Poetry Havens - How The Individual Site Is Saving Poetry
Imagine the Cafe Wha? in the sixties. A smoky room filled with black berets and beer stained tables floating about a shadowy stage where a man with unkempt hair and a hemp waistcoat spouts interlectual nuances regarding globalisation and the ills of capitalism. Go further back. Imagine a man in a ludicrously baggy, white shirt strolling about the formal gardens of a tudor mansion with a book in one hand and a red rose in the other. A girl wanders along beside him listening to flowing verse and dreaming of legendary times. Throughout the course of history, poetry has been the most romantic and stereotypes of all the arts. But what about the early 21st century poet ? What image does he or she conjure in the mind? The berets still exist, as, in some instances, do the baggy shirts, but these days, you are just as likely to find a poet carrying a PDA as you are to find them with their poncy coffees and peace crisps. One of the great, and often abused virtues of the internet is free s...