The End.

Poetry Midwest has ceased publication. Thank you for your readership.

Twenty-three past issues, three broadsides, and a digital chapbook are still accessible via the Dropbox link in the right column or via this link.

The web address http://www.poetrymidwest.org will expire on March 21, 2013, as I have decided not to renew the domain name registration. Consequently, email sent to @poetrymidwest.org email addresses will fail after this date.

The web address http://poetrymidwest.blogspot.com will continue to work until this website is retired.

Notice

Poetry Midwest is closed to submissions until further notice. I am suspending publication of the journal until I figure out what the heck I want to do with it.

After reading Merlin Mann's post back in 2008, I have had the nagging feeling that I could be doing better with Poetry Midwest. And now I realize that I should do better, and that I must do better. So, I need to take an extended break to rethink, renew, and re-tool. In the meantime, I'll be posting random things over at Poetry Midwest+.

This space will be quiet for a while. And I am okay with that. I hope you are, too.

A List of Poems I Will Automagically Reject

1. Anything about the state of your or someone else's soul, spirit, etc.
2. Sex poems that are only about sex or the lack thereof.
3. Poems about sex with your or someone else's soul, spirit, etc.
4. Homages to a girlfriend/boyfriend/significant other.
5. Homages to a dead rock star.
6. Poems about having sex with a dead rock star.
7. Poems that are merely prose with line breaks.
8. Poems about how living with your mother drives you crazy.
9. Poems about having sex with Satan.
10. Poems about your mother having sex with Satan.
11. Anything reliant on adjectives.
12. Anything centered.
13. Lists of clichéd rhetorical questions about love.
14. Poems not written/translated in English (sorry, that's my native tongue).
15. Poems which peak way too soon.
16. Poems which are too obvious.
17. Poems which are only about the act of writing (way too meta)
18. Poems about shampoo. Not that I have anything against shampoo, but all that rising and repeating . . .
19. Anything marked "©" or "Copyright 200x". Like our culture truly values poetry.
20. Anything attempting to be "cute" in a Hello Kitty way. 
21. Hentai poetry.  No foolin'.

Copyright Notice

© 2000-2026 by Poetry Midwest & Matthew W. Schmeer

Copyright Notice and Terms of Use:
This site contains copyrighted materials, including but not limited to text, photos and graphics. You may not use, copy, publish, upload, download, post to a bulletin board or otherwise transmit, distribute, or modify any contents of the site in any way, except that you may download one copy of such contents on any single computer for your own personal non-commercial use, provided you do not alter or remove any copyright, author attribution, or other proprietary notices. All original content is the sole property of Poetry Midwest and Matthew W. Schmeer and may not be reprinted or reproduced in any form without expressed written permission.

The individual works appearing in Poetry Midwest are individually copyrighted by their authors and/or owners. However, the selection, compilation, and presentation of these works as published on this web site under the title Poetry Midwest, in whole and in part, is protected under the aforementioned distribution license.

The views expressed on these web pages and in Poetry Midwest are not those of Johnson County Community College. The editor's employment by JCCC is not to be construed as an endorsement by the college of Poetry Midwest's content or artistic merit.

Poetry Midwest is not affiliated with Adobe, Inc. or Apple Computer, Inc. Product and company names or logos may be the registered trademarks of their respective owners. Inquiries regarding this web site should be directed to editors@poetrymidwest.org.

Defunct Past Projects

Poetry Ink (1995-1997)

Electric Broadsheet (1997-1998)

Dead Verses (2006) -- incorporated into Poetry Midwest

7evens (2006-2008) -- incorporated into Poetry Midwest

About

Poetry Midwest had a good run for twenty-three issues between 2000 and 2010. During that time, it also published three digital broadsides and one digital chapbook. Then it went on permanent hiatus, and never recovered. You can download these materials here.

Poetry Midwest did not adhere to a specific artistic aesthetic, but aimed to publish work which showed evidence of skillful craftsmanship. I looked for pieces which pushed the boundary of language to capture the essence of experience with vivid imagery while avoiding didacticism. Poetry Midwest was flarf-friendly, but demandingly so.

Poetry Midwest was edited by Matthew W. Schmeer on an Apple Power Macintosh G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) and an iMac Core Duo running MacOS X 10.4.11 using Microsoft Entourage 2004, TextWrangler 2.3, Excalibur 4.0.7, and Pages 3.0.3.

This web site is hosted on Blogger.com, and any HTML & CSS template tweaking was coded using TextWrangler 2.3, Taco HTML Edit and Nvu.

Disclaimer

The views expressed here reflect the views of the editor and not his employer. Do not construe any statement made on this blog as poetic advice; if you require poetic assistance, contact a poet in your area. Do not rely on statements made on this blog, or opinions from/positions taken by this blog, for the purposes of poetic advice.

Submission Guidelines

Poetry Midwest is closed to submissions.