As everyone knows, April is National Poetry Month! Lots of poetry challenges are on the way, like writing one poem a day and finding the best poem to carry in a pocket (for Poem In Your Pocket Day; this year it’s April 30). Buying all the poetry books is also a great way to celebrate. When your book budget explodes, you can visit these websites to find free poetry online.
Poets.org
The Academy of American Poets was founded in 1934 with a mission to support and defend poets financially and artistically. Poets.org is a database of thousands of poems and poets that includes multimedia resources for everyday poetry lovers as well as educators. It also houses a calendar to find poetry events and offers one poem a day that can be delivered straight to your inbox each morning.
PoetryFoundation.org
The Poetry Foundation strives to increase the awareness and prestige of poetry in society. They publish Poetry, a magazine that has been around for over 100 years. The site also features thousands of poems and poets as well as podcast conversations and other multimedia poetry efforts.
Poems.com
For another daily dose of poetry in your inbox, you can sign up with Daily Poetry. The site’s homepage features their poem of the day. Additional poems reside in their archive. They also have poetry news and features like their “What Sparks Poetry” series, conversations with poets about particular poem inspirations.
SlowdownShow.org
Tracy K. Smith is one of my favorite poets. If you haven’t read his work, Duende, Life On Mars and Wade In The Water are a good place to start. Then you can listen and read his recommendations on Slowdown. It’s a daily 5-minute podcast in which she (and sometimes Jenny Xie, author of Eye Level) talks about a poem and then reads it. The website has all the archives, and their Twitter and Instagram feeds also feature images and the text of the poem. Again, you can also receive it in your inbox.
ButtonPoetry.com
Poetry button is a publishing and poetry house that promotes slam shows. They’re all over social media with fun swag and lots of books to buy. If you want free, check out the Best of Button blog and watch their video archive.
LittleInfinite.com
Infinite little poetry defines itself as Poetry For Life. They have textual, visual and sound poetry. They have resources for playing, reading and writing. They also run a slew of contests throughout the year and often post poetry snippets on their social media sites.
FamousPoetsAndPoems.com
Famous poets and poems that’s exactly what it’s called. Here is an online archive of famous poets and their poems. Additionally, they list Poet of the Month, Poem of the Month, and an entire page devoted to famous love poems.
TheOtherPages.org/poems
The corner of poets was created online in 1994. It has an old-school Internet vibe, which induces a kind of nostalgia. In addition to their author index, you can also search their site by subject, title, first line, and chronological index. Basically, they have you covered for whatever you are looking for.
Luminarium.org
If you like super-old-school English poetry, like from Medieval Times to the Cavalier Poets, then go to Lamp. It’s not just poetry, but there’s a lot of poetry here, it’s all free, all for you, all in this unique slot.
For more poetry on Book Riot, check out our archive here.
Happy Poetry Month!
