Enheduanna was a priestess and poet in the city of Ur in the 23rd century BC and supposedly the daughter of Sargon the Great of Akkad. She is the first author known by name. Here are a number of her poems in English translation, The Exaltation of Inana, Inana and Ebih, A Hymn to Inana, The Temple Hymns and A Balbale to Nanna. Here are two alternate translations of The Exaltation of Inana, one by James D. Pritchard and an English rendering of Dr. Annette Zgoll's German translation. If you want to learn more, go to The En-hedu-Ana Research Pages.
posted by Kattullus on Nov 5, 2009 - 27 comments

ReadWritePoem was a multiuser poetry blog until July 31, when it turned into a social network for poetry with forums, groups, subblogs and more.
posted by dylan20 on Aug 4, 2009 - 2 comments

Sir Humphry Davy
Was not fond of gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.

This is the first example of the form that came to be known as the clerihew. [more inside]
posted by Iridic on Jul 24, 2009 - 66 comments

Oh cow, oh cow, what are you thinking?      Should I leave the gate open?
Are you content?                                     Would you be happy?
Do you yearn?                                         Would you turn feral?

Do you want freedom?                               Oh cow
Greener pastures?                                     Moo cow
A bull?                                                    Run free cow

The Online Dairy Ode Contest was a light-hearted, web-based, sister competition to the James McIntyre Poetry Contest. It was held at irregular intervals from 2001 to 2005. The only criterion for entry was that the poems had to be Dairy Odes; ie about dairy products, cows, or dairying.
posted by carsonb on Jun 16, 2009 - 24 comments

Free Verse [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue on Apr 9, 2009 - 7 comments

Should you find yourself wandering around the city of Leiden, the Netherlands sometime, you may notice some curious markings on the city's walls.

These Muurgedichten ("Wall Poems") adorn many of the town's streets (clickable map), and many English-language poets are represented: one John Keats, for instance, inside a bookshop; Dylan Thomas, E. E. Cummings, W.B. Yeats, some guy called William Shakespeare, or this ode to Charlie Parker by American William Waring Cuney. [more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Apr 5, 2009 - 15 comments

The Drunken Boat publishes poetry from around the world, translations of poetry, reviews of poetry collections and anthologies, and interviews with well-known poets. The current issue features Cave Canem poets, home for the many voices of African-American poetry and committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African-American poets.
posted by netbros on Feb 22, 2009 - 3 comments

Classic Poetry Aloud: free recordings of 427 public domain poems.
posted by Iridic on Feb 16, 2009 - 8 comments

"Why don't you write me a poem that will prepare me for your death?" Hayden Carruth's wife, thirty years his junior, asked him. He did so, and it became one of his most popular poems. Carruth, who celebrated his 87th birthday last month died last night at his home in Munnsville New York. Carruth was the winner of the the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his poetry collection Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey. He edited Poetry magazine from 1949-1950 and was a poetry editor at Harpers. [more inside]
posted by jessamyn on Sep 30, 2008 - 23 comments

William Shakespeare wrote some of the world's finest sonnets. The website shakespeares-sonnets.com is a fine place to start delving into the poems. Here you can see scans of the first edition of The Sonnets as printed by Thomas Thorpe in 1609. If you wish there were more sonnets by Shakespeare, your jones might be eased by the Shakespeare Sonnet Shake-Up, which lets you remix them according to taste. And finally there's Shakespeare in Tune, a site where Jonathan Willby recites each of the 154 sonnets following a short improvisation on a German flute.
posted by Kattullus on May 24, 2008 - 8 comments

Chinese Poems is a simple, no frills site with over 200 classical Chinese poems, mostly from the Tang period. The poems are presented in traditional and simplified chinese characters, pinyin and English translation, both literal and literary. Here's Du Mu's Drinking Alone:
Outside the window, wind and snow blow straight,
I clutch the stove and open a flask of wine.
Just like a fishing boat in the rain,
Sail down, asleep on the autumn river.
Among other poets featured are Li Bai (a.k.a. Li Po), Du Fu and Wang Wei. As a bonus, here's the entire text of Ezra Pound's Cathay, most of whom are from Li Bai originals.
posted by Kattullus on May 19, 2008 - 15 comments

