Hi, I was wondering what the best publications for someone beginning to send submissions was?

"...publications...was." JP, welcome to the Sphere. Judging from the disagreement between noun and verb in your subordinate clause, I doubt that you should be submitting just yet. Harried editors have to reject 50 poems for every one they accept, and they are so beseiged that they overlook worthy work in their haste to get through everything that comes over the transom. Good luck, Tim

Tim,

Thanks for your candor and the reality check and (what the heck?) for some poetry banter. Judging by just about all of the great poetry here, I dont stand a chance yet!Thanks for the welcome as well.

For someone just beginning to submit (and perhaps a novice poet as well), SUBSCRIBING to some journals is a good start. (Poets should support poetry journals. Who else is going to?)

An afternoon at your local university library is a good place to get a feel for different journals, which ones have the sort of poems you like to read. A quick glance through the contributors' page will tell you how open a magazine is to novices. There are also a huge number of e-zines out there, with the whole range of "levels."

Poet's Market also lists how open journals are to beginners.

JP, Aliki's advice is as always, excellent. Thanks for taking my jibe as it was intended. Read The Formalist, Sewanee Review, The Hudson Review. On line check out The New Formalist, Edge City Review, Art Mortenson's Expansive Poetry site. These are all formal-friendly venues. Over at Accomplished Members you can click into The New Formalist's new e-books to see what some of the best members of the Sphere have been publishing lately. Last word of advice: take your half dozen best poems and post them at Met One over the course of six weeks. Then you'll know whether you're ready for prime time.