For me poetry does not come easy, for others it seems to roll of their tongue. These ’select few’ as I like to call them have the natural ability of expressing their thoughts and feelings in a few will chosen lines. However, like all forms of creative writing, if you work at your poetry then you’ll get there and if you eventually produce inspiring work then be sure that you will find an outlet

Now let’s face some reality, for over 95 percent of us there is no money to be made in writing, unless of course you are another Heaney or lucky enough to win a major poetry contest. It’s a tough world out there ask any poetry magazine editor and they’ll tell you they have a slush pile a mile high. Given the best will in the world magazines get it difficult to publish more than 40 poems per issue. So how do you steal a step on other want-a-be poets?

Read! If you’re involved in any aspect of creative writing you have to keep reading the type of writing you are interested in – and this is even more important if it’s poetry you are interested in.

We’re assuming if you want to write poetry you want to write good poetry, please, therefore, don’t treat it like prose hacked to death in order to set your words out in poetic lines. If you want to win over an editor then show them you know how to combine the various elements of poetry to achieve the effect you are aiming at. Read Heany, read other established poets, read poets that are constantly been published in your favourite poetry magazine and you’ll very soon learn how to analyse how they use sound, rhyming patterns, rhythm and form – and all have their part to play

If you want people to see your work then you have to do your research. You can’t write what the poetry reading public want unless you keep in touch with current poetry publishing, if you don’t read the magazines and newspapers that publish poetry then you have no hope of knowing what editors want. Pity the poor editor who comes into work every morning to find a pile of hopelessly archaic verse sitting on his desk! Now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that editors only want ‘modern’ poems or that they only want ‘experimental’ poems. Far from it read any good poetry magazine and you’ll find that good contemporary poetry covers many forms.

There are thousands of general interest magazines out there and they’ve all slightly different

Every poetry magazine, just like any other interest magazine, comes with its own twist on life. Search out a poetry magazine and study very closely what that magazine is about. Practice writing poetry with the same flavour as your chosen magazine but don’t, whatever else you do, don’t rush into sending off that precious work of yours until you feel completely at ease with the style of writing favoured by that magazine. My own suggestion is that you subscribe to three our four magazines per month and keep narrowing them down until, in about six months time, you are happy with your main selection. We are living in a time of recession but it is in your own interest to keep poetry magazines afloat, and keep the poetry scene alive and well.

Every poetry magazine has its own distinctive flavour. When you find one whose poetry is in tune with your own tastes, concentrate on that magazine, at least to begin with. Don’t even think about sending your poetry to a magazine you don’t feel comfortable with, or in which you wouldn’t be proud to be published. Subscribe to at least one magazine, more if you can afford it. It’s in your own long-term interest to help keep the poetry scene alive. You need these magazines as much as they need you.