By Travis King

The Internet contains a wealth of information about poetry, but sometimes it can be overwhelming. For those who want a simple place to start, I recommend the website of the Chicago-based Poetry Foundation. If you’re not yet familiar with this organization, they describe themselves as “an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience.” The Foundation’s website is a treasure trove of resources and information devoted to this purpose and is divided into five sections: Features, Archive, Programs, Foundation, and Poetry Magazine.

The Features section contains articles on a variety of poetry-related topics as well as links to news items from sources worldwide, and a blog maintained by members of the Foundation’s staff. It also contains a list of recent poetry bestsellers in the categories of “contemporary,” “anthology,” “children’s,” and “small press.” The most interesting items found in the Features section—in my opinion, anyway—are the five video series and eight audio podcasts the Foundation offers; both informative and entertaining, they’re definitely worth checking out.

In the Archive section, the Foundation maintains a gallery of poetry-related photos, cartoons, posters, and other media suitable for viewing or printing, a selection of online analyses (reading guides) of various poems, and links to hundreds of other websites that poets and poetry aficionados might find useful, including publishers, blogs, poetry organizations, reference resources, and more. Also lodged within the Archive section is the Foundation’s “Poetry Tool,” which is, essentially a searchable database of poems and poets, neatly broken down into categories and subcategories; it also serves as a search engine for the entire website, making it possible to find the articles, podcasts, and videos devoted to the topics you want.

The Poetry Foundation sponsors a number of programs promoting poetry, and these can easily be found in the Programs section of the site. Here you can learn about the Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute, the purpose of which “is to convene interested parties to champion common solutions for the benefit of poets and the art form of poetry,” as well as the Foundation’s Poetry Media Service, which provides book reviews, general articles, interviews, and profiles to newspapers and online publications in an attempt to bring poetry to the attention of the general populace. In addition, there is a page that catalogs poetry events in the Foundation’s home base of Chicago, and for teachers and parents, the Children’s Poetry page compiles the site’s articles, poems, videos, and podcasts dedicated to teaching children about poetry.

The Foundation section of the website includes the obligatory “About” page, contact information, various announcements, and a sign-up form for the Foundation’s newsletter. For dedicated poets, it also includes information about awards, prizes, and fellowships offered by the Foundation.

Finally, the Poetry Magazine section features a selection of articles from current and past issues of Poetry as well as a subscription form and information on submitting your work for publication.

I consider the Poetry Foundation website a fundamental resource for poets and others who enjoy poetry. If you have never visited the site, or have given it only a cursory view in the past, I urge you to take a look at all it has to offer and make as much use of it as you can.