Where to Find Poems and Poetry Information

A beginning poet emailed me today and asked where to start reading poetry, so I gave him this brief beginning guide which I want to share.

Two Poets to start with:

Mary Oliver - heartfelt and full of nature

Yusef Komunyakaa - Viet Nam war, different rhythm to his poetic music, very important to American poetry

As for anthologies:

Each year The Best American Poetry. It comes out every September and is very representative of good poems. Seventy poems are included in each collection.

Each year the Pushcart Prize anthology. Not as many poems are included.

If you study these two poets and two collections, it will lead you down a solid road to discovering good poems.

Here are some great websites:

Poetry Foundation at http://www.poetryfoundation.org/ This is the standard in world poetry. Enjoy!

The Academy of American poets at http://www.poets.org/  Another excellent resource.

and another wonderful site, Poetry Daily, at http://poems.com/