Books and publishing are doing well, despite the hard economic times. Poetry is doing well online. And free poetry, widely available through online literary journals and e-book publishers, offers a way to help those who want to, or perhaps have to, shave their book budgets.

Eric Pfanner, writing for the International Herald Tribune, examines how bookstores and the publishing industry have continued doing well, despite the world-wide recession. Apparently, this is especially true for Continental Europe’s bookstores, but also true for bookstores in the US. People still want to read—whether for pleasure and escape or for better understanding of what’s happening with the economy. So, they turn to books.

What about poetry? While the death knell for poetry has been rung many times, especially recently, poetry in particular also thrives today, despite the economy. The blossoming of online publishing, documented by the online site Poetry Archive, amongst others (see Stephen Adams, writing for the Daily Telegraph. Literally hundreds of thousands of unique viewers look at poetry. According to Adams, they look at more than a million pages of poetry per month just at the Poetry Archive site. And that’s just the Brits and Europeans.

In the U.S., The Poetry Foundation has a similar site that allows viewers access to well-known and well-respected poets and poems, among others.

But web-based literary magazines know no geo-political boundaries. New ones spring up regularly (for example, see West Goes South). Some are offered as Adobe PDF downloads, such as Poetry Midwest. Some online journals periodically print the best from their sites, as does Abramelin: The Journal of Poetry and Magick. Zeek offers another model growing in popularity, an online accompaniment to a print journal. Many long-established journals now also offer free online supplements to their print issues, including poetry.

While many companies, such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon, try to capitalize on e-books through sales of e-book readers and licensed books, other publishers are choosing a route more reminiscent of the indie music labels: they provide free publication to promote the poetry and poets. why vandalism? (no capitals) is a literary and arts journal that also publishes e-books. The journal and the books are both free for the viewing. Currently, why vandalism?, which has been publishing for only two years, offers five e-books.

Its sixth book, The World Behind It, Chaos, by Michael Dickel (whose work has been published on many of the sites listed here), is due by the end of March, which just happens to be at the end of Small Press Month and the beginning of National Poetry Month. Despite T. S. Eliot’s line, “April is the cruelest month,” April promises to be good for Dickel and why vandalism?

Dickel’s book demonstrates another principle of online publishing related to economics. His book contains photographs and digital art, most of it in full-color, the cost of publishing which would have driven the book’s price out of reach for consumers. This way, his artwork will be seen, his poetry will be read, and an audience will grow to know his work. Dickel says that he’d “like to make money, I don’t expect to do so as a poet. If people become familiar with my work, perhaps then they will also buy books from publishers—and be willing to pay the higher price to include art with the poetry.”

All you have to do is search on the word “poetry” in Google or Yahoo to see that, indeed, poetry is alive and well on the internet. And, largely, available for free. Poetry not only thrives in the online community, it thrives in ways that are affordable to any who have access to a computer and the internet.

During a poetry round, each competitor must read a poem or a collection of poems while holding a (usually black, 10-inch) binder. Sounds simple, but there are a few things to keep in mind if you’re hoping to make it to Finals.

Generally, poetry and prose recitation are categorized under one event, Oral Interpretation. All competitors are asked to start with their poetry pieces (or prose, depending on the host school’s preference) in the first round and then alternate during subsequent rounds. This guide focuses on poetry interpretation.

- Write a great introduction. An intro should be about one minute long. Your intro should match your piece’s tone, but you should make changes in your posture, the pitch of your voice, and your facial expression. Because you hold a binder in poetry, you must close it to indicate that you are saying your introduction. You may either begin your performance by saying your introduction with a closed binder, or you may begin by opening your binder, saying a few lines of your piece, and then closing your binder to say your introduction. The latter is called a “Teaser.” If you’re doing a teaser, you need to remember two things: one, hold your place in your piece with your finger so that you don’t lose your place when you open your binder, and two, memorize whatever line comes after your intro so that you can jump right back into the piece.