John Rawls gives six reasons why baseball is the best of all games. Marianne Moore's "Baseball & Writing." John Updike's "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu." [more inside]
posted by anotherpanacea on Mar 11, 2008 - 89 comments

For more than 50 years, it was believed that the first recording Allen Ginsberg made of Howl was in Berkeley in March 1956. Now, an earlier recording – made on Valentine's Day 1956 at Reed College, Portland, Oregon – has been found. Reed have made it – along with seven other poems Ginsberg read the same night – available here. (Click on "Allen Ginsberg reads ..." for drop down menu; apologies for crappy quicktime interface.)
posted by Len on Feb 15, 2008 - 27 comments

Green Buddhas
On the fruit stand.
We eat the smile
And spit out the teeth.

Surrealist poet Charles Simic was named the Poet Laureate of the US this week. He also won the Wallace Stevens Award for "outstanding and proven mastery" of the art of poetry. [more inside]
posted by jessamyn on Aug 2, 2007 - 90 comments

Max Dohle's Stapelgedichten is a simple concept. Stack up some books, take a picture: a poem is born. Most are in Dutch, but there are some English ones as well.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Jul 24, 2007 - 36 comments

Poets on YouTube: Bukowski; Dylan Thomas; Jim Morrison; Allen Ginsberg; Sylvia Plath; Billy Collins; Cookie Monster; and what the hell, even Jacques Brel.

But there's plenty of readings by amateurs as well: for example, lilcutiewithabooty06 reads e e cummings; Michael reads cummings really fast; Tom Waits and Bono read Bukowski; bearded men read Lewis Carroll and Shakespeare; and what if Emily Dickinson had a ukulele?

Mouseover links to see titles; feel free to add your favourites.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Mar 26, 2007 - 29 comments

Newspaper Blackout Poems "So much thrives on facsimile that when you see the real deal, it has none of the passion and feels like a desperate pose."
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson on Feb 23, 2007 - 25 comments

Gorgeous - a spoken word poem by Rives. {via TED Talks}
posted by dobbs on Dec 24, 2006 - 5 comments

Fisher Poets You've heard of cowboy poetry, sure, but how about the verse of modern-day fishermen and women? Taking the Cowboy Poetry Gathering as their model, fisher poets have plunged into the celebration of occupational culture with their own annual festival in Astoria, Oregon. Get a glimpse into this difficult, dangerous, and unpredictable way of making a living through the work of Erin Frestad, Geno Leech, Toby Sullivan, and others. Listen to the sounds of the gathering on this piece from PRI's Here & Now, too.
posted by Miko on Nov 3, 2006 - 8 comments

Happy Valentine's Day
to my favourite virgin.
I'd show you how much I love you,
but I don't feel like getting married.
The 8th Annual Pamie.com Valentine's Day Poems (previously on MetaFilter...)
posted by Robot Johnny on Feb 14, 2006 - 5 comments

Three Invitations to a Far Reading "But what if some poems aren’t meant to be read at all? What if they are meant to be viewed? What if, like TV, they are meant to be surfed? " [via]
posted by dhruva on Jan 2, 2006 - 9 comments

What poetry should I read while drinking what whiskey?
posted by kenko on Oct 9, 2005 - 42 comments

metafilter: haiku
happy haiku day, asshats
this haiku vibrates
posted by soplerfo on Jul 5, 2005 - 94 comments

All should see him before the Cholera arrives ! Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light, Thou seemest most charming to my sight; As I gaze upon thee in the sky so high, A tear of joy does moisten mine eye. William Topaz McGonagall , the worlds greatest poet (again).
posted by sgt.serenity on Jun 8, 2005 - 7 comments

Can't hack Catullus in Latin? How about Brazilian Portuguese, Catalan, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, French, German, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Rioplatense, Romanian, Russian, Scanned, Serbian, South African, Spanish, Swedish, or Welsh? You can also compare two languages side by side.
posted by kenko on Apr 11, 2005 - 15 comments

The Great Book of Gaelic. Illustrated poetry.
posted by plep on Mar 14, 2005 - 15 comments

