Please Read This First

[The Poets]

Welcome to the Literotica Poetry Feedback and Discussion Forum. We're here because we love poetry and want to help each other learn and become better poets.

Everyone is freely encouraged to start threads, initiate challenges, recommend and review poems in the New Poems thread or elsewhere, and basically do whatever he or she feels furthers our shared goals of learning about poetry and growing as poets.

The general guidelines of Literotica apply here and include:

Forum Guidelines

1. You must be 18 years or older to read or participate at Literotica.

2. You may not post sexually explicit pictures or stories featuring anyone under 18 years old. Literotica does not allow the posting of underage or animal sex pictures on the forum.

3. Do not post /hotlink copyrighted images or articles in their entirety. Fair use laws allow some posting of copyrighted material, such as excerpts from articles and screen captures from movies, under certain circumstances. Please do a Google search under "Fair Use" if you want to understand this issue better.

4. You may not post personal information of other members or, for that matter, anyone else. We do not allow phone numbers, email addresses, private messages or quotes from private emails to be posted on the forum. This rule also covers real names, employment info, and any other personal information that we deem inappropriate.

5. Do not threaten other users.

6. Any posts made with the intent of promoting another site or a product will be removed. You may not send unsolicited PM's or emails to other users trying to promote other websites or products. Literotica is not a place to promote other websites, and we are very strict on this issue. If you abuse this policy, you will be banned.

7. Please do not blatantly "advertise" for other websites in your signature. We allow non-commercial links to other people's personal websites in sigs, but please do not beg people to click on your link, make it huge and/or flashing, or otherwise be obnoxious.

We do not allow links to any adult pay sites. We also reserve the right to remove signatures which link to sites with numerous annoying pop-ups, viruses, or anything else potentially harmful to people's computers. If you turn your signature into an advertisement, we will ask you to change it. Do not start threads with the URL in the header.

8. You cannot use a URL/site address as your membername. If you do so, we will ask you to change your name.

9. Please do not post audio that automatically plays itself on the forum. There are people who access Lit from various locations, and in some locations they prefer to be discreet. We reserve the right to edit or remove any post or signature which automatically plays audio.

10. Please post content in the appropriate forum. We do not believe in censorship, but your posts will be moved or removed if you do not read the forum title before hitting "SUBMIT". Personal ads should be posted in the "Personals" forum, story ideas in the "Story Ideas" forum, BDSM issues in the BDSM forum, random nonsense on the General Board, and so on.

11. We will not remove your posts. You have the ability to edit out any text and remove any attachments on your own. The administrators will not delete your posts just because you changed your mind about what you said. You can edit your own posts as you see fit. Please do not contact us about removing your posts.

The various poets here represent many different views about what constitutes good poetry, but anyone can disagree and rants do happen. Please avoid personal insults and flame wars-- they just waste everyone's time.

If you have a personal problem with someone else on the forum, please deal with it privately in a PM or an email. Also note that this board is not the place for online role play or cybering--there are other forums at Literotica specifically for that.

Enjoy this forum! Learn, get involved, ask questions, ask for help, make friends. It's a good place.


Please feel free to contact the Poetry Forum Moderators with questions or suggestions.

[The Poets]

There are a few ways to share your poems at Literotica. You can submit them to the site and with some exceptions, your poems will be accepted and posted on the New Poem page the next day. Poems may be non-erotic as well as erotic and you may also submit audio and/or illustrated poems (which take somewhat longer to be approved). You may also receive free editorial help if you want it. All this is explained on this page and in the Submission Guidelines.

You can share your poem(s) by starting an appropriately titled thread (e.g., "My Poem(s)" or the actual title). Make sure to specify prominently whether or not you want comments about the poem(s) you're posting. If you just want others to read your poem then state in the thread that you don't want feedback. If you also submit a poem to Literotica, putting it in a thread here too, just to be read, is unneeded.

If you want others to review and critique your poem to help you improve it, state in the thread or thread title that you want feedback.

We look forward to reading your poetry!

[The Poets]

You can get responses to your posted poems via feedback and/or public comments. In addition, your posted poem may be mentioned in the New Poems thread, but please note that reviews are really just one person's opinion.

Getting Feedback
What can you expect when you've started a thread called:
"Here's My Poem" Feedback, please!

