Back in the bygone days when many magazines and even newspapers published poetry, a special subgenre of humor flourished: the editor vs. poet joke. Most often the poet was the butt of the joke, but sometimes the editor, and occasionally both of them.
Typically the editor was gruff and impatient, sometimes to the point of violence. In many such jokes, poets are kicked down stairs, hurled out into the street, or in at least a few cases, threatened with murder.
For their part, poets are usually either powerless supplicants or haughty figures with an exaggerated sense of their importance and the worth of their wares.
We've printed many examples over the years, but here are a few more in honor of what we understand to be National Poetry Month.
Editor to poet: "That's the best poem you ever wrote."
Poet: "I'm glad you like it."
Editor: "I don't."
(1933)
Poet to editor: "I hope that you didn’t throw my poem into the wastebasket?"
Editor: "Oh, no."
Poet (eagerly): "Then you accepted it?"
Editor: "Now, I threw it out of the window."
(1917)
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Poet to editor: "I send you a poem, 'Why Do I Live?' Please answer."
Editor: "Because you send your poem by mail."
(1896)
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