Deep inside the poetic stylings of John Bon Jovi. To begin, I'd like to look at the opening verses of "Bed of Roses". You may think you understand the meaning behind this poem - that John Bon Jovi likes a lady, and is upset about it. This is just a sign of the brilliant, interweaving complexity of Bon Jovi. You can love the poem at that level, and many have, but let's go... inside.[Coral Link - In case the other doesn't work]
posted by KevinSkomsvold on Feb 23, 2005 - 23 comments

the other night
after eating chili
i ripped a pretty good one.
i lifted the blanket
to trap your head
and remembered
you weren't there.
i miss you.
Valentine's Poetry from Pamie.com
posted by Robot Johnny on Feb 14, 2005 - 10 comments

My coming My going, Two simple happenings that got entangled... Japanese Death Poems. Small beautiful simple poems written before death. I just discovered them and thought I would share. A few more here
posted by mrs.pants on Dec 17, 2004 - 15 comments

Snorri Sturluson, author of the Prose Edda and the Heimskringla, was also a hot tub enthusiast.
posted by homunculus on Aug 30, 2004 - 11 comments

Thoughts from Within is an interesting multimedia poem from Woody Harrelson, whose work has been previously discussed on Metafilter here. [Warning: link goes directly to .swf flash file]
posted by banished on Aug 20, 2004 - 12 comments

Eunoia ("beautiful thinking") is the shortest word in the English language that contains all five vowels. It is also the title of a poetry collection by Canadian author Christian Bok. In addition to writing each chapter using only words that contain one vowel, (Flash presentation of Chapter "E") Bok also greatly limits himself in other ways. An amazing accomplishment that won the $40 000 Griffith Poetry Prize in 2002, Eunoia is best experienced in its spoken form. (MP3 links) (If you don't know Bok's poetry, you still might know his other work. He has also created artificial languages for two television shows: Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict and Peter Benchley's Amazon.)
posted by Jaybo on Jul 22, 2004 - 18 comments

Ikkyu: A wild raunchy zen poet.
posted by srboisvert on Jul 18, 2004 - 9 comments

Remembering the amazingly mature poetry of Mattie Stepanek: national goodwill ambassador with muscular dystrophy, and 13 year old prodigal wordsmith.
posted by moonbird on Jun 23, 2004 - 7 comments

Philip Larkin: Great Poet, Shame About The Man? When is an excess of biography, i.e. high-minded, clumsily-disguised gossip, an impediment to literary appreciation? Nowadays, it seems always. [More inside.]
posted by MiguelCardoso on Mar 19, 2004 - 26 comments

Burns Night. 'Robert Burns: poet and balladeer, Scotland's favourite son and champion of the common people. Each year on January 25, the great man's presumed birthday, Scots everywhere take time out to honour a national icon. Whether it's a full-blown Burns Supper or a quiet night of reading poetry, Burns Night is a night for all Scots.'
More on the Robert Burns Tribute site.
posted by plep on Jan 23, 2004 - 3 comments

The Songs of Bilitis. 'First published in Paris in 1894, this purports to be translations of poems by a woman named Bilitis, a contemporary and acquaintance of Sappho. This caused a sensation, not only because finding an intact cache of poems from a completely unknown Greek poet circa 600 B.C. would be a miracle, but because of its open and sensitive exploration of lesbian eroticism. Actually Bilitis never existed. The poems were a clever forgery by Pierre Louÿs--the "translator"; to lend weight, he had even included a bibliography with bogus supporting works ... '
A new addition to the sacred-texts.com canon.
posted by plep on Dec 2, 2003 - 8 comments

Sonnet Central Wordsworth once said of the sonnet that he hoped that those "[w]ho have felt the weight of too much liberty,/Should find such brief solace there, as I have found." Sonnet Central offers a copious library of sonnets, mainly in the Anglo-American tradition but with examples from around the world. Those who wish to explore further in the sonnet's paradoxically expansive "scanty plot of ground" (Wordsworth again) may also wish to try Petrarch's Canzoniere (complete set, Italian with English translations); Shakespeare's Sonnets (self-described as "amazing"; the full cycle with glosses and paraphrases, plus illustrations and links to other poems); Golden Age Spanish Sonnets (translations); Christina Rossetti's Monna Innominata: A Sonnet of Sonnets (a reflection on the traditional sonnet sequence); George Meredith's Modern Love (a bleaker revision of the sonnet sequence tradition, featuring sixteen-line "sonnets"); and an excerpt from John Hollander's Powers of Thirteen (do the math and you'll see the experiment--it's an interesting modern sequence).
posted by thomas j wise on Sep 24, 2003 - 24 comments