Most poets here take reviewing seriously--we want to help one another and realize that everyone can improve, so it's pretty unlikely that you'll just hear "Great job" or "Loved it," even if the reviewer does love your poem. You'll probably get an opinion and suggestions for improvement. You do not have to change your poem of course, but you probably should consider the advice seriously. The commentator took the time to respond to your request after all.

Remember too that sometimes you have to take some bad with the good. If you are flamed, if a reviewer is personally nasty--and it occasionally happens here like anywhere else--please don't take it personally; use what helps you and move on.

Giving Feedback
You can return the favor by giving feedback. You may think you don't know how, but it's not difficult at all. If you're not sure what to do, try using the following as guidelines:

1. Say whether or not you liked the poem overall and why.
2. Name at least one specific thing you liked about--
subject
language use
format
3. Is there anything you just don't understand in the poem? What?
4. Can you think of a better way to say anything in the poem. If you can, suggest it!
5. Do you know of another poem or link that you think would help? If so, include it.

Always try to make specific suggestions for improvement. Ranting that a poem doesn't work or raving about it without saying why doesn't help the writer. Above all, be truthful but kind. Write the kind of review you'd like to get.

[The Poets]

These are simply exercises to keep us all practicing our craft. Everyone is always welcome to participate. Try to follow the rules as they're set forth for each game or challenge. Some challenges are ongoing like the All of a Sudden Passion Suddenly thread or Pic-A-Thon, while others are of shorter duration. If you have questions, ask. If you have an idea for a challenge, post it. And have fun; it's supposed to be fun.

Also, make sure to check the stickies at the top of the board for the latest challenges!

Other threads of interest:
30 Poems in 30 Days
Poetry in Progress ~ construction zone
writing live
lit blog
Challenge: The Perfect Ten (v2.0)
not sure how many words
Poetry and Lyrics

[The Poets]

References for Poets

The following links lead to resources for aspiring (and experienced) poets. Look up a word, find a rhyme, learn a new poetic form, read a new poet, or just explore. These sites are great for helping to polish your craft.

Please report any broken (or otherwise funky) links to The Poets. And feel free (encouraged, even) to recommend other sites you think would benefit this forum.

These sites were selected by The Poets; they represent personal recomendations, and not an official "opinion" of this site as to what is the best anything.

Literotica Resources
Start here with a general FAQ (frequently asked questions), which includes Literotica submissions guidelines (a separate link takes you to guidelines for illustrated and audio submissions), and onsite links to volunteer editors and general reference information, including articles by Literotica authors.

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Other Writing References

Dictionary.com

Merriam-Webster
(two of many online dictionaries that offer online look-ups and thesauri)

Clear English
(large collection of links to grammar and style reference guides)

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Poetry Writing

The Glossary of Poetic Terms
(extensive poetry dictionary including descriptions of many poetic forms)

The Handbook of Rhetorical Devices
(more literary terms defined)

Sacred Text Archive
(links to the Bible, mythology sites, and other significant ancient texts )

Bartelby.com
(like they say on their home page--great books online)


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Poetry Collections

Poetry International
(contemporary Poetry from everywhere)

The Wondering Minstrels
(large poetry database searchable by author's last name)

The Plagiarist Archive
(searchable archive and user comments)

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Audio/Video Poetry on the Web (may require Real Audio)

Concrete and Sound Poetry
(large searchable archive of sound recordings including everyone from Appolinaire and Bukowski to Yeats and Zappa)

Listening Booth
(famous poets read their own or others' poem--sponsored by the Academy of American Poets)

Favorite Poem Project
(Americans from all walks of life read their favorite poem--audio and video files available)

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Scams

Poetry Scams
(Article about fraudelent publishing practices and how how to avoid the scammers who claim to love your poem but really just want your money)

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Poetry Awards & Contests

Poetry Awards: The Academy of American Poets

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300 Links

literary journals that accept email submissions

[Lauren Hynde]

When submitting your work to Literotica.com, you may sometimes have the need to include some additional formatting. You can use the following codes in the Poem Text box of the submission form:

<b>bold</b> will produce bold
<i>italics</i> will produce italics
<u>underlined<u> will produce underlined
<a href="http://www.literotica.com">literotica</a> will produce literotica
¹ will produce ¹

Please note that no links to outside websites are allowed. If you're linking to other pages on Literotica, including the forums, it should be OK.