Visit Poetmeister 4 Poets to read about how you can show your concern and support for China's earthquake victims with your poetry.

Click here to read more.

Poetmeister 4 Poets is a remarkable resource for all poetry bloggers, and has the full support and gratitude of PWB.

National Poetry Reading Month- You In?

Poetry Free For All is starting a new event, NaPoReMo. The idea is to buy a new book of poetry and spend a month reading it and doing posts on it.

One of the new members of PWB has taken part in our jigsaw poem project. Click here to read Entagled Trophy at Piece of Pie ala mode

Check this out. Elaine Magliaro from Wild Rose Reader has been working overtime to collect links to poetry related posts made on the blogosphere this week. Thanks for your hard work, Elaine! Click here to visit Wild Rose Reader and see the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Check out our latest Jigsaw Poem

This poet sent me their poem and a link, rather than just a link. That is why this poem is posted here while others are linked to here. The poets made the choice, not me. You can still have your jigsaw poem or a link to your jigsaw poem posted on PWB if you want. Send me an email at poetswhoblog@yahoo.com

The point of this project? To spread poetry throughout the blogosphere by exposing more people to new poets. That is the point of PWB. If you support us, you don't support me, you support every poet who shares their creativity with the world by posting their poems on a blog. So be generous with your comments and your critiques so PWB can stay alive.

Dinner Party by Nathan from Exhaust Fumes and French Fries

Let's drink. Let's eat. Let's tell
stories incomplete like life.
Let's be open, embrace and
fight across the table. Let's talk.

Describe a fantasy, a fable:
"He was thirty when his mind
was bent, broken off like a
key in a lock.

Till then life was a plumb line
snapped in chalk, able to be
plotted point by point. A precious
fantasy of an infinite sum."

We know life is an ellipse. We
orbit a central question, spin
and...wait, let me clarify...

"He was thirty when his mind was
sent to the salt mines, when it
began to lean like a drunken uncle
being helped to bed."

Wait, let me clarify what I
said...

Let's eat. Each night we set
a place for peace just in case.
Let's talk openly, face to face.
This is not a dress rehearsal.
Continue the halting stutter, the
sudden reversal. Let assurances
float and flutter like leaflets from a
propaganda bomb.

If I could remember what I meant...

Let all portable machines go silent.
It's time to eat. Granite and pine
bark, soil and sea water, our menu
is complete.

"He was thirty when his mind
was bent. He spent nine years
building a replacement out of
copper wire, tin, gossip, art and lies."

We orbit. We mix and collide, volatile
compounds. Eyes are fixed on the question
the way people stare at magic tricks, the
way the slave stares at his dominatrix.

Let's eat. Let's eat. It's getting late.
Let's not be squeamish. Each reach
for an other's plate.

The question will not edify...please,
let me clarify...

New Link Exchange

This site is trying to link to one million blogs. Why not be on the list?

Click here to visit the Million Blog List.

Visit Raven's Wings

The newest poet to join PWB has written a poem for our jigsaw project. Click here to read Wounds by Nicole Nicholson

Another Jigsaw Poem

If you look below there are three poems that I have linked to, all written for the jigsaw project.

Here's another to check out:

Kraken by Lirone

Celeberties Who Write Poetry

After one of PWB poets sent me a link to a well-known person's poetry I thought it might be interesting to gather links and poems by some celebrities to share with you.

The first one is by Leonard Nimoy, actor best known for playing Mr. Spock.

Come Be With Me

I love you
not for what
I want you to be
But for what you are

I loved you then
For what you were
I love you now
for what you have become

I miss you
And not only you

I miss what I am
When you are here...
You bring out the best in me



Pop By Barack Obama, senator and presidential candidate in the United States.

Sitting in his seat, a seat broad and broken

In, sprinkled with ashes,

Pop switches channels, takes another

Shot of Seagrams, neat, and asks

What to do with me, a green young man

Who fails to consider the

Flim and flam of the world, since

Things have been easy for me;

I stare hard at his face, a stare

That deflects off his brow;

I'm sure he's unaware of his

Dark, watery eyes, that

Glance in different directions,

And his slow, unwelcome twitches,

Fail to pass.

