Well, I see you're in England, Sylvia, so my policy may not work for you. But I always figure that anything that's been published in the US small press is EXTREMELY unlikely to have been read in England, and I boldly submit previously published things. Usually they require some tinkering anyway.

Then I must be a vegetable too, Adrian. I guess you and I won't be seeing our names in The Oldie for this one!

And, dear Sylvia, I can hardly believe this: "But my policy is, never to enter anything for a competition that has been published, in a book or on the net, or that has won another comp. Am I being too po-faced about it?"

If the rules don't say you can't, then you can. Publish and be damned, like Wellington :p

Jayne

The great Les Murray said to me that another continent doesn't count. Another thing you can do is CHANGE the thing a little bit, soup it up, make it better.

These days, the things competition setters seek to forbid, you just can't take them seriously.

I think putting in somebody else's poem is a bit off, like that chap R.J. Allen. So I won't be plundering Brian's stuff, plunderable though it undoubtedly is.