Anthony Madrid, standing, talks with a room full of Texas A&M University-Victoria students about the upcoming Skeemer poetry magazine and his goals for the next issue. The magazine is an unofficial publication that Madrid hopes will inspire students and others across campus.

For the past few years, Texas A&M University-Victoria has housed an artsy, provocative secret. A few times a year, a homemade magazine filled with underground, occasionally anonymous poetry appears on campus.

The magazine is called Skeemer, and it’s filled with gritty, sometimes shocking poems written by students and curated by Anthony Madrid, associate professor of English and creative writing. The magazine’s next issue will be available on campus starting at the beginning of November. 

“During the past year, the magazine group fell off a bit, but now we’re looking forward to bringing it back,” Madrid said. “We have several new students who are excited to share their poetry, and there’s a new level of energy to the group’s efforts. I can’t wait to see these new issues come to life.”

Skeemer was started toward the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, when students and employees were returning to campus. Madrid was inspired by the atmosphere of freedom and creativity he experienced as a student at Pennsylvania State University. He wanted to bring that same creative spirit to Victoria.

But more than encouraging creativity, he wanted to boost the confidence of students who are still developing their writing chops. He wants students to feel the particular poetical fantasy of reaching others with their words.

“I wanted to see more people making fun, not just waiting for others to give them fun things to consume,” Madrid said. “Poetry can be like a message in a bottle. You don’t just write it for yourself. You put that message out into the world, and you hope that it will find someone else and that they will feel something after reading your words.”

For the students who are published in Skeemer, their words reach as far away as Canada and South Korea. The publication has two subscribers who requested that Madrid send them copies of each issue.

For Jay Raven Pendragon, a senior creative writing major from Eagle Pass, Skeemer is a unique outlet that takes a different direction. It’s their favorite unofficial school club.

“Skeemer is something that belongs to us as students, not the school,” they said. “It has a real underground, ‘you have to be there,’ feeling. It gives us the freedom to explore in different directions. Write poetry, tell a good joke, be crude or do whatever.”

There is no set theme for each issue, Madrid said. The only requirement is that the poetry is good. Once a year, instead of the typical 8½ by 11 magazine size, the students put out a special pocket edition titled “Skeeter” that features micro poems no more than 4 lines long.

One of Madrid’s goals – or perhaps more accurately a dream – is for students who were anonymously published in Skeemer to one day see their classmates admiring their words.

“Wouldn’t it be amazing for these students to walk down a hallway and have someone ask them, ‘Have you read this? It’s so good. It makes so much sense,’” he said. “That’s my wish for these students. I want them to know their inspiration has inspired others.”