Poetry p f is a link which deserves more publicity. For years now, it has quietly been a catalogue, showcase, resource centre and online bookshop for the UK’s contemporary poetry world. On its site you can find out about over 100 poets, each with his or her own page. You can read samples of their work. Is there a poet you’ve heard about and would like to know more of? You can most likely find them there. Or perhaps you feel like browsing. Close your eyes, press the “Lucky Dip” button and then voila – you’ll be introduced to someone you never knew was out there, or maybe someone you’ve heard about but was meaning to read more of. I think that for all poetry lovers, readers and writers alike, new to the game or veterans, poetry p f is an invaluable tool. Maybe you’ll even be moved to buy a collection or two. After all, as they themselves say at the top of their online shop : even poets need income.
So go take a look. You’ll find a lot of friendly faces, thousands of beautiful words, and even a surprise or two.
Hmmm. I decided not to go with this one. For the following reasons:
The website’s appearance is poor. It looks very amateur, even though it may not be. Poet’s individual pages are better – but the visitor has to get past the awful home page.
The lack of marketing – I’d never heard of it, even though I am active in writing circles both online and off, and very interested in contemporary poetry.
And allied to that concern – the market… seems that in the main, the only people who visit are its own members. Unless there are statistics to show thousands of hits from non members, of course…
The annual fee to belong. I did a quick sum, and backed off…
Data issues: I just went and looked at the competitions data for example -very sparse indeed. it does not bear comparison with the data available easily and clearly on the Poetry Library website.
Am probably an old curmudgeon, but it didn’t stack up for this mini-poet!
My approach has been a different one. In my experience, much of poetry is about community. Who do we know, who do we see at readings, whose readings to we go to, whose poetry do we read? When I first became a part of this world, I saw that most of the poets who were a supportive part of this community had a Poetry pf presence, and still do – despite the hesitations you voiced, which are undoubtedly true, as well. It’s a community I want to be a part of and so I keep my page. Selling poetry is another thing and another discussion. The gist of that, though, is that the main purchasers of poetry books and mags are other poets. And they don’t always do it, either.
I am not in a poetry community, although I attend local readings for poets I know, when I can, but would not travel miles unless it was very intriguing, I know. Would rather spend the £ buying a book!
Bookswise, my poetry shelves outstrip my short story shelves by a factor of two to one – so I guess I support, but not in the same way 🙂
Yes, it’s all part of the same thing, I think — namely, all of us finding our own ways to support each other, our art and creativity. If only there were more off us as committed as you are 🙂