I listen, nod,

Listen, open, till I cling to his pale,

Beige T-shirt, yelling,

Yelling in his ears, that hang

With heavy lobes, but he's still telling

His joke, so I ask why

He's so unhappy, to which he replies . . .

But I don't care anymore, cause

He took too damn long, and from

Under my seat, I pull out the

Mirror I've been saving; I'm laughing,

Laughing loud, the blood rushing from

his face

To mine, as he grows small,

A spot in my brain, something

That may be squeezed out, like a

Watermelon seed between

Two fingers.

Pop takes another shot, neat,

Points out the same amber

Stain on his shorts that I've got on mine,

and

Makes me smell his smell, coming

From me; he switches channels, recites

an old poem

He wrote before his mother died,

Stands, shouts, and asks

For a hug, as I shrink, my

Arms barely reaching around

His thick, oily neck, and his broad back;

'cause

I see my face, framed within

Pop's black-framed glasses

And know he's laughing too.


The third poem is from legendary rapper Tupac Shakur, published as a spoken word poem after his death, as read by Nikki Giovanni.

...Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? Proving nature's law is wrong it learned to walk with out having feet. Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air. Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else ever cared....Full lyrics here.



You can also check out, if you are so inclined:

Jimmy Stewart, a youtube clip of him reading a poem.

Two poems by Ally Sheedy and one by Charlie Sheen

Back To Babylon by Viggo Mortenson, an actor and poet. Founder of Perceval Press.

Jigsaw Poems Updates

Our latest challenge was to write a poem that incorporates these ten words, all donated by members.



time
precious
reversal
clarify
volatile
silent
fantasy
flutter
peace
bent


You can have your poem posted at PWB or on your own blog with a link given here or both. Here are the three poems written so far:

Bent by Lissa
Time and Time Again by Sara
Forgiveness by Why Paisley

Want to send me a poem or a link for this project? Write me at poetswhoblog@yahoo.com

Poems for the Unknown Solidier

Today is Memorial Day in the United States. To honor the multidide of men and women who have served or are currently serving in our armed forces, here are links to poems written by various poets. I combed the blogosphere to find these.


Memorial Day Sonnet by John Stuart
A collaborative poem written at the blog AgentOrange, posted by Greg.
Going to the Gone by Greg Asimakoupoulos
Memorial Day Sonnet by Garrison Keillor
Flanders Fields by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD

Time for another Jigsaw Poem. Want to play?

Time to write your poems. Here's how you play along:

Create a poem that incorporates the ten words listed in the comments
Send the poem to me at poetswhoblog@yahoo.com
I will post the poem on here with a link to your site.

Check out PWB archives if you want to read the last four poems created for this project.

What a Poet Knows

I found a lovely poem about what a poet feels after crafting a new poem. It is by Canadian poet Heather Glasgow. Click here to read it.

Leave a link to any poem you love in the comments.

Updated-New I Promise List

We have a brand new I Promise Blogroll. These poets will visit each other every Thursday and comment on each other's work:

The Poetic Soul List

Jane Doe from Jane's Writing
Just Someone from Poetic Endeavors
Lawrence from Crowned with Laurels
One More Believer from Piece of Pie ala Mode

You must have at least 20 poems on your site and update regulary to join. You can read about the I Promise concept here. I'll make another list if more people are interested or shuffle members around if a list goes dormant. Let me know.

We have several other lists already made:

The Heart of a Poet List
The Poet Within List
Poetic License List
The Beauty in Words List
The Pay it Forward List


Thanks to all the bloggers who support PWB.

Note- I mistakenly added Winter Reading from the blog Poet Mouse to this list when the poet hadn't meant to join. So that blog has been removed.

We are looking for more poets to join the Pay It Forward List.

Ever compose a cento?

Want to play with poetry? Then join us over at Patchwork poetry.

