VIRGINIA QUARTERLY REVIEW LOVES CLICHES

From here

"This was supposed to be a blog entry about how authors submit poetry to us covering clichéd topics that there’s just no way we’re going to print. But then I did the math, calculating the percentage of our submissions and published work that contain any of a dozen mainstays of poetic terminology, and found that precisely the opposite is true.

submitted published
water 19.9% 24.8%
death 14.1% 15.2%
blood 11.7% 13.8%
stone 11.1% 16.0%
bone 9.1% 7.8%
poetry 7.6% 10.3%
heart 7.5% 6.7%
fish 7.0% 5.3%
birth 5.5% 7.4%
darkness 3.9% 17.0%
rust 3.3% 2.5%
cat 2.3% 2.8%

As it turns out, our editor is all about those dreaded paeans to cats. The moral of the story is that talent transcends topic, I suppose; in the hands of a skilled poet, even stone/bone can be made a vital couplet again."

It's Interactive!

Snow Blowing with Dennis

Crack open our walk, Dennis.

Blow snow on Rainbow Fish

two doors down. The shack

of Chicken Chest or is it Dizzle Dazzle.

Careful Twinkle Star, protect your name, your ceramic

goose head poking through the snow.

Do our walk, please Dennis.

Preserve the harmless fractals, those florets of broccoli,

each the same and smaller than the last.

When Snowflake is in an unmanageable pile

her bulldozers and dump trucks will come

for some serious snow removal.

Dennis, tell them to hold their horses,

we need to work up to that. A little kissing

and making out might lead to foreplay,

but I’m not going all the way

until I know it’s right between us and will last forever.