[David Rosenthal]

I generally feel that editors should feel free to publish what they want to publish. It is easy enough to alert a would-be submitter not to submit rhyming poems, and I actually appreciate that clarity. When they say things like "no obvious rhymes," or "no greeting card verse," "or no tired rhymes," they simply aren't being clear enough about what they mean to exclude.

Once, several years ago, I saw an entry in the Poet's Market, that said, "no 'moon, June, spoon' rhyme." I thought, "Really? They are happy to have any other rhyme but that?" Of course not, so why not just be clear. "Besides," I thought, "what if I am writing a poem on a June night when the moon is up and the Big Dipper is hanging like a giant spoon?" So I wrote a poem called "Moon, June, Spoon" with an -oon monorhyme throughout.

I considered sending it to the journal in question, but that would just have been a waste of postage, and they do have a right to exclude and include whatever they want. Besides, they aren't saying one shouldn't write such rhymes, just that they won't be publishing them. My poem ended up in The Lyric, a fitting venue.

David R.