Wussy Boy. Wussy Boy Manifesto. The Wussy Boy Chronicles.
Excerpt: Is A Wussy Boy/Is Not A Wussy Boy - A wuss upon wusses.
posted by y2karl on Jul 1, 2003 - 8 comments

Mary, Queen of Scots (warning: music) is one of British royalty's most adored and most reviled figures, putting her in the select company of arch-rival Elizabeth I (sigh: music again) and Charles I. (The latter is an Anglican saint, although not everybody is quite so enthused.) Wince at the description of her execution, read some poems about her--or, indeed, some of her own poems--or visit her grave in Westminster Abbey.
posted by thomas j wise on Jun 14, 2003 - 3 comments

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is an accomplished man. Not only is he guiding the war in Iraq, he has been a pilot, a congressman, an ambassador, a businessman, and a civil servant. But few Americans know that he is also a poet.
posted by misterioso on Apr 2, 2003 - 15 comments

Poets Against The War
Sons and Daughters of Baghdad:
The hour of your liberation draws near
We extend towards you our white hand
Once embraced by many in vain:
Indian, African, Vietnamese,
And washed clean of their colored red stain.
posted by fold_and_mutilate on Mar 22, 2003 - 10 comments

Tired of haikus? Then it might be time for tanka. Older than haikus, tanka is 31 syllables divided into lines of 5-7-5-7-7. There's been a World Tanka Competition (mostly in Japanese, but the poems are translated into English) and a modern tanka poet, Machi Tawara, has had her work turned into movies, television shows, and a musical revue. All that's needed now is to make it popular in the English-speaking world...
posted by Katemonkey on Dec 31, 2002 - 5 comments

Can Poetry Matter - Part 2 (nyt reg req) "Today photography is considered by many to be the most effective way to convey the plight of war's combatants, victims and mourners. But during World War I it was through poetry that many Britons came to share the horror of life and death in the muddy trenches of northern France.....To this day, every time Britons go to war, the opening lines of Rupert Brooke's 1914 poem, "The Soldier," are remembered: "If I should die, think only this of me:/That there's some corner of a foreign field/That is forever England."..."
posted by Voyageman on Nov 30, 2002 - 10 comments

A thrush in the syringa sings.

`Hunger ruffles my wings, fear,
lust, familiar things.

Death thrusts hard. My sons
by hawk's beak, by stones, by cat and weasel, die.
From a shaken bush I
list familiar things,
fear, hunger, lust.'

O gay thrush!

Basil Bunting,
Basil Bunting,
Basil Bunting.

The Return of PoemFilter
posted by y2karl on Nov 9, 2002 - 27 comments

Meet John Clare. In 1832, he wrote to John Taylor, saying:

'in spite of every difficulty rhyme will come to the end of my pen -- when I am in trouble I go on & it gives me pleasure by resting my feelings of every burthen & when I am pleased it gives me extra gratification & so in spite of myself I rhyme on.'*

And John Clare knew difficulty. Born to dirt poor farmers in 1793, he wrote his first poem at 13 and published his first book of poetry at 27. Yet he found himself committed to the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum by the age of 48. Why? It was determined that he suffered from too many "years addicted to poetical prosings."

A poet of the sonnet form, he has suffered from a lack of academic attention until just recently. He does, however, have a society in his name, and a John Clare conference will be held in North America next year.
posted by grabbingsand on Aug 11, 2002 - 10 comments

Poemranker, the hotornot of poetry.
posted by swift on May 10, 2002 - 10 comments

What a cool idea! A poetry publisher that not only puts out an online journal, but also distributes poems via gumball machines. As of now there's only 7 Gumball Poetry machines worldwide, mostly in the Western US, but they're ready to make more. Next time you've got a quarter jinglin' in your jeans skip the gum and get some free verse instead.
posted by jonmc on Apr 13, 2002 - 6 comments

"...[T]heir lives were rich with experience, and they felt compelled to share it, at least among themselves." Cowboy poets strut their stuff at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Be sure to look for some of them at the Olympics.
posted by arco on Feb 5, 2002 - 2 comments

This is the single best entry I have ever read, written by anyone, anywhere, on any blog.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Jan 25, 2002 - 50 comments