When setting rough diamond up we had no idea how many submissions we were likely to receive. Right from the beginning our inbox kept filling up. It was such a pleasure to sit down and go through all of the work that was sent. I’d never realised before that when editors say, “Sorry, we won’t be accepting your work” that, truthfully, most of the time it really doesn’t mean your work is bad! We’ve had some amazing pieces but, often times its what grabs in the moment, it could be a particular line or subject matter. We’re even more excited for when we next open submissions because we know the quality of the work that is out there.
I have hated sending rejection emails out, (we all know what it’s like to receive them). Originally the plan was to accept 10 poems for August but this was soon bumped up to 15 because there were too many poems we loved. Accepting pieces has been amazing – I’ve loved finding out more about the poets chosen and feel honoured to have their pieces on the site. Once the 15 poems were decided upon it was then time to choose a poet of the quarter. The whole idea of this was to really celebrate an exceptional piece of work. For us, poetry is the feeling that is created, the words that stay in your head long after you’ve read them. Amanda Crum is our first poet of the quarter for her poem The Exchange. This poem could mean different things to different people and on reading it over and over it kept meaning different things to us! The idea of a failure of the body is intriguing coupled with lines such as, “she sends me phantom-limb images of scarlet wings on cotton” has made this a poem that is not easy to forget.
Thank you so much to everybody who has submitted. Everyone that has followed us on Twitter – liked our posts, retweeted us and all the rest. I personally didn’t realise there was this amount of love around in the poetry/writing community. As an eternal pessimist this really has been wonderful to see!
Now go and read the chosen poems for August! – Charlotte x
Rough Diamond Poetry 