Have You Given These Sites Some Love Lately?

• C'mon, dear readers, it's time to Get Your Love On over to Poets Who Blog, an active community blog run by Sara for poets to get to know each others work, participate in group poems such as the Patchwork poem (check out Patchwork Poetry for some great examples of this form) and poems-by-prompt. Plus you can learn other forms of poetry like the "cento" which is a poem comprised of lines from other poets works; write poems based on words or lines donated by group members that must be incorporated into your poem; try your hand at a villanelle or ghazal or sestina.

• Next, please go visit Billy the Blogging Poet for a look at his blogging prowess; his powerful poems; his penchant for bringing important issues to the forefront. Billy Jones is a true friend to all poets - he likes to showcase poets he finds of interest and provides a community blog for poets to share their poetry with the public. Why not join up with the Blogsboro Poetry Club where you'll find a potpourri of talented poets!

• Next stop, the World Class Poetry Blog, where you'll find just about everything you need to know about poetry, poets, and the makings thereof; Allen definitely knows his stuff and also likes to mix it up and have fun while informing his readers!
  
  
• Allen has written about the 11 Mistakes Poets Make When Seeking Book Reviews, The Importance of Explosive Imagination in Poetry, Using I As A Persona, Modern, Postmodern, & Post-Postmodern: Why Poetry is No Longer in Disintegration Mode, Mixing Poetry With Art is Good Exposure For All, 10 Poetry Articles You Must Read, and Millennial Poetics: A New Way Of Thinking About Craft (one of a series on his Millennial Poetics, a must read!)
  
  
  
• Can't give enough link luv to Glenn Buttkus, co-contributor of Feel Free to Read blog; a perfect blend of poetry, celebrity & singer quotes and bios, American history & photographs, album covers and song lyrics to keep you enrapt for hours. If you're a Sherman Alexie fan, as I am, well, you'll find a wealth of Alexie poetry & remembrance at Glenn's Feel Free to Read 7th Heaven haven, as well as other American Indian poets such as Standing Bear Chief of the Oglala Sioux, Simon Ortiz, and Harlan Atwater Mythical Spokane Indian Poet *wink,wink*
  

Ok, this ought to Get Your Poetry On! - until next time!

Poetic Bytes

• If I handed you a 300-page epic poem about werewolves in modern-day Los Angeles, would you want to read it? William Weir of The Hartford Courant writes about Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow , a novel in free verse. Dare ya!
• Oh, oh. When is a poem a "poem?" The Queen's English Society in reference to contemporary poets has espoused that "too often strings of words are being labeled as poems despite the fact they have no rhyme or metre." (sniff, sniff) The QES believes The Sun Rising by John Donne is a poem, but not so for contemporary poet Michael Schmidt's poem entitled Pangur Ban, excerpt below. What say you?

Jerome has his enormous dozy lion.
Myself, I have a cat, my Pangur Ban.
What did Jerome feed up his lion with?
Always he's fat and fleecy, always sleeping
As if after a meal.
Perhaps a Christian?
Perhaps a lamb, or a fish, or a loaf of bread.
His lion's always smiling, chin on paw,
What looks like purring rippling his face
And there on Jerome's escritoire by the quill and ink pot
The long black thorn he drew from the lion's paw.

• From Richard K. Weems' drive-by poetry to Dave Johnson's charity poetry-on-the-spot, and the original Douglas Goetsch's poetry stand, we have the newest spin-off poetry-on-demand presented by Bainbridge Island West Sound Academy high school's celebration of National Poetry Month.
• The People's Poetry Gathering stretches a clothesline of poems from around the world across the streets of Lower Manhattan.
• WordFest 2008, a poetry showcase created by pioneers of Asheville's poetry movement, in Asheville, NC, starts Thursday - April 27 all over town. Featuring Pulitzer Prive-winning poet Galway Kinnell, four-time National Poetry Slam champion Patricia Smith, renowned translator of Sufi Poet Rumi, Coleman Barks, NC Poet Laureate Kathryn Stripling Byer, Jewish Arts Institute's Richard Chess, Cherokee poet MariJo Moore. Read WordFest highlights here.
• Dont Miss Out on This! LibraryThing, Favorite Poem Project, World Class Poetry, Poets Who Blog, or Blogsboro Poetry Club.
  
• New Hampshire poet Martha Carlson-Bradley reminds us to not overlook the wonders of nature - she uses them to tell us about ourselves - in her poetry book, Season We Can't Resist. Read article by Rebecca Rule of the Concord Monitor here.