So, I want to first start off by saying that I've just recently gotten my first acceptance letter for a poem I submitted, and it's going to be posted on the Shine! Journal site in October...

With that being said, I'm having a hard time trying to find help with my poetry.  Not that the forums here are bad, (there are a lot of great people) but in the critique section for Poetry here, there aren't many posters, and only a certain level of advice can be given, and I've found that I'm one of the people that gets turned to when giving advice.  So I tried to scour the web today to see if there were any good forums that someone could try to get help in shaping their poetic voice and style on, and I'm coming up with nothing.

All of the forums that kept coming up didn't meet any of the criteria I was looking for.  First, I want the forum to be password protected, like this one.  That way after I post my piece, I can firmly know that I can send it out for publication because it hasn't been publicly posted.  Every site I took a look at, I was able to view the poems posted just by clicking.  I didn't have to register to view anything.  That's a complete out of the question for me because I want to be able to send anything I'm working on out for publication.

Second, the work has to be top notch or at least pretty good, and the advice given has to be real advice, not just "I liked it, I didn't like it, etc"  For most of them that's all I could see.  Sub-par work with no real advice given.  And one site that I did see good advice, didn't meet the password requirement, and it didn't look like many people posted either...

So, I'm wondering, does anyone know where a budding poet can finely craft their work?  I want to be able to expand some of my style, and get more publication credits under my belt...

Thanks in advance if anyone has advice...

-John

You aren't going to get much of any help with poetry on fora.  I'm not sure anyone can help you.  Not you, specifically, you the poet.  If anyone could, it would be a gifted poet who is willing to mentor or teach and also has teaching skills.  Those three factors seldom collide.

I'd suggest that you read books written by poets and good creative writing teachers about the craft and read, read, read poetry.  I'm sure you can find journals and/or literary publications with analytic material about poetry.  

The reason I say that feedback from general audiences is little help is because poetry is so personal, both in its creation and in the eyes/ears/mind of the beholder/listener/consciousness.  I am a poet, and adore certain poems, but I cannot tell you why I love those poems or what I've done in my creations "worked". 

Good luck! 

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