Bethany Hargrove
The Broadside
April is National Poetry month and the Internet is full of resources to indulge and foster your inner poet. This week, I encourage you to check out these sites which are full of poems that are both classic and brand new.
http://www.poets.org
Organized meticulously by poem and poet, Poets.org is a fantastic resource for finding the perfect poem for any occasion.
By browsing categories from love to war, you can successfully discover a meaningful poem for almost any event you want it for.
Poets.org doesn’t limit itself to classic poetry or contemporary works, but rather has a huge database with hundreds of poets’ work.
http://www.graphicpoetry.net/
Rather different, Graphic Poetry is one man’s photographic and poetic exploration of life.
His creations are remarkably beautiful and easy to browse because his site is laid out like a web comic. A refreshing break from most poetry sites, which quickly look like huge walls of text, Graphic Poetry is worth the visuals even if you don’t get the poems.
http://oldpoetry.com/
On another different note, Old Poetry focuses solely on classic poetry, hence the “old.” While this site isn’t very pretty to look at or easy to navigate, its database is big and the authors are varied, and are all considered important to poetic literary study. This site is inspiring.
http://hellopoetry.com
And at yet a totally different end of the spectrum is Hello Poetry, which is community-based and focused on sharing and critiquing poetry, all with the common goal of being read and eventually published.
Maybe poetry isn’t your thing, but whether you write, read or hate poetry, it’s worth taking time to appreciate the cerebral time spent to create rhythmic verse and beautiful words. Agree or disagree? Let me know via email.
You can contact Bethany Hargrove at [email protected]