Poets on MySpace

If you are on myspace you can check out the pages of:

The folks from the online literary journal Asphalt Sky

Serious Writers and Poets Group

With Blood as Ink, We Write...

Poetic Minds

Click here to read United Kingdom poet Jonathan Morrison's article on The Future of Poetry Magazines.

Jonathan Morrison has written articles for BBC Online and The Guardian. He won the PROMIS Prize for Poetry in London's Creative Writers Competition in 2004.

Check out Cabaret Voltage Online

A new online literary magazine is looking for submissions. Click here to read the guidelines. It will debut in June. The deadline to submit for the first issue is May 30th, 2008.


PWB wishes Cabaret Voltage Online the best of luck!

Poets For Equality and Justice

Today Poets Who Blog will join with other bloggers across the blogosphere and stand up for the human rights of all citizens in this world. I send out a huge thank you to every poet who contributed work to this project! Please leave a comment if you find any poem you enjoy. Support PWB and Bloggers Unite, the site that is bringing together bloggers for this cause, with your comments.

Untitled by Noor Fatima

My mind boggles me,
As I sit and stare at my computer,
Reading page after page,
Atrocity after atrocity.
Female genital mutilation,
Online freedom gobal act of 2007,
Tibetan monks,
Genocide in Darfur,
Sudan,
Palestine & Israel,
Afghanistan and its¢ innocent people,
hidden terrorist that hide in the mountains,
Osama, Al-Qadia, Hasrats, Islamic Fundalmentalists,
Marring the name of Islam,
Priests molesting children,
Teachers seducing pure-like children,
Gang violence,
Peer pressure.
I'm sure you can add to the list.
Women's rights,
Raping in war,
A plethora more to add.
So where has the human conscious gone?
The idea that people are equal.
No room for the oppressor and the suppressed.
There is not much room for wishful thinking,
For fairy dust to free our pain.
Duration of pain that we suffer as victims,
Can not be infinite.
Actions must be taken,
sacrifices made for the human race,
Voices must be belligerently spoken with compassion.
We must stand up and take arms in words and pen and paper
DO NOT LET THEM VIOLATE OUR RIGHTS AS EQUAL HUMANS!


The Naked Truth by Adeleke Adesanya from Kiibaati Verse

She sat on the bare floor
On her rear which had craw-craw
And on her back we could track
The sore map of the strap
We should ask a thousand why
Instead we timidly try
Her case, declare her suspect
Deserving non of our respect
And we looked away
Still Truth can't be wished away
It was shocking, mocking
Our thoughts of our worth
For though she was
Naked like the Truth,
She was still Another Man.


First the Bad News by Scot from Be Not Inhospitable to Strangers

in eastern bagdad
an U.S. airstrike
killed
three iraqi boys
looking through trash
for something
to sell

it is global day
in darfur
bodies pile up

250,000

the torch
passed through
the Sudan
a genocide Olympic flame
will burn in China
celebrities will protest
on CNN
and
another year
will pass


Someone Else's Crime by Anna Vera Williams from Free Verse

I will grow tomatoes
When you've set me free.
I will live at home in peace
Where all will let me be.

I will wake up cheerful
In the morning to the sun.
I will feel at peace at last,
Once my Freedom's won.

I have been imprisoned here
For someone else's crime.
I have lived my life in fear,
And I have done my time.

All I want, is to feel safe -
Relaxed and calm and free.
I have been good, to fellow men.
Why aren't they good to me?

I try to keep my head up high,
Imagining the day
When I will be allowed to fly,
When I will go away,

And wrap myself in someone's arms
Who knows me as I am.
I try to think about that day,
As hard as try I can ...

I will wake up smiling,
In the morning sun.
I will kiss the one I love, and
Once this battle's done ...

I will grow tomatoes in
My garden in the grass,
And tie my hair behind my head ...
And when this storm has passed,

I will sit up late at night
With cats and cups of tea,
I will live no more in fright
Once I've been set free.

I only want this misery
And fear and pain to end.
I only want a life at peace
Surrounded by my friends.