- As always, choose a good piece (or pieces). You can either find a poem that can last about eight or nine minutes, or you can put together a collection of shorter poems and title them according to what subject, author or word links them. It’s important to try to choose something original, interesting, and either hilarious or moving. Performing an O.I. piece that stands out will set you apart from others.

- Avoid patterns. One of the rules of O.I. is that in poetry rounds, you are supposed to take your poem out of rhyme and rhythm. But this is not something that most judges will really take off for unless you’re really making it hard to listen because your lines are starting to sound like a broken record. Poems written in iambic pentameter are particularly susceptible to causing a repetitive speech pattern. You just have to try not to think of it as a poem. If a thought runs over into the next line, keep talking. Some people get around this rule by sticking to poems that are free verse (no rhyme, no set rhythm). However, you don’t want to confuse your judge by performing something that they can barely identify as poetry.

- Memorize as much as you can. Try to maintain a fair balance between looking at your script and looking up at your audience. It probably says 50/50 on your ballot, buit for this event, it should really be more like 60 percent looking up and 40 percent looking down. In poetry, many competitors get into the habit of looking down after every couplet, or after every stanza. Try not to slip into a pattern, as this can become very boring for your audience.

- Use an accent (or accents, for multiple poems or dialogue in one poem) if you can. Again, this sets you apart from other competitors, which is very important in poetry.

- Use published work. Try to get the names of each author if you can, and always include the author’s name when you say the titles. If you are doing a collection of poems, you should begin each poem by stating the name of the piece, followed by the author of the piece. If you do not know the author’s name, you can say “author unknown,” but you should really try to avoid it whenever possible. Also, unless you have received significant awards or recognition for your work, do not perform your own work in a poetry round. Your English teacher or best friend telling you that your poems are great is nice, but it doesn’t qualify you to perform them in a round, especially if they are not published.

- Respond to feedback. If your scores in poetry rounds are coming back consistently negative, you have to consider that your selections are not working for you. Examine your piece and try to evaluate it as if you’re the judge. What is missing? What kind of comments have you been getting from judges and your coach? You should also consider that if your scores for O.I. are varied – meaning you get great scores in prose and awful scores in poetry – it means you should look for another poetry piece. Ask your friends and teammates to watch you perform your pieces and ask them for their honest, constructive criticism.

If you decide that you want to be a writer, then poetry is a good place to start. Where do you start? How is American poetry different from Urdu poetry? Why write poetry? You may be asking yourself these questions and more.Where to Start

When you decide you want to write poetry you should decide if you are planning on writing any other kinds of literature. This will help you to know if you are going to want to stay only with creative writing and help you to figure out if you need to research other kinds of poetry such as Urdu poetry. You can write poetry on any subject if you really want to.How is American Different from Urdu Poetry?

There really is not that much of a difference because it is all poetry that we can learn from. You may not be able to understand this when you are writing because you may not even know what Urdu poetry really is in the first place. You may need to take the time to research what you want to write weather it would be Urdu poetry or American based poetry. If you are multicultural then you will be able to understand the Urdu poetry better then if you are just reading American based poetry. Urdu poetry is a great place for a person that is going to start writing poetry to start because it will help you to respect what others before you have written as well as what other cultures may say. Take the time to learn Urdu poetry for you and your writing. This will help it to get better in the long run.Why write it?

There are many reasons that you may chose to write poetry but the main reason is that you just want to write. Many people will not follow their instincts when it comes to writing. They don’t understand that it’s really a feeling and it’s not just something that you can learn to do. You have to be born with a creative edge so that you can easily write your words. If you feel that you are not the best writer but still feel that great need to write then you can take classes to learn how to write your grammar better so that your poetry makes more sense to you and your readers.

When you start with your poetry writing you need to think about what you may have already read before you started writing the poetry. This may include the Urdu poetry that you may have heard about from your family or from your college classes. You should take the time to read these so that you know what people in the past have written as well as knowing what style you may want to write in. The more styles that you read, the more that you will learn and the better writer you will become. Take the time to understand the writing that is around you so that you can be the best writer that you can be.