The Meadow operates as a poetry magazine with a defined reading period, opening August 15 and nominally closing January 15, though the editors reserve the right to close early once a certain volume of submissions is received. This structure reflects a practical editorial economy: the journal prioritizes manageable reading loads over an open-ended window, and it signals that timeliness is a form of respect for the editors' attention. The deadline listed here is January 16, 2027, but the stated policy of early closure means the effective deadline may arrive sooner. There is no submission fee. The journal's guidelines are unusually explicit about two matters. First, it will not consider anything written or aided by artificial intelligence—a position that aligns The Meadow with a growing cohort of literary magazines asserting the primacy of human authorship. Second, it limits each submission to no more than four previously unpublished poems in a single document of no more than eight pages, and it permits only one submission per reading period unless the editors request otherwise. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but immediate notification is required if a poem is accepted elsewhere. What the journal offers is publication in a poetry magazine that values clarity of process and directness of terms. There is no prize attached, no reading fee, and no geographic restriction. The curatorial vision is implied by the guidelines themselves: a preference for focused, carefully assembled submissions over sprawling ones; a respect for the boundary between unpublished and published work; and a commitment to reading poetry that has not been generated or assisted by machine intelligence. The cover letter should include contact information, and the submission should be a single document containing no more than four poems.