The Free Poetry Workshop Newsletter #1   by Barbara (Morris Fischer) Binstock, Editor/Publisher J.Mark Press, The articles in this free poetry workshop and newsletter are based on my nearly 40 years' experience in poetry. Wherever you're trying to go with your poetry, I've been there. Plus I've considered over 50,000 submissions from amateur poets. I've not only published hundreds of anthologies and chapbooks for poets, I've won many impressive awards, sold many poems to Hallmark Books, and other major literary journals. It's exciting to discover new poets with messages that will delight our readers. I believe you have that potential. I know how thrilled you'll feel when we publish you. We want to show the world how good you are. Too many new poets are being injured by well-meaning friends, and greedy phony-publishers who say how good you are when you need to study. They prevent you from finding out how good you aren't and expose the unskilled you. Many poets come here seeking praise before they are worthy of it. In other words, undue praise can harm you. YOU ARE JUDGED BY THE COMPANY YOU KEEP... Many publishers will publish anything by anyone, just to sell books to vain, unskilled novices. Books full of gibberish! They have to fill lots of books quickly to sell many books a year to people who are making fools of themselves. Don't let yourself be known as one of "those" poets. Being published is of no significance when the overall content of the publication you're in sounds like a bunch of immature, unskilled, trivia. No one is fooled by a poet with lots of credits and awards. A poet with NO credits or awards will shine out to the world when it sees his polished writing. A poet with "phony-publisher" awards and credits will look like what he is. IF YOU WRITE A GEM, DO YOU WANT IT BURIED IN 1,000 PIECES OF DEBRIS? If you're going to write great poetry, I want to be the publisher. I want it to be in a book filled with gems of thought, wisdom, and artistic creativity. Such a book will be saved, shared, treasured for all time. We know how few names stand out in poetry over the decades.  Others keep getting published in books that end up in land fills. No one treasures them. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ EXCELLENT POETRY PAST AND PRESENT How can you call yourself a poet? I play the organ. I love professional organ concerts. I ice-skate. I love to watch Olympic skaters.  I write poetry, I love to read EXCELLENT poetry. If you don't want to read any poetry but your own, it's telling you to keep it in a scrapbook. You're not "into" poetry. HOW DOES ONE JUDGE EXCELLENT POETRY? There are actors, comedians, musicians skaters, etc. who delight  millions. There are many we will never hear of. "Good" in every field of endeavor stands out. REMEMBER... THERE IS NO SUCH PERSON AS AN EMERGING POET WHO DOESN'T NEED TO LEARN. I have read over 30,000 amateur poems, I've sold my own to Hallmark  Books and many more, taught, held poetry performances, won awards. You'll gain years of information inside of a week. I was able to enumerate all the errors and omissions made by emerging poets and compile a 20-hour course for new poets. It was approved by NY State Board of Ed., and taught by me in 20-hour continuing Ed classes (to prove to myself it works). I then put that step-by-step information into my hard cover book "Poetry Self-Taught." Home POEM IMPROVEMENT workshop 2 Guest Register/ Your Own Web Site Hard cover book publishing Book Printing and Binding of your own printed pages Poetry Contest winners' poetry from Helping Hand Anthology, Sunlit Path, Bright Horizon Poetry Contest winners' poetry from Notable American Poets Anthology Reviews of J.Mark book authors Promoting Yourself as a Poet "A Backpack of Milestones" Poetry by Barbara Fischer Off-lease Autos Don't Pay More The J. Mark Cutlery Store Online weekly POETRY winners 2000