Global Poetry

Global Poetry Resources

SUNY Cortland Poetry Webinars

Poetry of Resistance Webinar, part 1 of the Powertry Webinar Series (fall 2020)

Well-being Poetry Webinar, part 2 of the Powertry Webinar Series (fall 2020)

Poetry Websites

Edited by Daniel Larkin (Junior, Adolescence Education - Social Studies & History)

Website: The Guardian - Poem of the Week

The Guardian publishes one poem every week. These poems are chosen by British poem Carol Rumens.

Website: Poetry Foundation

The Poetry Foundation is also the publishers of Poetry Magazine, and thus route out the best poems to spread to a wide audience. Using their website just a little bit, one can find poems on a wide array of topics such as quarantine and general well-being. They also have several collections of poetry, such as one of Hope and Resilience.

Website: Commaful

This website contains a wide array of non-published writing on a wide range of topics. Focusing particularly on the poetry of the site, authors here are non-published individuals, as anyone could submit to this site, though it may be interesting to see what “average” writers feel about the topics at hand, and how they use poetry to comment on COVID, the world around them, and their own mental health. This site is probably the “least professional” of those I have looked at, though it is also one of the most openly available for writers looking to submit their writing for others to see.

Article: Quarantine Thoughts: Poetry in a Pandemic

This article contains some interesting poems on perception of quarantine submitted by what appears to be students of this particular school. These poems are interesting because everyone was impacted by the current pandemic, and thus perspectives from a wide range of people; not just accredited authors, can be important to see. This is not a database, but rather a collection of about 5 poems, though they do offer the student perspective.

Website: Words Without Borders - Poetry

Words Without Borders is an online magazine and a viable resource for one looking for poetry on an international level, among other written literature. These poems cover a variety of topics, including well-being, with translations, voiceovers on several of the poems, and a brief background on the work.

Website: The Verseville

“VerseVille publishes poetry and poetry related works from around the globe. It was published under the name The Enchanting Verses Literary Review from 2008- 2020 with an aim to publish quality poetry and other works related to poetry.” This website connects to a well published collection of poems on a wide range of topics, collected in an archive of their own publications which date back to 2008.

Website: Rumi - Daily Poems

This particular link leads to a daily poem from the Rumi website, though the rest of the site includes more to explore, such as several collections around particular topics, such as Poems of Passion, Poems of Love, Poems of Life and Death, and so on.

Website: A Year of Being Here

This website was a track of a project that happened through January 1, 2013 to January 1, 2016, and has since concluded. The project involved a daily posting of a poem on the topic of mindfulness, and all these poems can still be found on the site as a large collection.

Website: Poets.org

This site, started by the Academy of American poets, provides resources available for writers, poets, and teachers, and also features a poem-a-day, similar to some of the other sites on this list. Along with this, this website contains poems on a wide range of topics, ranging from the 9/11 tragedy to Coronavirus, which is just what I first saw featured. Digging deeper, the site allows one to plug in various desired themes and events to find poems on particular topics.

Website: Poetry Daily

“Our purpose is to provide readers with a window on a very broad range of poetry offered annually by publishers large and small—to make it easier for people to find poets and poetry they like—and to help publishers bring news of their books, magazines, and journals to more people.” Poetry Daily brings a new poem to its readers everyday on a very broad range of topics. They also have a large archive of poems they have had on their site in the past for people to read at their leisure, giving info on the poet and the journal the poem comes from.

Website: Haiku Society of America

“The Haiku Society of America is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1968 to promote the writing and appreciation of haiku in English.” This website is dedicated to the Haiku, a particular form of poetry, where it publishes haikus from various sources, some journals, some from members of its society, which is free and open for anyone to join. The earliest haikus I could find come from 1976, though they have works leading all the way up to the present. This website is interesting because it shows how poets can express ideas through a specific constraint, in the form of the haiku’s typical format.

Website: Power Poetry

This website contains a collection of poems written by members of the site, on topics guided by the site runners. A quick look at this site will find poems supporting movements such as Black Lives Matter, along with other poems such as those that deal with topics of love, mental health, and the world around us.

Website: Read Poetry

This website offers several resources to connect somebody to poetry, and offers suggested reading lists for people on certain topics, such as one on political change. These reading lists connect to other sites such as the Poetry Foundation, so not everything found on this site is exclusive to it, though this may be a good place to start if someone wants to find particular poems on a certain topic.

Website: Family Friend Poems

The writers of poetry found in these collections submitted directly to this website, so they may not be “accredited authors,” though it is interesting to see the wide range of topics depicted on this site. The site includes poetry dealing with difficult topics such as mental health and death, to lighter topics such as success, courage, and love. There is a poem on this site for just about everybody, and the poems written by “everyday poets” show how people use poetry as a tool to cope/celebrate life.

Website: The Poetry Archive

There are several thousand poems available on this website, which has a goal to make poetry available to those interested in writing, reading, teaching, or studying poetry. Each poem in this archive has an audio attachment providing an option to listen to the poems, along with reading them. The site has several collections of poetry, including one on young writers, and one on Shakespeare.

Website: Hello Poetry

“The experiment we call Hello Poetry began in May 2009, what now seems a lifetime ago. I wanted an uncluttered, peaceful space to read and share poetry…” This website is a good collection of poems from all backgrounds, providing several “classic authors” in one section is useful for finding accredited writers, though the section of key words is what stands out about this site. The creator has a page dedicated to a wall of words, with each being a link to a small collection of poems on the topic clicked, or containing the key word. This could be useful as an exploration of poems tied to a particular phrase or word.

Website: National Poetry Library (UK)

The physical National Poetry Library was founded in 1953 and is located in London, England. Though this is a physical place, the website also has a large collection of poetry easily accessible online, and is thus a good source for finding poetry written on a large collection of topics in a range of formats. Many of the poems in their collection come from published sources, including magazines. And with this, their collection is massive, containing 200,000 poems and publications in their catalog.

Book: “Together in a Sudden Strangeness: America's Poets Respond to the Pandemic” edited by Alice Quinn

Various poems by American poets on feelings of isolation, fear, grief, hope, etc. during the COVID quarantine. Useful book for those seeking published American authors writing on the topic of their own feelings related to the stay-in-place policies that were active from approximately March to August 2020 during quarantine.