Why I Give It Away Free

They say it's worth exactly what you pay for it.  So, in our consumerist society, when something is free, let the "buyer" beware, a maxim I follow faithfully myself.  There is, however, at least one assumption in that thought.

I've been giving it away free for 20 plus years.  Every time someone sends me an envelope of poems following the guidelines for submissions, they at least get a free issue of Lilliput Review in return.

So, this is bartering, a system of exchange if you will.  The issue is not really free - a stamp must go on the envelope, a SASE must be sent in return.  However, what is happening here is important if you are a poet with some forethought.  You get a chance to have a poem accepted for publication and, if not, you get a tiny magazine with 20 plus poems for "free."  This might give the poet a better idea of what the editor is interested in (you wouldn't believe how many poems I get that are over 20 lines, never mind the 10 line limit - but that's another rant).

I'll show you my poems if you show me yours ...

That's how barter works.  Doing this for 22 years I've given away thousands of "free" issues, connected with poets, found new subscribers, and published some dynamite poems.  Did I mention the mag is not in the red, and never has been.

Hmn.  Am I giving a few people some ideas?

Cheers!

In addition to this, on the web side of things, there are three ongoing projects that result in free issues to those who participate.   The Near Perfect Books of Poems project, the ongoing Issa's Sunday Service project, and the Wednesday Haiku feature on the blog.

And, as always, you can just send a SASE (standard business size, one 1st class stamp) and get a free issue.

All of this must result in a real minimal circulation, I mean nobody's going to buy what they can get for free, right?  Well, right now Lillie has a subscriber list of nearly 300, as large as its ever been.

You know what they say - the first bag's free ...

Any questions?


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This week's featured poem is from Lilliput Review, #165, from November 2008.  This fine translation of the magnificent Yannis Ritsos is by Scott King.  It speaks for itself.

The Shadow of Birds: 41
  I'm not listening to you—he says—
  I find the hill beautiful
  the tree beautiful
  the shadow of birds on the grass
  and myself
  beautiful—he says—
  in the water or in the mirror
  whatever you say
  my part isn't diminished
  in the river
  or in the rose.

Yannis Ritsos
translated by Scott King

dewdrops forming--
when might I become
grass...or a tree?

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

PS  Get 2 free issues    Get 2 more free issues     Lillie poem archive

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Yannis Ritsos and the New Blog Look

If you don't know about it already, make time to check out the blog Hints: The Poetry of Yannis Ritsos, it is a daily posting of the works of this magnificent Greek poet. Here is a poem from their post last yesterday:

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The Shadows of Birds: 42

42.
Discreet lights of avenues
beneath the trees
a bicycler talks
with a soldier
a drinking glass breaks
on the pavement
the orange juice sketches
a broad-shouldered angel
with one foot missing.

Athens—May 15, 1980

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Meanwhile, hope you like the new look of the blog. There were a number of reasons I changed, not the least of which was I was getting sick of the old color. More importantly, with a color background Blogger was not allowing me to indent individual lines of poems, so any poems with variously indented lines couldn't be used, which is a pretty big limitation. Here is an example of a poem from issue #146 of Lilliput that I would not have been able to print previously:



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field of sunflowers
---far as the eye can see
_____farther

Anne LB Davidson

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Before, no matter what I did with the formatting, it would have come out like this:


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field of sunflowers
far as the eye can see
farther

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Obviously, you can see in this case that this violates the poet's intent. Hence, the new look. The workaround I came up with is kind of goofy, but it appears to work in both Firefox and Explorer, so I'm good.


For now,
Don


Note: If you would like to receive the two current issues of Lilliput Review free, just make a suggestion at the Near Perfect Books page.