Some of us work diligently, even idolatrously (one must be serious, after all) at poems, hoping some day to end up in Poetry magazine, a feat that is supposed to (emphasis on the supposed to) confer a kind of arrival. Whatever it means, the sheer number of submissions they receive, and the fact that it’s an editorial committee (and Editor) making judgments subject to the vagaries of judgment like any other journal, means simply that it’s not easy to break through. But here’s a guy, Jake Austen, who is trying to get his name in lights by writing comics celebrating Poetry’s 100th anniversary year. And anytime you can get writers (or anyone) to laugh at themselves it seems a fine thing. Everything serious is funny (but then everything funny is serious). I hope he wins.
