by Greg Schwartz

Created on: August 02, 2009

The Internet is filled with websites that are beneficial to poets. Whether you're looking for a list of magazines to submit to, good books to read, or articles on perfecting your craft, you can find it online. Here are some good online resources for poets:

- Poets.org
Poets.org contains a lot of information and many links for poets. Among the many parts of the site are a

national poetry calendar, a list of brief definitions of poetic terms, and a poetry forum where you can find more resources or get your poetry-related questions answered.

- Poets & Writers
Poets & Writers is a print magazine, but on their website they list poetry contests with approaching deadlines, as well as a handy submission calendar.

- Poetry.com
Poetry.com used to be run by the National Library of Poetry (AKA the International Library of Poetry) and it was nothing but a scam site used to entice poets into buying expensive anthologies of questionable-quality poetry. Now the site is owned by Lulu.com, and it contains a handy reference section, including a breakdown of poetic techniques and an online rhyming dictionary.

- Near Perfect Books of Poetry
Don Wentworth, editor of Lilliput Review and Modest Proposal Chapbooks, has put together (with some input from readers) a list of over 200 near perfect books of poetry. In addition to writing, poets should spend a lot of time reading, so use this list to find some good books of poetry you may not have read yet.

- Millikin University Haiku
Haiku poets will find this site to be full of helpful resources. The site is run by Randy Brooks, editor of Mayfly, and contains information contributed by students at Millikin University that study haiku. There are essays on haiku poetics, as well as lists of haiku websites and haiku magazines (including some submission tips).

- Ralan.com
Writers of speculative poetry will find Ralan to be their best source for market information. The site contains a huge listing of places to submit to (including book publishers and anthologies) broken down by pay rates, as well as current poetry contests and a list of dead markets not to submit to.

Even here on Helium you can find plenty of worthwhile resources for poets. Here are some sample Helium articles, but a quick search will yield many more:

- How to analyze a poem
- How to find poetry contests online
- Tips for entering poetry contests
- Tips for submitting poems to magazines
- Writing poetry: A how-to guide

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