Resources
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Poetry Daily
From hundreds of books, journals and magazines, one fresh poem is featured every day. Click here for poems from the past year. Occasionally presents essays and interviews with poets. And for every poet who's been horrified by woeful critiques of their work, this poem by Billy Collins feels your pain. Publishers, send review copies here. Beginning poets, don't miss the recommended books page.
Poetry 180
A poem a day for American high schools. For teens who think poetry is boring, remote and not for them, US poet laureate Billy Collins has 180 surprises. Comes with welcome advice on reading poems aloud.
PoemHunter.com
Over 25,000 poems by 4,000 poets. Classic authors like Shakespeare and Milton are well-represented, as well as many moderns. Search by title and name (text searches can also be made but results are unpredictable). Free poem-of-the-day newsletter introduces you to wonderful work like Tarantella by Hilaire Belloc.
Poem of the Week
This website edited by Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale showcases previously published work by a different contemporary poet each week, along with his or her biography, blurbs, and an interview with the author. Sign up to receive Poem of the Week as an email newsletter.
PlayShakespeare.com
This web archive for all things Shakespeare includes the full text of the Bard's plays and poems. Other features include scholarly discussion forums, podcasts, and reviews of Shakespeare performances around the world.
NPR Poetry Games
In honor of the 2012 Olympics, National Public Radio features contemporary poems that honor the ancient connection between the arts and athletics. The website includes the text of the poems plus audio of the authors reading them. Contributors from around the world include Kazim Ali, Monica de la Torre, and Mbali Vilakazi.
Neurotic Poets
Bios and links to poetry by legendary self-destructive geniuses such as Plath, Byron and Poe.
Mobile Poets.org
The Academy of American Poets has made their entire collection of over 2,500 poems on Poets.org, as well as hundreds of biographies and essays, available in a mobile format for your Palm Pilot or iPhone.
Luminarium
Full texts of medieval, Renaissance and 17th-century poetry and verse-dramas, with scholarly commentary. Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Bacon, Donne, Milton...
Lannan Foundation Audio Literary Library
An extensive collection of audio recordings of poets and writers reading their work. In 2004, The Lannan Foundation awarded $925,000 in awards and fellowships in poetry, fiction and nonfiction.
Favorite Poem Project
A project of Boston University, the Poetry Society of America and the Library of Congress. Nominate your favorite poem, and read the excellent poems chosen by others. Wide range of styles.
Fairrosa Cyber Library of Children’s Literature
Online library of children's literature contains the full-length text of dozens of classics. Reference Shelf feature includes links to background material on many authors of children's books.
Every Day Poems
A project of Tweetspeak Poetry, this free email newsletter includes a new classic or contemporary poem every weekday, information on special events, and resources for writing teachers. Each month focuses on examples of a different poetic form or topic.
Cowboy Poetry
Folksy rhymes set in the rural West, great for reading aloud. Site contains large archive of classic and contemporary cowboy poetry, articles on the genre, and news about upcoming poetry festivals and programs.
Contemporary American Poetry Archive
This free electronic archive makes out-of-print volumes of poetry available online. Books from commercial, university and small presses are eligible, but not self-published work. Authors present include Pamela Alexander (Yale Series of Younger Poets) and Philip Levine (winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize).
Bibliomania - Free Online Literature and Study Guides
Searchable full text of over 2,000 books, including literary classics (Victorians predominate), study guides and reference works.
Baseball Bard
Baseball Bard is an organization that connects poets and writers who follow baseball with baseball fans who enjoy poetry and literature. The aim is to intensify the enjoyment of baseball by presenting it in a new and exciting way. Baseball fans will enjoy writing that captures the essence of the game in elevated, but easily accessible language. Poets will get new opportunities for publication and special recognition. Baseball Bard's two primary tasks are the maintenance of the Baseball Bard Website and the publication of Baseball Bard, an annual book (printed and digital) featuring the year's best poetry and verse on the subject of baseball.
Around the World in 8 Seconds
Monthly e-newsletter from Beto Palaio's Littera Tour blog showcases an eclectic variety of classic and contemporary poems, photographs and artwork, with commentary in English and Portuguese.
