PoetryGone is the world of ink and quill poetry. Well, actually there probably is a website out there dedicated to writing poems with ink and a quill pen; I just haven’t found it yet. But for the most part, poetry has entered the Internet age, like it or not.

And maybe this isn’t the end of the world. Ink writing, as can be seen in the graphic to the left, was a bit messy in its own way. When you start to dip into the world of poetry and literature websites, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and throw yourself into lamentations that there are too many poets, too many bloggers, too many people spouting their opinions.

You may say there are not enough readers (for your poetry, let’s be honest). But I’ve just spent hours and hours over the last few months visiting literally hundreds of writing, literature, academic and poetry blogs and websites and all of these folks are happily reading and reading ravenously. I don’t believe for one minute that it’s a shame so many people are blogging about literature and poetry. I think it means only that the Internet has felled the gates of the gatekeepers and the masses have risen to talk about their love of books.

Today we have to be our own gatekeepers. Which for those complainers, this might be a drag for you. It means more labor in the service of literature. (You don’t sit on your fat ass reading books for nothin!)

I have discovered, however, that most literature websites have very messy blog rolls (lists of their favorite websites). Believe me, I’ve dealt with these blog rolls quite intimately. You have no idea perusing them which blogs are good for news, which blogs are good for commentary, which are good for book reviews.

And this is what makes my blog roll superior, in my humble opinion. I’ve used the social bookmarking site StumbleUpon to house my blog roll and recently I’ve created handy lists to categorize all the many fine websites. My categories are based not on what a website or blog may have been created to provide, but what I personally find useful about the blog. For instance a blog may be a book-review blog but I find it more useful in keeping up with industry news and so I’ve categorized it as such.

Please feel encouraged to visit my blogroll and peruse or “follow” my lists or leave comments about the way they’re organized or what would be more helpful.

All 107+ of my favorite sites can be found randomly on my StumbleUpon Likes page.

You can view all 10+ lists on my StumbleUpon List page.

Here are the individual lists

  • Poems to Read – Sites that primarily exist to provide you with good poems to read.
      
  • Lit Chat – Braniacs working over all kinds of literature topics.
      
  • Ruminations on Poetry — like Lit Chat but all poetry braniacs.
      
  • Lit News – My most favorite type of literature site: gossip!
      
  • Life as a Poet – Blogs that talk about the day-to-day life of being a poet. Invaluable honesty.
      
  • Off-the-Beaten-Path Book Reviews – Quirky reading journeys.
       
  • Books as Objects – Sites that “cover” book design.
      
  • Specialty Poetry – Sites that deal with specific kinds of poetry, war poetry, avant garde poetry, Sci Fi, Mathematical, sacred poetry, translations.
     
  • Interaction – Sites that provide ways for you to interact with other poets, teachers or get involved in the world of poetry.
      
  • Good Literary Distraction – Sometimes you just get tired of heady literary bickering and you want a website with pictures of books that have fallen into the bathtub or posts from a bookstore owner or reviews of the covers of dime-store novels or posts that will talk you down from ever desiring an academic career.