Welcome

Here it is--the first post.  What I hope this blog becomes is a place to review and promote new poetry by up-and-coming poets.  It's a hard world for poets, because honestly, most people just don't care, and those that do seem to be interested in one of two things: 1) the well-anthologized classic poets that everyone knows and studies; or 2) their own poetry.  Why does no one follow new books of poems the way they follow new novels or biographies?  My guess is that firstly, a vicious circle is in play: its hard to get new poetry noticed, so no one promotes it, so no one notices it.  The poetry section in bookstores is tiny as it is; there's not much room on the shelf between the critical literary editions and the themed anthologies.  Secondly, people who love poetry are kind of wary of unknown poets.  I admit, that judgement is based solely on myself.  But face it--a lot of poetry that gets written is actually pretty bad, and trawling the Internet for new poetry will likely turn up dross penned by self-absorbed amateurs.  It's hard for quality poetry to keep its head above the swill, and as a result, readers have to do a lot of sifting to find something good.  What I'd really like is a source where someone reviews new collections and recommends them (or not) with a quick glimpse at style, tone, and subject matter, some excerpts, and some comparisons to other poets.

So here you go.

If you are a publisher I invite you to e-mail me at z.t.hudson@gmail.com concerning recent titles, so long as they are available on Amazon.  In the mean time, I'll post some thoughts on poets and poetry in general and in particular.