake without the distaste he had for the Age of Enlightenment.

[AuntShecky]

Perhaps this thread is the appropriate spot for a friendly reminder: Never pay any company or organization to "publish" (i.e. "print")your work. It's supposed to be the other way around!