Guest Blogger: How I Read a Poetry Manuscript Submission, by Tom Lombardo

How I Read a PoetryManuscript Submission
by Tom LombardoPoetry Series EditorPress 53 www.press53.com

Slowly for the first 3 poems.
At Press 53, we ask for a sample of 10 poems for an opensubmission. If I solicit a sample personally, I will ask for 15-20 poems ormore.
As poetry series editor for Press 53, I've developed a threetier reading style. In the first reading, I'm looking specifically at threekeys: Diction, syntax, metaphor. If the submission lacks excitement in thosethree key areas, then I reject the submission. Usually, I know after a page ifthe poet is competent in those areas, but I will read onward regardless.
I love diction. As the building blocks of poetry, words mustbe carefully selected, much more carefully than in prose. I'm attracted touncommon diction. I like to see concrete nouns and active verbs. I don't likeoveruse of verbs of the form "to be," except in exposition. They slowa poem's movement and pacing, and of course, that's when they come in handy,when you want to slow the movement and pacing. But "to be" overusecauses me to reject. Oh, yes, I do understand that some poems do not have actionand are quiet poems of thoughtful reflection, and I make room for those, too.Overuse of adjectives and adverbs turns me quickly toward rejection—I believethat adjectives and adverbs undercut the imagistic beauty of poetry. Nouns andverbs create concrete images, not modifiers.
Regarding syntax—I feel the same way—I crave carefullyconstructed syntax. I look for something that is not prose syntax. Syntax isthe smallest unit for the compression that indicates poetry to me, the blinkinglights that say "Here is poetry! Read on!!" You would not believe theproportion of our submissions that I reject as abject prose. I often wonder howpeople can delude themselves by inserting line breaks into their prose and submittingit as poetry.
In this essay, "metaphor" stands for any trope,OK? It's easier to say metaphor than to say "metaphor, simile, synecdoche,metonymy, personification, synesthesia, allusion, irony, hyperbole,understatement, paradox, apostrophe, symbols." They're all metaphoric.Simply put, I look for language that moves the literal to the figurative,another hallmark of poetry.
If I arrive at the end of the submission's first pagewithout goosebumps from the diction and syntax or if the language does nottransport me to the figurative, then I know this submission wavers on the brinkof rejection. However, I do read on, unlike some editors, because my mission atPress 53 is to discover new voices, and sometimes the voice is buried in poem 3or 5 or 10. If I see nothing of my 3 keys by poem 4, then I start to read morequickly, scanning only for metaphor, and if I find one, I stop, and I startreading slowly again, maybe go back a few poems and re-read. In contentanalysis, that's called "stopping behavior." Metaphor stops me. Savesthe submission from rejection for at least another poem or two.
If I like the sample submission after tier 1, then I rockback in my chair that squeaks and think about the stories. For me, story is thesecond tier of analysis. What story or stories has the poet told. Small storiesor large stories, either one, but some level of story is important to me. Press53 has no interest in abstract poems or the faddish, clever anti-story poemsstylish in many American journals now. These too will pass. But story lives on.Story is granite. Poetry can be faddish, and trends in poetry—some lastingdecades—may obscure good poets. Think of Emily Dickinson.
Here's the truth: The audience reigns supreme at Press 53and other small presses. Not the poet. If the audience doesn't buy our books,we won't have a press next year to publish any poets at all. Arcane styles sellin academic circles. That generally means 200 copies or fewer. I'm looking forthose kinds of poetry manuscripts, written by the kinds of poets who involvethemselves in the sales of their collections. And I believe that good storieswill move both Press 53 and the poet toward a higher sales level. To me, poetrywith an  intriguing story will set thereader dreaming beyond the final line.
A third tier of my reading revolves around aspects of craftthat include enjambments and sound, and then their combined effect on the linesof the poem. Why? Because those appeal to me as fundamental to poetry.Individual taste is my only defense for this. I'm the editor, so that's myprerogative. In this third reading, I ask: Are the line endings working well?If so, they show the skill of the poet. If not, then I must decide whether thepoems might work with different enjambments, which interestingly takes me backto the diction. Good diction makes it possible to find new enjambments. If theenjambments are not working, but the submission appeals to me on other levels,I must decide whether it's worth my time and effort to edit and then toconvince the poet to make suggested changes.
I also ask: Is the sound doing anything interesting? Soundcan demonstrate a high level of sophistication in a poet. For me, sound goesbeyond the most obvious rhyme, assonance, alliteration. I'm looking, actuallylistening, for the use of acoustic energy to create and release tension, andthis occurs mostly in the vowels, wonderfully hidden, though it can also occur,more obviously, in the consonants. I also like to read lines that block soundat each end—walls to make sound reverberate in the emotion of that space—orperhaps the ends of each couplet or triplet or stanza. I also look for soundthat creates mood or tone that supports the poem
Stop: I've decided not to provide samples as most blatheringessayists would. This is a blog with a word-limit, which I will surely exceed, nota Poetry magazine article. I will notethat Emily Dickinson's poems offer perfect examples for everything I have orwill mention here. My favorite contemporary poets—the ones I keep going backto—are  Douglas Dunn, Simon Armitage,Satyendra Srivastava, current British Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, and a hostof Eastern European poets, only two of whom are Nobel Laureates. Americanpoets? Contemporary? Too many to name, perhaps. However, I find many well-knowncontemporary American poets impoverish the story part of their craft, but Iwill mention current North Carolina Poet Laureate Cathy Smith Bowers as aparticular favorite of mine with great stories, terrific metaphor, strongdiction and syntax.
I have but one pet peeve: Rumi epigraphs. Automaticrejection. A particularly galling fad. In 2009 and 2010, every fourthsubmission had them. Call those "the Rumi years." The Rumi epigraphsseem to be going out of style more recently, probably because MFA programsstopped teaching him.
My greatest fear: I don't want to be an editor who wouldreject Emily Dickinson. In her era, Dickinsonmay have sold fewer than 10 books because her poetry operated on a planeperpendicular to the contemporary style. A century earlier, she may have beenburned at the stake, even in Amherst,for writing verse inspired by Lucifer!  Dickinson's poetry did notcome to light for decades and did not come to fame for decades more, which maymean that the rest of the poetry world caught up to her premature vision. Shemay be the greatest American poet. Sadly, good poets will go undiscovered intoday's world of poetry. We have our fads and our styles and our preferencesjust as any other era. So, before I read submissions, I pray to the Muses: Ifthis is Emily, don't let me reject her.
Tom Lombardo: Poetry SeriesEditorTom Lombardo of Atlanta, GA, iseditor of TheTom Lombardo Poetry Selections forPress 53. Tom actively reads journals, magazines, ezines, and anthologies insearch of poets to bring to Press 53 by way of The Tom Lombardo PoetrySelection series. In 2008, Tom edited and published After Shocks: The Poetry ofRecovery for Life-Shattering Events (SanteLucia Books), which features 152 poems by 115 poets from 15 countries. Tom is awidely published and respected poet, and is a graduate of the MFA program atQueens University in Charlotte, NC. His mission is to bring 4-6 poetrycollections to Press 53 each year. To learn more about Tom and After Shocks: The Poetry ofRecovery for Life-Shattering Events visit www.poetryofrecovery.com.Contact Tom at Tom@Press53.com.