Poetry and the internet

January 18, 2006 What influence can the Internet have on the development of international poetry? It seems obvious that the Web is drastically changing the logistics of distribution and promotion, as well as the creation and appreciation of poetry. There has been an explosion of amateur sites where people can now publish their poems without having to pass through the sieve of some professional editor. The function of such sites is mostly to see one’s own work published, not necessarily to read other people’s work. But for everyone, poet, poetry lover, student, translator, the Web is a great search tool if you are looking for a certain poem or book. Some organisations in the U.S. and elsewhere are publishing thousands of out-of-copyright books on the Web that everyone can access and download for free.
However, the situation is different where new poetry is concerned. The problem, of course, is copyright. Especially established poets are not keen on making their work freely available on the Web. You can find the title of a poem, you can find the book, the publisher, where and how to buy it, but you can’t get the poem itself.
Internet technology opens up new possibilities for the publication and even the creation of poetry. Poetry sites can display poetry in motion, verse animated by presentation applications such as Power Point or Flash, or new techniques yet to be developed. This may give rise to new poetic formats and processes, none of which are likely to replace the traditional poem in print, the book you can carry in your pocket and read at your own convenience, anywhere, at any time.
Finally, we move to the question what the position of poetry is on the Internet. William Wadsworth of the Academy of American Poets two years ago said that poetry was the eighth most popular subject on the Internet, surpassed only by such things as Pokemon, Star Wars and sex, and more popular than baseball, football or golf. What would be the most downloaded poem? Gus Ferguson suggests a poem from the Jenny Jones show in 1996, composed by someone who admitted killing a homosexual admirer (an actual search for the most downloaded poem on the web leads us to a website proclaiming Emily Dickinson “the hottest babe on the Web”). In a more serious vein, one may ask what particular ideals the initiators of Poetry International Web (PIW) would like this website to serve? Iztok Osojnik emphasizes the global access which PIW will provide even for poetry in “small” languages. English-language poets can always count on a large audience, but small-language poets rarely meet with an opportunity to have their work translated and published abroad. The Internet offers global exposure to every poet under the sun. With the overwhelming quantity of material posted on the Web by anyone who feels like it, this filtering function of PIW seems not the least of the blessings it is designed to provide. Or, as one participant put it: “I think of PIW as a signpost to get to what we think is good poetry. And another: “A sort of imprimatur for the Web. A garbage limiter.” That, of course, is the least PIW can do. “What I’d like to see on this website,” says poet and magazine editor K. Michel, “is poetry from other countries, countries with small languages that are physically out of my reach, and to find out what’s going on there.” Maarten Asscher concludes: “That’s the right kind of globalization.” For a further account of the round-table discussion, click on the subjects below:

What is good poetry?
Can poetry be political?
Poetry: a bad influence?
Is popularity the mark of bad poetry?

Participants