scienter (sē′-en-ter)*  Awareness of;
       knowing.

Scienter Press is intended principally to get into print, and keep available to interested readers,
poetry that embodies meaning--
not necessarily an ultimate truth, but something worth the attention that reading a poem requires. 
Some corollaries:

►  Sound thinking is as important as deep feeling.  We value the whole human. 

►  Self-indulgence and self-absorption don’t contribute to good poetry.

►  We assume an inherent difference between a poem and a piece of prose—
      a difference best defined not only by one’s personal response to the poem,
      but also by the poem’s sound and its measure.

That last word—“measure”—is significant.  Most of the poems of interest to us are what has come to be called “formal.” 
By that we mean characterized by some sort of measure. 
Scienter is not a proponent of “formalism” (new or old), or of any “ism.”  But we do hold that the lines of a poem should be functions of sound, and should not be mere visual arrangements on the page.

Poems are the primary focus of the press.  We don’t rule out prose, but we deem it of secondary import for Scienter.

The form of the press’s publications may entail broadsides, chapbooks, and larger books.
While Scienter is in no sense a “fine” press, use of computer software and materials of
respectable quality should allow for an attractive and readable appearance. 
The most important area of quality of course, is that of the poems.  That is where our focus will be.

David Leightty is the editor, publisher, janitor--indeed the entire staff of the press.
I make my living practicing law in Louisville, Kentucky.  I am entirely serious about poetry.
My poems have been published in a variety of journals and publications, including Blue Unicorn,
The Cumberland Poetry Review, The Hypertexts (http://thehypertexts.com/) Legal Studies Forum (http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/lsf/30-1-2/leightty.html),  Phase and Cycle,
Poems in Memory of Yvor Winters on the Centenary of His Birth (Robert L. Barth 2001),
Slant, Sparrow, and SPSM&H.  Robert L. Barth published my two chapbooks,
Civility at the Flood Wall (2002), and Cumbered Shapes (1998), before he closed down his
publishing operation, and Bob has been unfailingly generous to me with extremely useful a
dvice and other help as I bumbled my way into Scienter Press.

             * Most sources list the pronunciation as "sī-en-ter," but we prefer the pronunciation
                 in wide use among lawyers.