Mission

Invariably the poems I love best provide an intense focus. They zero in. It is as if a single aspect of human experience steps forward into a cone of light and speaks its soliloquy. Nothing extraneous interferes. One could speak of this focus in many terms, as distillation or alchemy or integrity; as a process of economizing, particularizing or even husbandry.

My pet term is the “umbrella idea.” I envision a protected zone where a poem’s premise moves forward unimpeded.

Does the term seem strange? The root of the word “umbrella” is “umbra,” Latin for shadow, and this would seem to oppose that other compelling concept, the cone of light. Yet it is vital for a poet to occupy the darker places, the mysterium of the unconscious, the mythic, undertow-like forces that inform our everyday lives. In the shelter of the umbrella idea, a poet may explore these shadowy areas, give them their due, and shine a different kind of light.

Like a parasol or “sunbrella,” the umbrella idea also provides a cone of cooling shade, where no matter how intensely heated the subject matter, one may write from a position of objectivity. One sees clearly, without blinding glare. “Strong emotion recollected in tranquility” is how Wordsworth described the process of writing poetry. The umbrella idea contains that tranquility.

Sometimes, too, the umbrella idea is like a child’s bumbershoot, useful when skipping through puddles. It is not always necessary to be capital S Serious, and it is seldom desirable to write in deadly earnest.

To sum up, Umbrella wishes to publish news of the underworld, with its passions, confusions and frights; it also welcomes irony, humor, wryness, outrageousness, crookedness, and unalloyed joy. Its core equation: Idea + Imagination x Craft = Lasting Poetry.

Do you write under the umbrella? Then I hope to publish your work.

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What is an Umbrella poem also like?

It’s probably short, no more than a page or two.
No matter what the overt subject matter, its real subject is the human condition.
It has momentum.
It has a distinguishing style.
If written in form, the form fits the subject matter; no one would call the poet’s choice of form arbitrary.
If written in free verse, it is disciplined, with its own sonics and structure; no one would call it “prosy.”
It’s fresh, imaginative. It knocks the editor’s socks off.
It has an umbrella idea!

Those are the yes-yeses, but there are a few no-no’s too. To wit: rambling, grandiosity, grandstanding, the attribution of human traits to nature or things, hearts-and-flowers frilliness. Let trope be revelatory, not something “tacked on” for poetic effect. Aw, you know what I mean!

Prose is also a key element of Umbrella’s mission. Enthusiasms, experiences, viewpoints, misgivings, reverence, irreverence are welcome under the umbrella too. Please see the Guidelines for more information.

Umbrella isn’t intended to further academic careers; its mission is to bring a readership to fine poetry from all quarters. Therefore Umbrella is especially open to literary poetry written by poets who do not have MFA’s and/or who work outside of academia. If you are an academic who supports this philosophy, then you too are warmly invited to submit.