Writing-World.com: Religious Writing Resources
Well-stocked page of links to Christian writing resources.
Transpositions: A Symposium on Christianity and Fantasy Literature
This blog is a collaborative effort of students associated with the Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts at the University of St Andrews. Transpositions seeks to create conversations between Christian theology and the arts, and discuss the nature of both art and theology as a transposition of divine reality into earthly form.
Tiferet: A Journal of Spiritual Literature
Interfaith journal of spiritual literature; editorial board includes several prominent writers.
The Lutheran Writers Project
The Lutheran Writers Project seeks to make connections among writers and readers who are influencing and influenced by Lutheran traditions. They offer resources for book clubs, pastors, and educators, and also sponsor a literary festival at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.
Poetry Chaikhana: Sacred Poetry from Around the World
Comprehensive archive of mystical poetry from many eras and spiritual traditions, with brief biographies of the authors. Both Eastern and Western cultures are well-represented. Site is indexed by author's name, religious affiliation, and time period. A great way to learn about other cultures. Editor Ivan Granger explains, "A chaikhana is a teahouse along the legendary Silk Road pilgrimage and trading route linking China to the Middle East and Europe. It is a place of rest along the journey, a place to shake off the dust of the road, to sip tea, and to gather together to sing songs of the Divine...."
Numinous: Spiritual Poetry
This online journal based in New Zealand publishes poems of a spiritual nature written in any style. Contributors have included such well-known authors as Annie Finch, Barry Spacks, and Martin Willitts Jr. Authors may submit one group of 4-6 unpublished poems per year.
My Machberet
This blog by Erika Dreifus, who also runs the writers' resource site The Practicing Writer, focuses on Jewish literary news and commentary. Machberet is the Hebrew word for notebook.
Kingdom Poets
Canadian poet D.S. Martin edits this blog showcasing classic and contemporary Christian poets.
Jewish Review of Books
Launched in 2010, this print and online journal features critical essays about religion, literature, culture, and politics, as well as fiction, poetry, and the arts.
Image: Art, Faith, Mystery
Beautifully designed, thought-provoking quarterly journal of the arts and religion. Free email newsletter profiles contemporary artists, writers and musicians whose work engages with spiritual themes in profound ways.
G.K. Chesterton’s Works on the Web
This fan site maintained by British computer scientist Martin Ward offers the full texts of books and articles by the prolific turn-of-the-century poet, fiction writer, journalist and popular theologian Gilbert K. Chesterton, best known today for his "Father Brown" mystery stories.
Facing Altars: Poetry and Prayer
Poet and memoirist Mary Karr muses on the resemblance between poetry and prayer as "sacred speech" that eases the soul's isolation. Karr also describes her recent conversion to Catholicism from a secular upbringing that made a religion out of art and literature. "People usually (always?) come to church as they do to prayer and poetry—through suffering and terror."
Cuttings: Haiku and Short Poems
Links to haiku and Zen Buddhist quotations compiled by Michael P. Garofalo on his Garden Digest website.
Writing.org: Poetry Scams?
The good news: You're a winner. The bad news: It's costing you fifty bucks...For a struggling poet, it can be painful to admit that a letter from a poetry contest or publisher is nothing more than a sales hustle. But what's worse: being honest with yourself or being the victim of a company that exploits the vanity of aspiring poets?
WritersWeekly Warnings
Names publishers and organizations that writers have had disputes with.
Writer Beware Blog
Authors/scam hunters Victoria Strauss and A.C. Crispin give advice on avoiding scam contests, working with editors and agents, and understanding your legal rights. Writer Beware is a project of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's Committee on Writing Scams.
Wocky Jivvy: Poems of Shame
Brave and as yet unsuccessful attempts to write a poem that The National Library of Poetry won't accept. From "Dawn of a New Eve": "Now he offers me dark fruit;/A piece of pie for my bloodroot./Thick serpent slithers through my verse;/Is what he seeks inside my purse?/'Oh Eve, I ssssavor what you wrote!'/Now he's coiled around my throat..."
Warnings and Cautions
Website dedicated to identifying scams.
