Are you fit? For the job? For a run? A gender? For life? Are you fit for purpose? Not fitting is maybe part and parcel of being a POET. But we still want to fit into the culture in which we live. Do we? Or be extremely unfitting. I read articles about middle aged people who want to still be able to fit into their old jeans / bathers / wedding dress. I don’t know where I fit anymore, they seem to be saying. Let me return to an (imagined) past where things fitted me and I was fit. I saw my father fit once and was frightened. We must stay fit to fend off illness, aging, death. We must! Mustn’t we?
What fits inside a poem? What is unfit for poetry? My questions stem from my own uncertainty. I procrastinated going for a run while I wrote this and now the weather is inclement. You might share such messiness. Equally, you might have beautifully crafted paeons that match your resting heart rate. Odes to your Strava goals. Sonnets of hatred about the fitness industrial complex. The awkward, terrible feelings of being a person. Forever not quite fitting. Can we provide succour for ourselves, for others, in whatever outfit, unfit, fitful ways we bring words to the page?
This podcast sheds some insight on how Cordite Poetry Review (and Cordite Books) works.
Submission to Cordite 119: FIT closes 11.59pm Melbourne time 10 January 2026.
Please note:
- The guest editor(s) has sovereign selection choice for all poems submitted.
- Masthead editors will also contribute to the issue.
- We will only read submissions sent during our official submission periods.
- Please place up to three (3) poems in one (1) Word, RTF or PDF document (unless specifically noted otherwise for special issues), with no identifying details in the document itself.
- We are not able to offer feedback on individual poems.
- Submissions will only be accepted via Submittable …
