the poem tree

The Poem Tree, administered and edited by Caleb Murdock,  contains a wealth of metered poetry from Shakespeare up to the present. Although there are many examples of free-form verse in the site’s collection, the primary focus is on more formal poetry.

As Mr. Murdock points out, metered poetry is making a comeback.  One only has to browse the wealth of poetry blogs out there to find many fine examples of active, creative poets that are adhering to past forms

Set aside time to browse the  essays  particularly Murdock’s  “Is It Poetry or Prose?” and “A Look at Scansion Methods”

The Poem Tree also accepts submissions of  previously published poetry submissions (even if only published in a small journal or on a website.)   Both quality and use of meter appear to be an important part of the selection process: those poems posted on the site are worth exploring!

Tarot Mandalas

I want to try to identify some less trafficked blogs that are just as worth visiting as their much busier superhighway neighbors.

Tarot Mandalas is not your traditional poetry blog.  The poems are supposedly based on Tarot Readings — and this is an area I have not knowledge of or understanding of — yet, each entry reads like a wonderfully wrought poem, each with a special musical identity.

The author poets together ten-line stanzas (usually, it seems, into 9 stanza poems).

I am so tempted to quote one of these amazing verses, but don’t wish to do so without the author’s permission. (May update this post with a quote later, if I do get such permission, however, the site appears to have been inactive for awhile.)

Rather than my attempting to further explain the nature of this site, best for you to ditch my blog and visit the Tarot Mandalas site.

Silliman’s Blog

Ron Silliman, the 2006 Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere, provides a website of exploration, an online amusement park, that covers not only poetry but music  (John Cage, Fred Hersch, Anthony Braxton), art, linguistics, books and literature, dance (Merce Cunningham) and other worthwhile subjects.  Make no mistake, this site’s focus is poetry, poems and poets:  videos of topnotch poets reading their works, excerpts of poems, complete poems, external links for living poets, fitting remembrances of those passing on, and Ron Sillman’s own writing.  The amount of content here is overwhelming and a tribute to Sillman’s energy and  productivity.

Check out Mr. Sillman’s site, his blogroll and some of his poems.

Welcome!

Every once in a while, I will post a recommended poem site and some corresponding comments.  I hope you enjoy these sites as much as I do.

For suggestions of worthy sites please add a comment to any of the posts here and your thoughts on sites that should be included.  Even if I don’t include your recommendation as a post, at least by including in your comments, someone with better judgement than I will have your recommended link available for their immediate use.