Who to follow for National Poetry Month—and maybe all year long

1 • Poetic Earth Month

If you love to sit on a pristine beach, watch a gorgeous sunset over mountains or plains, enjoy delicious food with friends, or any number of amazing things we can do on this beautiful earth, you might like the chance to “read and write the world, poetically” during Poetic Earth Month—a public month sponsored by Tweetspeak Poetry as a sister celebration during National Poetry Month. Watch for a new 30 Days, 30 Poems challenge and a curated poem collection. Or try the Earth to Poetry challenge, developed last year.

2 • American Life in Poetry

An initiative of U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser, ALPoetry offers weekly a free, downloadable poem with commentary. It also boasts an archive of hundreds of poems that are frequently humorous, sometimes deeply moving, and always speak to place and what is uniquely American in spirit.

3 • From the Fishouse

Emphasizing poetry as oral tradition, this site showcases poets with fewer than two published collections. What matters are not the names on the poems but the poems themselves, presented in their creators’ voices. With more than 500 audio files, the site offers users insights into how emerging poets think about and practice their craft.

4 • Modern American Poetry Site

The serious student or teacher of poetry cannot go wrong with MAPS, which comprises more than 30, 000 pages of online biographies, critical essays, syllabi, and images for more than 160 modern poets. For some poets, it’s the only source for scholarly commentary. Detailed analyses of poems and poetry-related ephemera are noteworthy.

5 • MotionPoems

Not everyone can “get” a poem by reading it. MotionPoems animates words in ways that uncover meaning through wonderfully creative use of music and graphics.

Click to get FREE 5-Prompt Mini-Series

6 • PennSound

No site does a better job than PennSound of documenting, preserving, and making easily accessible historic and contemporary sound recordings you’ll find nowhere else.

7 • Poets & Writers

We like how poets are singled out among the larger group of writers here. The trove of resources includes unparalleled databases of literary magazines, presses, agents, contests, writers’ tools, and readings and workshops. The “My P&W” community is active and supportive.

8 • Poetry Foundation

Cheeky Harriet, the foundation’s blog, makes clear that poetry doesn’t equate to the stiff and stuffy. Notable site features include a Learning Lab, children’s poetry, podcasts, video, and selections from the estimable Poetry magazine. Poems are searchable by school/period, regions, and century and can be accessed using the latest technology.

9 • Poetry International Web

Start in Afghanistan and end in Zimbabwe, but let PIW take you on your global poetry tour. You won’t need a passport to cross borders and listen to the many voices you’ll hear only in this international community. In addition to informative articles, audio/video recordings, and interviews, PIW offers thousands of poems in their original language and English translations.

10 • Words Without Borders

While this site deals with the world of literature as a whole, it also shares a wide variety of international poetry. As their stated mission notes, they seek to “open doors for readers of English around the world to the multiplicity of viewpoints, richness of experience, and literary perspective on world events offered by writers in other languages.” You’ll find new voices here that you might not find elsewhere. Explore.

BONUS

11 • Moms on Poetry

For mothers, daughters, sons, or whoever has loved (or struggled with) their mother, this growing collection of poetry stirs and consoles, humors and challenges. And the tagline alone is worth a visit.

Photo by PS Lee, Creative Commons, via Flickr. This is a modified reprint of a post by Maureen Doallas, author of Neruda’s Memoirs: Poems.

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