Poetry Reading Online

 I have been writing poetry for years, but never made it to an online poetry reading group or festival. I made up new poetry at the annual events of Swanwick Writers Summer School and Fishguard Writers Holiday in Wales. But I travelled little.

For several weeks, a member of Braddell Heights Toastmasters Club, Sylvia Ang, has been posting, in our WhatsApp toastmasters' chat group, accounts of her visits to read poetry at events in Scotland and elsewhere.

In the summer, I used to think she had visited these other countries on holiday. Then, one day, I noticed something odd.  I realized that she was in Singapore, but had attended an event in Scotland. 

I wrote and asked her, 'I saw you at a Scottish poetry reading event. Did you actually visit Scotland?'

 She replied, 'No, it's online.'

I asked her, 'Please put me in touch with them.'

I attended my first online poetry meeting, Reacharts Open Mic, and I was impressed! Firstly, the organization of the online event. Everybody had up to five minutes to read one long or two short poems.The link person for the evening muted everybody whilst the poet was reading. The microphones were briefly unmuted after each reading for two or three people to enthuse about what they liked.

In theory you can attend poetry readings all over the world and read out your poems. In practice, the convener may wish to send you an invitation, or to limit numbers so everybody has a chance to read.

From your point of view the constraints may be, do you have anything to read, which piece should you read, do you have any props or slides or suitable clothes for the tone of your poem,  

Before starting to read, the master of ceremonies for the evening asked us to tell everybody where we were from, what we wrote, and any books we had written and were hoping to sell and where te others could buy them. The chat box was a place for us to introduce ourselves and mention our books.

I tried to write down who was who, to note who ran other poetry groups online. However, I soon lost track. I suggested that one day a technical person should show us how to make a background with our name or the cover of our book with the website link. 

The technical person came up with a simpler solution. He suggested we rename ourselves in the list of participants, under the tab rename. I did this. I put the country and where to find my books on Lulu and Amazon.  

What can you do to find poetry groups?

Look in Facebook for poetry meetings online. 

Look for Meetup poetry meetings in person.

If you don't find what you want, start your own.