E D I T O R I A L

Courtesy of Stephen Black, 2008


T.S. Eliot once said that "it must be the small and obscure papers and reviews, those which are hardly read by anyone but their own contributors, that will keep critical thought alive and encourage authors of individual talent." More than just another literary site featuring excellent work by such talents, SOFTBLOW also hopes to better focus the eye back on the poem. Already, there are not enough publications that promote the reading of poetry alone. Poetry tends to encounter the kind of embarrassment Wislawa Szymborska spoke about in her Nobel lecture: "Contemporary poets are skeptical and suspicious even, or perhaps especially, about themselves. They publicly confess to being poets only reluctantly, as if they were a little ashamed of it." Perhaps this has something to do with the default sense of isolation that comes with being a poet, and if the poet is good, it usually means that she or he has something unique to say that would drive an alienating stake between the poet and everyone else. Poetry journals like this help to make such poets feel less alone. This journal does not pretend to exist for a general reading audience. This journal is for unswerving lovers of poetry who also appreciate how far poetry has come over time.

The design for this site includes images by Stephen Black, which are also featured in his book, Bus Stopping (Blacksteps, 2008).

SOFTBLOW is ad free. We do not get paid for doing this. Poets will not be paid for having their works featured here. This journal will be updated on the 1st of every month. Featured poets will eventually be put into our Archive to make room for the new poets.

Also, there are no short stories here, as prose of this kind get more than their fair share of attention elsewhere. Prose that defies categorising falls under poetry in my book and is more than welcome here at SOFTBLOW. To submit, simply paste 4-6 poems with a short bio in the body of an email and send it to the editor@ softblow.com. If you would like to be on the mailing list, do email to the same address too.

Copyrights revert to the authors upon publication. All work published is with the express consent and permission of the author.

Founded by Cyril Wong, the editors are Christopher Ujine Ong and Jason Wee. An interview with the editors about SOFTBLOW appeared in TODAY, a popular Singaporean newspaper. Also, read an interview on Fridae with co-editor and visual artist, Jason Wee. SOFTBLOW is mentioned in Poets & Writers Magazine and featured on ARTSBUZZ, created by Megamedia for the television channel, Arts Central, in Singapore.

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