A few of my favorite things

One comment to my April 1st post ushering in National Poetry Month suggested that I tell you my favorite places to read poetry online. These are just a few of the many places I like to browse when I am searching for a new poem to write or want to read something besides what's on my shelves.

Mannequin Envy is a site that I enjoy as much for the poetry as for the carefully selected images that accompany the texts. The poems on the first read might seem "off the cuff," but they aren't messy first drafts. As I reader I feel that these poems hit the unexpected, get dazed, and keep going in order to do it again.

H_ngm_n: A Journal of Online Poetry and Poetics is fun to navigate, and the layout feels fresh. They publish a handful of poems and longer poems by the poets so you get a good sense of each individual voice. This poetry seems to need to be read aloud, preferably in the company of an improvisational jazz band in the background; it makes me feel like I need a cigarette and I don't even smoke.

There's no need for me to say anything about what Ploughshares offers in poetic quality since so many established writers have been published there, but what you may not know is that the web editions of each issue rotate which texts are available. So if the Duhamel poem is locked today, next week it might not be.

No Tell Motel updates with a new poem almost every day, and they usually publish several poems by each poet so sometimes I find someone I like and start looking for other things they've written that are available on the web. The styles and subjects are really varied, so if the first poem isn't to your liking, just keep scrolling down for something different.

And lastly, I adore The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. Each writer has a Southern Legitimacy Statement,but they are mostly not Jeff Foxworthy rip-offs. The poetry and fiction are well-crafted contemporary pieces with dashes of regionalism, identity, and place.

So tell me what are your favorite places to read poetry (or any other genre) online?