hi there, i'm an aspiring poet, 19 years old. i'm trying to start submitting my work to contests, magazines, publications etc. however, which to submit? i've narrowed it down to three...please help me pick! (the first) "Cities and Rivers" She comes to him scholastic and cancerous, like sugarplums found lurking in dark corners of the mind. He, ignorant to her agenda, her annals, her brackish tongue. He is lured. Her eyes reeling, fingers combing. Zephyrs shield her dappled cheeks. They become nighttime sparrows, oft-synching, rarely heeding. Assaulted by desolation, expectation, adulation. But he hops from Jupiter to Saturn with ambition and insight. He dances athwart her nerves only to claim her, to calm her. Daybreak means he’ll till her through flora and orchard, and loam and worms. He’ll sap the sanity she found in bones undulated by swamp winds. They lay to rest in their contradictions. (the second) A Eulogy for John Wayne I'm reduced to skeletons, defined by the tyranny of my mother's eyes. With a flame cindered 'neath my lips, I'm found amongst hedges and ruins that expand me. I burden this broken body limb to limb, ashes to ashes. Evading the kind eyes that warm my bed, that rial my head whilst I shiver alone, alone. I'm fated to die a dewy fawn: penniless and spindly with breath like humid Julys. I'm fated to inspire alone, alone in the sand and canyons that bury us whole. (the third) Crown Royal Your marbled eyes, I called them elegaic, defeated. Confessions drifted from tarmac to my keen ear. And I stroked your hair with a heart that burst, for your slurs sung golden. My skin climbed towards the moon to meet the stars that spun in your eyes when the last swig of whiskey found its way home from the floor of a broken bottle. I still feel your breath on my shoulder where a child might find himself once a daughter turns to a lover, and in turn, to a mother. You and me, we prevailed as kings beyond the bleached beds where young travelers rest.
Yeah, i'm down with ALL of 'em! EXCELLENT work!!! Don't mail them all to the same pubs, unless you leave a week or two between, and i would HIGHLY suggest doing that. (They'll start to recognize your name, your style and both will stick with them!) Best of luck to you!!! p.s. When you're famous? May i please ask for an autographed copy of your first book?
Pps. Don't put things on the internet, UNTIL YOU COPYRIGHT THEM! It won't cost you much, and you're good enough that you DO need to worry about it.