But that will be another day.
Today I must remain
Within the madness of this place
In fear and hope and pain,

But always I hold up my head,
Imagining the day
When I will be allowed to go,
When I will fly away ...

Not now. It isn't over yet
I must sit out my time,
As I have done, for all these years,
For someone else's crime.



Shells by Juliet Wilson from Over Forty Shades

Grey skies, cold and bitter wind
a share of a damp mattress
in an unheated room.

You follow orders from the brother
to the man who let your cousin die
in a truck approaching Dover.

Your parents wait back home
with nothing but pain and a photo of you
smiling through the English rain.

Shells held to your ear
murmured promises, but they are empty
here in devil’s beach.

Treacherous sands shift
impossible to know where is safe
where will suck away your life.


and by the way written by Ralph Murre from the blog Arem Arvinson.


i do not choose

to pledge allegiance

to black divided from white

red states from blues

shades of brown

divided

in every town

one nation, all too divisible

baptist divided from catholic

gentile from jew

muslim from buddhist

me from you

one nation, under whose god ?

white collars

washed separately from

blue collars

in an oh, so

delicate cycle

while collarless slaves

dig their own graves

trying to get to the

one nation, invisible

once they’re here

there’s plenty to fear

some living large

others quite small

i’ll pledge allegiance

when there’s justice for all



- Ralph Murre 2004



"Declaration of Ignorance which forgot its purpose" by Wedlock from Word of Mouth Coalition

I can recite the Budweiser anthem without thinking twice,
even the ounces and the fast horse track style narrator ending,
some can recite bible verses from king james,new student bibles,
well,
no ignorance or undying faith is held in Budweiser,
(surely a different retaliation,)

some take king james with a grain of salt,
others absolute,
yes sir,
yes sir,
i take my Budweiser anthem as it lay,
on its side,
barely more than a drip escaping curved brown lip,
holding value in understanding that much is to be learned here
as blood coagulates tightly loose with ethanol,

pondering over maps of religions on world scales,
red muslim,
blue hindu,
yellow prodestant,
green catholic,
cross lines,
angry blood shouting popes,
priests,
red like oil based paint smeared over blistered hands,

not that some are better,
some are worse,
but the objective demi-god, never questioning population,
generalized statement may it be,
lies rampant in faith,
pouring silver web lining, reveling in
such stringent liquid

a man turns to me paper bag hair and glassy
lined brow:
"Budweiser is the way the truth and the light no other alcoholic hoppy
bevarage may be drunken,
we must feed our children beer, daily, classes begin"

but, no!
it must be vodka, scream the Stoliites.

questioning, probing short term memory loss mind through ages upon ages
of persecution,
Native American
alcoholic in silver rusted rocking chairs beside dog shit stained
mobile homes,
well,
i would be sitting right beside him, or her.
if white protestant tight lipped puritans killed all green buds, gentle
uncontrollable streams, magnificent hairy buffalo,

yea,
we, the "caucasian" we're sorry,
how about a casino?
no taxes. c'mon, is that not better?
oh, yea, hand me one of those Budweisers,
sit down for a second,
let the carbonated bubbles linger on pink tongue,
feel shame ancestors never feel,
feel shame we never feel with king sized sea beds,
racing watt amplifier,

so easy,
angry,
but i, you, he, she will forget in unsubstantial tomorrow,
plus you have the bible to read,
and I have a beer to drink,
right?


A Cry for Cuba by Sara Pufahl from The Shores of My Dreams

Cast your eyes upon the man
being drug out of sight.

Blood drips from the wrist
of this man,
who is not treated as a man but as
a problem- a dissident voice that must be silenced-

in a country where the only right is to
be quiet,
unseen,
complacent and satisfied
with the nothing promises made
by the kings in charge.

Is it any wonder
why the man
would rather bleed than stand by
silently
watching his life slide by in this land
without hope?

For in time
all people
who are held down-
their lives bound tight like straightjackets
around their necks-
will rise.

