I joined this challenge to stretch myself as I tend not to read poetry by choice. Six months down the line I still don’t, but nil desperandum, I have at least become more aware. There are now some poetry blogs in my google reader; I will be reviewing an entire poetry collection in the next couple of days; and I am planning to attend a couple of poetry events at this year’s Edinburgh Book Festival. Shall we say that poetry is growing (albeit slowly) on me? Who knows what the rest of the year will bring?
To prove my newfound awareness, here are a couple of links to online poetry resources, which I would have previously ignored.
1) No matter where you are in the world, you cannot have missed the fact that it is the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. To honour that, Faber have produced a multi-media library of 60 poems, one for each year of Her Majesty’s reign. The intention is to document the social changes that have occurred. It’s an interesting library to browse through. For personal reasons (ahem) I think 1958 was a fantastic vintage.
2) The Scottish Poetry Library has an online database of poems to peruse, ponder and enjoy, a weekly podcast and a poem of the moment. No need to visit it in person as I did last month! With the Olympics on the horizon, why not browse The Written World, a collaboration between the SPL and the BBC. The project aims to represent all 204 participating nations in poetry.
My favourite poetry website is definitely the poetry archive: http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/home.do
Last year I joined a challenge where the goal was to read 1 book of poetry. In the whole year. One. (For what it’s worth, I made it!)
You don’t have to make a big change to improve things.
I’ve enjoyed your poetry posts and your insights, and thank you for some new poetry links.
Thanks, Snowball. Glad you enjoyed the links. Must say I’m loving your Nobel Laureate sequence .
Shame though that the hosts of the Blog More Poetry events are unhappy and have called off June’s “gathering”. Have you any idea why?
I have no idea why. Time seems to be a factor for some and others seem to want more direction.
Being a poetry lover, I’m always surprised and a little sad at how difficult it can be for others. I wish there was something I could to to make it easier.
I’m glad you enjoyed the Poets Laureate. At this time I’ve only posted the 11 women who have held the title.
I think poetry has to grow slowly on anyone. Maybe the organizers were hoping for more of a jump start, with everyone wild about Wordsworth and bonkers for Browning!
I agree with what others have said here. Poetry is tough for some people because, let’s face it, some prose is not very accessible. I have taken a personal challenge to write a new poem every day for a year and post it on my site (http://www.poemfix.com). What have I gotten myself in to? Arghhh!
Another great one is the (US) Poetry Foundation: http://www.poetryfoundation.org
Also, I cannot praise their Android and iPhone app highly enough – it’s a great way to find poetry to suit the mood!