Poet’s Workshop: Free Help Online
Whether your concerns are for form or function, there are several places on the Internet where poets of all skill levels can go to participate in workshopping their writing.At these websites, you can post your own work as well as review and comment on the work of others. Some forums are known for their mercilessly harsh critique; you might cry like a little girl every time you log in, but your poems will be cut down to their best and most essential parts within a couple days. Other forums are gentler and more instructive in nature. Some websites of this kind do have a requirement that you post constructive feedback as well as your own work; keep in mind that critically analyzing the poetry of others allows you to keep a critical eye on your poems, as well.
The Poetry Free-For-All (PFFA) is one of the largest poetry forums with the greatest amount of user traffic. It also has a membership of surprisingly literate and astute poets who can dish out strict criticism as well as sublime poems. With four forums dedicated exclusively to posting and critiquing poems, PFFA is an intensive experience for any poet. According to the High Critique forum’s guidelines, “This is where the niggling, persistent bugs in a writer’s poetic style are smooshed and where consistency of quality and consistency of voice really begin to emerge.”
Users are permitted to submit one poem per day in each of PFFA’s many chat rooms. However, for each poem you submit for comment, you will need to spend between two and three hours posting “detailed, extensive, and knowledgeable” critiques on the work of others. The PFFA members take their poetry very seriously, and so should you. New members seeking constructive comments are warned in guidelines, “‘Constructive’ does not necessarily mean complimentary, flattering, or pleasant; many are likely to be negative, even harsh. That is the nature of a workshop. You can’t improve if you’re just told that you’re a good little poet and get patted on the head. If you can’t handle negative criticism, don’t post. We mean it.”
If you prefer to steer clear of the more militant air at PFFA, The Critical Poet might offer a gentler alternative. This website asks users to post only one poem every three days in addition to offering constructive feedback on the work of others; but, for the most part, the commentary is helpful without being harsh. Many poets in this community will post revisions of earlier work, a good sign that the critique was strong enough to warrant edition of the poem yet not merciless enough to scare anybody off.
The Critical Poet offers four forum levels for poets to post their latest work: for comment only, for mild critique, for critique and revision, and for final polishing. Members are asked to have substantial poetic backgrounds to post in the higher forums.
The Wild Poetry Forum (WPF) is also a good place to give and receive helpful commentary. The webmaster asks that all criticism be given and received in an “open, non-judgmental atmosphere.” Members are also asked to “use ‘I’ statements” when offering criticism, “e.g., ‘I didn’t understand’ versus ‘You were not clear,’ and commenters are encouraged to offer positive as well as constructive comments.
WPF has two forum levels for light and heavy critique; members are asked to review two poems for each piece submitted. There are no posted limits to the frequency of user submissions.
Other online resources for poets seeking feedback from a community can be found through the Interboard Poetry Community (IBPC), a symposium comprising 22 of the Web’s biggest and best poetry forums. Although the IBPC does not have its own forums, it does offer a monthly inter-board competition and a newswire, as well as serving as a guide to the Web’s poetry hotspots. Many poets will post poems and comments on multiple boards; you can use the IBPC as a hub for your online exploration of free poetry workshopping.
