Sunday, June 26, 2011

A Day on the Links - Poetry Edition

Yesterday, I wrote about some of my favourite classic poems.  I grew up with all of these and despite having been forced to dissect a few of them for my high school English classes, I love them all still.

Despite my love for them, I don't get around to re-reading my favourite classic poems very often.  So, in the hopes that we can all find the time to enjoy the classics, I am using today's links to share some great sites for poetry.

Enjoy -- and be inspired.

Famous Poets and Poems: If you haven't spent a lot of time reading poems outside of the classroom, this is a good website to start.  It features some of the famous names everyone's probably heard of, like Emily Dickinson and Maya Angelou, and lets you roam around sampling from lists like "Top 50 Poems" or by themes such as Relationship Poems or Death Poems.

Poets.org: I can't say enough about this website.  It's an omnibus site with poems, poet biographies, recordings, essays, articles and more.  Everyone you wanted to know about poetry and were afraid to ask!  This is the perfect place to go after you've read a poem that grabs you by the throat (or the heartstrings) and you want to know more about the poet or the theme the poet was writing on.

Classic Poem Daily: I like this idea that if you forget to get a poetry fix every once in a while, a classic poem still arrives in your mailbox every day for you to enjoy.  I tend to amass many such emails and then read them all at once but the pleasure is still heady even when you gorge on poems.  A good way to get a daily reminder to write and appreciate great writing.

Poems are examples of writing at its most feral and most pure.  Explore them as I continue to do.  They will inspire you.

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