*Originally Published in the February 2023 Newsletter* I spoke about the poetic tradition in these pages a couple of months ago. From a critical or editorial perspective, however, what each poet takes from the tradition can vary, and what each journal prizes can vary too. We identify three main pillars to our publishing values, and two of those three have to do with the poetic tradition. The pillars are: Inspiration from the classics. We don’t care if your classics are Roman, Greek, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Mesopotamian, Welsh, or based on indigenous oral traditions. If your poetry dialogues with the past, it excites us. Form. We’ll publish formal and free verse, even prose poetry. But awareness of form and experimentation with traditional methods of using the sounds of language earn extra consideration. Landscapes. In a sense, we engaged with the bucolic tradition when we decided to live in Vermont. The *Pierian* editors are fortunate to live in a region where you see snow-covered peaks, thick pines and a shimmering lake during the daily commute. It needn’t be lovely; “Ozymandias” is a poem of landscape, too. These are the themes and characteristics we look for in well-written poems submitted to the journal. If you know poets who connect with these values, encourage them to submit their work!