21st Century Poetry: Poetry and the Internet by Beau Blue #4

The poetry from the discussion boards and in the Ezines of those boards in the mid nineties was all text based. Everyone was emulating print publishers and reveling in the fact that a lit pub was now easier and far cheaper to produce. POD changed things even further. Some very good independent outfits produced some really good non-print print publications. But the vast majority of those first poetry zines, like the vast majority of all things, was homogeneous and bland.

I started pushing the idea of internet poetry right then.

The poetry Ezines of the nineties missed the point of the internet's power. Some pubs and editors started presenting sound with their printed poems, realizing their audiences longed for a return to poetry's roots .. the spoken word performance. So, Poetry LA opened shop and started presenting recordings of poets reading their stuff and performing poetry on the internet.

More and more people are capitalizing on the inexpensive presentation of color graphics and photos. The Ezines keep getting slicker, but most are still caught in the last century. Pushing paper and ink, resisting e-books and e-periodicals, etc., etc. Depending too much on template driven publication software. Needless to say, I disagree with their approach.

But I feel a flash-over is coming. 

So much for a synopsis of how poetry and the internet are intertwined. Now for a call for group participation: I would like it if some of you dear readers would call out your favorite website and their URLs in the comments section of this post. 

It would be appreciated and just might steer this column to exotic poetic places. Thanks, Blue