I am all for the possibilities in a poem; the living and dying things in a poem. My eyes are after what is buried in the energy, where this energy is going, what this energy wants to become, what the energy is saying. Moving pictures. Nameless images, shapeless thoughts, sleepless spirits, faithless colours, waves, and so on.
Part of the poet’s calling is to float a life. Part of the poet’s calling is unknown. It is the same sky everywhere, yet we do not know all of it. The same about our stretch of breath.
Anne Sexton once said: “The point isn’t whether the poems are negative or positive but how alive they are. Subject matter itself is not as important as the genius inherent in a great metaphor.”
And this is where I come in: as your poetry editor, I am reading your work to interact with your genius, to help you see or know the expansive mind of your poetry. What has the old moon got to do with your new poem? What is the poem seeking in your favourite city? Do you remember all the seagulls you’ve met in this life? Does a poem operate as a key or a lock, or both?
What is the full extent of a poem? What language—old or new—does the poem invoke? What style is the poem shaping into? Beyond words and lines and grammar and formulas, what is the poem? For poems are spirits.
The job of an editor is a collaborative practice; it is a privilege to see the vision of the poet, to listen to the poet and work with their dream. I am interested in your voice and voices. I am interested in your very invention and reinvention. I am interested in the wonders you make, be they linear or nonlinear. I am interested in your creativity.
With over two hundred poems published in print and online publications across Africa, Australia, Europe, and the Americas, and hundreds of poems scattered in my notebooks and digital storage, I want to share my understanding and misunderstanding of poetry. I have worked (and still work) as poetry editor for magazines and publishers.
As a student of architecture and urban planning, I extend my built-environment passion and knowledge to poetry. The structure of a poem. The centre of a poem. The aesthetics of a poem. Borderlines and vastness. I will help you with the design of your poetry. Bring the hybrid, bring the experimental, the traditional, bring the genreless; just bring your art. I will also guide you on sending your work for publication.
Rates
· Full-length poetry manuscript: $500 USD
· Poetry chapbook: $200 USD
· Packet of five poems: $50 USD
· Single poem: $10 USD
· Questions and guidance on sending your work to magazines/publishers, with examples: $40 USD
Payment via PayPal: [email protected]
Outcome: Commentary, annotations, ideas, edits and further readings
Meets: Email and/or Zoom, back-and-forth over the course of editing
Submission and contact: [email protected]
Bio: David Ishaya Osu is a poet, memoirist, street photographer and wanderer. His work has appeared in: Magma Poetry, Poetry Wales, New Welsh Review, Australian Poetry Journal, Griffith Review, Slice Magazine, Malarkey Books, Event Magazine, Poetry Salzburg Review, Paris Lit Up, New Coin Review, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Transition, The Puritan, among numerous others. David is an associate poetry editor with Plenitude Magazine and the poetry editor of Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel. He has an MA in Creative Writing (with distinction) from the University of Kent, and is the author of the e-chapbooks: When I'm Eighteen (2020) and Once in a Blue Life (2020).
For more about me, check my website at www.davidishayaosu.com. You can also follow me on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
