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Digital Passions
Poetry Magazine
Poetic Search Engines
By Christopher Ward
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Your assignment, should you be willing to be masochistic, is to search out poetry on the
Internet. Really, one wouldn't think this too difficult a task. I started as basically
anyone would: I typed in the URL of my favorite search engine:
www.pick-a-search-engine.com
Then I typed into the search field: "Poerty."
Huh, only four listings?
Oh, they spelled it wrong too.
Ok, "Poetry."
Now search.
Wow!
Great. This is why I love the Internet. You type in a simple word and you get back a
million different links. So what we have here, is our choice between a meager 1000
"poets" listings; 650 some-odd sites related to "Web Published
Poetry;" Over 100 online magazines; And something that starts with three
"X's." All I wanted to do was to read some poetry, is it that much to ask?
Ok, so to make a short story short, I clicked on a quadrillion links. And while I found
many sites to renew my faith in humanities' collective dysfunctional psyche, I found very
few real poetry sites. (I think half the sites were really "adult" sites
pretending to be poetic.)
But I persevered! After all, I'd only clicked on about a quarter of those quadrillion
links. Well, lost amid the tangle of self-proclaimed legends and those claiming to
actually be literate, I found "poetry," (and I use the term LOOSELY!,) ranging
from the abstract to the fantastic, the bad to the worse. And what do you know, I even
found some good stuff! Though by the time I got to that, my mind had already melted into a
puddle beneath my chair, but hey, that's the price to pay for achieving such a state of
cultural awareness!
Yes, eventually I was able to find some great places to read poetry!
Of course my eyes weren't working that well anymore, and my idea of what was good was by
that time relative to some writing that I won't even torture you with! But what I realized
it came down to, was luck. Like so many things on the Internet, there's only so many ways
you can refine a search... and it's really hard to refine a search on poetry. For some
reason, if you try to search for "good" poetry, you still end up with the same
links. (And a LOT more adult sites!) But for those with nothing but time on their hands,
more patience than a stone statue, a constitution similar to that of a politician's aide
and an idea of what poetry really is, can certainly find a site on the Internet to suit
their taste. (You may be too old by then to appreciate it, but look at it as life
experience.)
I know I for one, am NOT doing that again! Next time, I'll stick with Passions in Poetry,
or go buy a book. I don't know about you, but I don't have the sanity left to spare
another attempt!
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Passions in Poetry
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