The Economic Realities of Modern Poetry

Let's face it: poetry does not pay.

If you're a working poet, you'll quickly find that the vast majority of poetry markets pay absolutely nothing. Diddly. Squat. Really, they're doing you a favor by putting your work in print. Maybe they'll deign to give you a free copy of their publication.

Yes, there are paying markets out there. I have, in fact, sold one poem to the now defunct Terra Incognita magazine for $25. But finding paying markets and successfully competing against all the other struggling poets out there is incredibly difficult and time-consuming. I've given up sending out poetry. The reward is just too small.

But I still write poetry. I still like reading my poetry to audiences. I founded and still help run a successful poetry series in Cambridge, and I have set for myself a goal of bringing a new poem to read at the open mike each month. If I enjoy writing poetry, and I enjoy sharing poetry, and I expect no more remuneration than the pleasure of others, then really, the Internet is the perfect medium for my poetry.

Henceforth and forthwith (What great words! Why do we never use them, except sarcastically?), I'm going to publish my poems on this blog for whoever cares to read them. If you'd like to print them in your magazine, journal, chapbook, or just email them around to your friends, please note that I retain copyright on all my work. I will try to post a poem every week, most of which will be works in progress, and I'll try to post a finished work about once/month. This means I have at least three or four years before I burn through my backlog.

I hope you enjoy my poetry. Feel free to send me email directly if you don't wish to comment publicly on my work.

EDIT 8/20/2009: I've now made this poetry available under Creative Commons license:

Therefore Iamb by Jenise Aminoff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.