Last Friday’s (November 6, 2009) #FollowReader was really fun and interesting. Dominique Raccah and Guy LeCharles Gonzales were our special guests and the topic was poetry in the Digital Age.
Dominique recently publicly launched the new online poetry site, PoetrySpeaks.com. It’s an incredibly cool venture, offering something for everyone: poets, readers, and publishers alike.
We began the discussion with a simple question, “Is poetry experiencing a renaissance?” As always with #FollowReader chats, the answers were varied, and sometimes polarizing, but for the most part, there seemed to be more of us in agreement that the Internet and digital publishing options present a real opportunity for poetry to become a much more vital part of everyone’s daily lives.
Some of the many interesting tweets are featured below, but I highly encourage you all to check out the transcript of the entire chat (click here), as the conversations were quite thought-provoking, and a lot of great information was shared including a LOT of great suggestions from #followreaders about their favorite poets and poems.
On whether or not poetry is undergoing a renaissance:
do you believe poetry is enjoying a renaissance? Great question! Yes, I do. In fact, suspect all arts r enjoying new audiences Posted by draccah
Poetry renaissance? Not yet, but I think people are more receptive to poetry than they have been in a while. Posted by glecharles
I’m hoping to create a space where everyone is included and I think the traditional poets will buy into it book publishers have 2 change. At 1 point I said to someone: we’re all start-ups now; just some of us don’t know it yet Posted by draccah
I love that @poetryspeaks makes room for ‘print’, audio and vis. Room for poems anyway they’re made & experienced. Posted by TomThompsonOn what the Internet and digital tools means to poetry and poets:
poetry seems ideal for transmedia – poem, to performance, to film/animation/to audio/music. Posted by KatMeyer
On poetry’s “marketing problem”:
Who cares what “the traditional poetry world” thinks? They haven’t done the best job of making poetry relevant.Posted by glecharles
@draccah I think when someone reads a poem they can understand, it helps them imagine there might be others. 
#followreaderPosted by littlefluffycat
Thank you for this post. I feel poetry is like food. We have our favorites we enjoy time and again. Sometimes we try someone else’s and love how it is different but familiar. Then there is trying a new recipe, and it needs just a little something. Internet increases the possibilities for the feast. Something for everyone to enjoy.
I’m sure that I am not the only poet watching the “Poetry Speaks” venture with great interest. It seems like a multi-media approach to poetry is a natural online. However, I would hate to see all poetry on the web reduced to one big “Poetry Slam” where the only kind of poetry that is appreciated is the sort that reads well out loud. So this all seems to me like a great experiment at this point. Bravo, though, for wading bravely in, and trying things out. Best, Kimberly Davis