The Flarf Files
"Flarf" is a collaborative poetic technique that creates nonsensical poems from the results of odd Google keyword searches, Internet chat-room lingo, and the "corrosive, cute, or cloying, awfulness" of the amateur poetry that is popular in online forums. Begun as a spoof of Poetry.com's low standards, the Flarf "movement" also satirizes how so-called "mainstream" poetry is actually produced by and for an irrelevant elite class, while the poetry that most people read is the (generally bad) amateur poetry circulated between individuals and posted on the Internet. For more on the latter point, see the related website http://mainstreampoetry.blogspot.com/.
ST Literary Agency - writers’ break, or just crooked?
Firstwriter.com advises writers to think carefully before signing with ST Literary Agency. ST asks you to provide a $129 "Admin Fee" when you sign up. Other areas of concern: ST is not affiliated with an official industry association such as the Association of Authors' Representatives; few well-established agencies advertise much, since they already receive plenty of manuscripts. ST, however, advertises aggressively; most agencies cultivate a specialty, and reject manuscripts that fall outside it. ST, however, is willing to accept most any manuscript. This caution appeared in Firstwriter's August 2004 newsletter. Subscribe for free.
Rip-off Report.com
A good place to check for complaints about contests and publishers.
Professor Roy’s Amazingly Bad Poetry Journal
Satirist "Professor Roy" searches Poetry.com for the worst possible poems, and explains just why they're so bad. Visit his User Info page for warnings about poetry scams.
Poetry Winner (I & II)
By Jessica Westhead. Satirical chapbooks by one of Poetry.com's innumerable "semifinalists" memorialize her mostly fruitless efforts to contact the contest operators. Email Jessica to obtain a copy.
On Entering Your Poems in Competition
Kurt Heintz advises poets on the kinds of online contests worth entering.
Critique Circle
Critique Circle is a free online forum for writers of literary fiction, genre fiction, essays, and articles. Members can give feedback on each other's work, either on the public site or in a private group. The site includes tools for plot outlining, storyboarding, keeping track of submissions, and writing prompts.
Wergle Flomp Poetry Contest Winners
This contest sponsored by Winning Writers pokes fun at the low standards of vanity poetry contests by awarding prizes for poems so bad they're good. From the off-color to the merely off-the-wall, these poems will give you a good laugh while also instructing you in how well-intentioned serious work can go awry. Squeamish folks beware.
The Godawful Sonnet Generator
Award-winning poet F.J. Bergmann created this random sonnet generator by writing a dozen cliche-ridden sonnets with the same end-rhymes, which the computer program reshuffles to produce over 15 billion unique, dreadful poems. Submit one to your favorite vanity contest today!
The Family Poet
Hundreds of family-friendly humorous rhyming poems, written and illustrated by R. Wayne Edwards.
The Emily Chesley Reading Circle
Where a number of odd ducks gather to celebrate the work of Emily Chesley, Dr. Maximilian Tundra and their Victorian familiars. Don't miss their annual contest of speculative poetry and short fiction.
The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
We are straying from poetry here, but it's worth it. This contest asks entrants to compose the opening sentence of the worst of all possible novels. Named for Victorian novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton, originator of Snoopy's favorite opening line, 'It was a dark and stormy night.' Entry is free. The winner receives notoriety. Read the Lyttony of Grand Prize Winners.
RinkWorks Fun with Words
Explore the freakatorium that is the English language. Contronyms are words that are their own antonyms. To cleave, for example, can mean to separate or to adhere. Insinuate bizarre new additions into your vocabulary. A hoyden, you'll learn, will seldom infucate. Then there are the conflicting proverbs. We also love Crazy Libs, another site by the same person. Together we amended the constitution as follows: We the waffles of the United States, in order to grope a more mushy filing cabinet,/wallop insanity, nuzzle conniving hunger, yell for the silky lust, bonk the greasy charisma, and ridicule the blessings of arrogance to ourselves and our frigidity,/do smack and defenestrate this wig for the United States of America.
Ogden Nash (1902-1974)
Master of American light verse. "How are we to survive?" asks Nash. "Solemnity is not the answer, any more than witless and irresponsible frivolousness. I think our best chance—a good chance—lies in humor, which, in this case, means a wry acceptance of our predicament." Bio. Celebrating the 100th anniversary of his birth.