They will rise and shout for more!
And they will bleed and bleed and bleed
before
the kings will fall.

Will you rise and shout for more?
Could you bleed and bleed and bleed
to make the king fall?

Is the time today?
If not today....then when?

Revolution starts with one voice crying out in the dark for justice.
Be that voice.
Be the revolution.

There's a poetry contest looking for entries- The Multiple Poegasm 3:0. If you win this contest you not only earn bragging rights but also 500 dollars. Your entry must be in by midnight on May 30th,pacific standard time. Best of luck to all those who take part!


Click here to read all the details and rules.

Check out this new poetry site. Each day a new poem by a different poet will be posted. You could be next!

Click here to visit Poetry Friends.

PWB wishes this new addition to the online poetry blogosphere the best of luck.

Check out The Poem Tag Project. Its a new spin on those name tags you sometimes have to wear at certain events that say Hello My Name is..... Instead of your name, you put a poem.

Self Promote

Have poetry news you want to share? Why not tell it to Billy the Blogging Poet? Click here to visit The Discovery Place where you can promote your own books or site or projects.

In honor of Mother's Day I thought I would link to this page at About.com that lists some of the most well known poems about motherhood. Click here to check out poems by Edgar Allan Poe,Rudyard Kipling,Walt Whitman,Christina Rossetti,William Blake, and Anne Bradstreet.

Congratulations to Tony Brown!

Poets Who Blogs offers our best wishes to Tony Brown who has been named by Billy the Blogging Poet as the 2008 Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere. To check out Tony Brown's poetry visit Dark Matter.

Copyright Symbol Debate

Do you need to add the copyright symbol after you post your work online? What do you think poets?

Robert Lee Brewer from the Writer's Digest column Poetic Asides weighs in with his take on the pros and cons.Click here to read his thoughts.

Watch poets read their poems and discuss their craft in short videos at Poetry Matters Now.

Looking for your next poetry book to buy? Then check out Jessica's Poetry Book Club at .

I Promise Blogroll Update

There are some changes you should be aware of if you are an I Promise Blogger.

KM from A (De)finite Problem with In(de)finite Solutions is taking a leave of absence from The Poet Within List. Anna from Free Poems has left The Heart of Poet List.

The new The Heart of a Poet List is as follows:

Beloved Dreamer
Poetmeister …on the road to Parnassus
Just Paisley
White Rose's Garden


You have to stop by each week and comment, and keep a fresh supply of poems on your blog in order to stay on this list. If you need to leave the list just drop me an email.

What time is it? Prompt time!

The infrequently updated Poets Who Blog Interactive is back. I thought, now that our NPM project is over and I have a little more free time, that I would add a new prompt over there.

Click here to visit PWB Interactive

Ever heard of Bloggers Unite? Its a site that takes up different causes and then works to harness the power of the blogosphere behind it. The idea is to have as many people as possible post about it on the same day leading to increased awareness throughout first the blogosphere and then the world.

Poets Who Blog will join in on Blogger Unite's next effort. On May 15th they ask all bloggers to unite for human rights. Not everyone in this world enjoys the same freedoms you do. If you want to be part of our effort, then write a poem about the plight of people who do not have the right to free speech, free assembly, to challenge their government, to move across borders freely, to practice their religion without risking imprisonment, etc, and then send that poem to poetswhoblog@yahoo.com

Put Poetry for Human Rights in subject line. I will post any poem submitted by May 15th (but it most be on topic.) Lets flood PWB with a our heartfelt pleas for justice and our support for those who go to sleep each night without the basic freedoms others have the luxary to take for granted. You retain all rights to your poem. Don't worry about sending me a bio this time but I do need a link to your blog.

Thanks to Paisley from Just Paisley for letting me know about the Blogger's Unite site. Click here to check them out.

Publish Your Work Online

PWB is excited to be able to let you know about a new site where you can post your poems and stories. It is run a member of our blogroll- Anna from Free Poems.

Click here to read more details.

PWB wishes the best of luck to Your Poems. Your Stories.