Once upon a time, there was an infamous vanity anthology company called the International Library of Poetry, also known by the name of its website, Poetry.com.
The ILP advertised free poetry contests in newspapers and magazines, with cash prizes for the finalists and publication in a hardbound anthology for finalists and semi-finalists. The contest wasn’t a real contest, however. Just about everyone who submitted a poem was declared a semi-finalist, and offered the “opportunity” to buy the anthology in which their work was to appear (with, of course, a discount for multiple purchases). If they stumped up for the anthology, they were bombarded by offers of other ways to spend money: yet more contests, their poems embossed on coffee mugs or enshrined on plaques, memberships in poets’ societies (which demanded $100 or more in annual dues), attendance at poetry conferences (which cost as much as $600, travel and hotel not included).
In 2009, the ILP finally went bust, and the Poetry.com domain was acquired by self-publishing service Lulu.com (I blogged about this when it happened). Lulu kept the functionality of the Poetry.com website–including the thousands of poems published by Poetry.com participants over the years–but discontinued the vanity anthologies and the merchandising aspects of the business.
Good news for poets–though of course there was no shortage of similar schemes to take the ILP’s place.
Now it appears that the Poetry.com domain has changed hands again. The new owner is a company called Newton Rhymes, LLC, which filed a trademark application for the Poetry.com name in January of this year. Virtually no information on Newton Rhymes turns up in a web search, other than the fact that it is a brand-new business based in Massachusetts and licensed in New York, which also owns a rather neglected-looking website called TRCornelius.com that advertises writing contests.
Former Poetry.com participants found out about the change via an email solicitation at the end of March, inviting them to “claim” their poems on the re-launched Poetry.com website and “share your message with the world!”
The new Poetry.com–which is already drawing participants–features a points and badges system, allowing poets to earn points for activities such as providing critiques and promoting Poetry.com on social media. Poets who amass 25,000 points earn an ugly pin. The poets who earn the most points for doing various things that boil down to promoting the site are promised an appearance on national TV (no details on when or where).
Though the junk mail-style tone of the solicitation email and the tacky look of the re-vamped website don’t bode well, membership in the new Poetry.com is free, and there’s no sign of the contests, anthologies, coffee mugs, or other cheesy methods by which the ILP extracted cash from poet-participants.
There also doesn’t appear to be any advertising–which raises the question of how the new Poetry.com pays for itself, and what’s in it for Newton Rhymes. A hint, possibly, can be found in the Privacy Policy (my bolding): “We will receive and store any information you enter on the Web Site or give us in any other way that personally identifies you…By submitting this personally identifiable information to us you agree to receive email and postal mail communication from us and our marketing partners.” In other words, anyone who signs up for the new Poetry.com website should expect to be solicited.
I’ll be keeping an eye on the new Poetry.com, and will update this post if anything changes.
UDATE 9/13/17: From a comment just left on this post:
Poetry.com appears to have a new owner (Hold Gold, LLC, based in Park City, Utah) as of September 1st. Sadly, the archival database of user-submitted poems no longer seems to be available. The site looks like it’s starting from scratch, with a new design and no former poems available on it. See https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/contestpoems/#ilp and, for a name affiliated with the company, https://secure.utah.gov/bes/details.html?entity=9651457-0160.
UPDATE 7/18/18: After changing hands yet again in 2017, Poetry.com appears to have vanished from the web. Writer Beware has heard from many poets wanting to find the poems they posted on the site–again, the site is gone, but here’s a possible idea for retrieving your poetry: using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to search archived versions of Poetry.com.
Try this: Open up Poetry.com at Archive.org
Archive.org takes snapshots of every single page on the Internet. They have approximately 461,880 pages saved from Poetry.com over the past 21 years.
I suggest picking a date near the mid 2017 as they were the most likely to load for me and see if you can find your public profile.
You WILL NOT be able to log in to your old account. Remember, this is just a snapshot of what the website looked like at a certain point in time. It is NOT a functioning website. The search feature will NOT WORK either.
You can also try opening poetry.com/poems/ to see the full list of poems.
If you happen to have a URL bookmarked where your poems were once stored, plug that URL directly into Archive.org instead.
This will be your best chance at recovering your old content.
If this works for you, please leave a comment here to let me know.
Also: the Library of Congress maintains an informational resource on vanity poetry anthologies, with general information on a number of the biggest vanity anthologizers, and in some cases, suggestions on how it may be possible to find your poems.
UPDATE 12/9/19: The Poetry.com web domain is back in existence, though the page has no content other than a “coming soon” message.
UPDATE 9/6/21: Apparently Poetry.com is returning…again. It’s claimed that they will be bringing back the poems archived on the site. The company that’s taken over the domain, STANDS4, owns a large number of reference and dictionary websites.
The new Poetry.com site is here.
I had a poem published but cant remember which one and dont remember the book name…how can I find it? Any help appreciated
Archive.com domain is for sale.
So sorry!! I seriously don't understand why there are people in the world doing stuff like this. It is ridiculous. I hope that you all can find your work, whether online or in writing. My prayers are with you.
I don't think insulting folks on this platform is necessary. This is supposed to be a place where we can come to inquire, vent, and share. It is bad enough that our poetry is missing, whether we have it written down somewhere else or saved shouldn't matter. Good for you that it is simply a minor inconvenience. For others, not so much. Just be considerate of other folks' feelings. It should be easy to do.
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If you read from earlier posts, a suggestion is to check on Archive.com. I hope you can find your poems. I will be trying it myself. Good luck!
Hello my name is Christina Younger and I'm desperately trying to find my poetry. If anyone can find them please email them to me please. They should be searchable under the name Christina Younger or Tina Younger. Chris9713tina@gmail.com thanks so much to anyone willing to try
Why in God's name would anyone not have at least two or three backup copies of everything they've ever written? Surely, you weren't dumb enough to actually write the poems on poetry.com, and not keep other copies? I have about 400 poems posted this year on this site, which seems to have vanished again overnight. But since they all are copyrighted in my name, and I have numerous backup copies, the latest disappearance of poetry.com is only a minor inconvenience. Phil
Wow ! arent we all just a bunch of sad sorry suckers looking to retrieve our poems that were stolen from us! i have atleast half a dozen submitted to them. Pathetic that people can get away with doing shady business like this!
Hello my real name Dasha Gowans…..I wrote about 20 poems….I’d lik to recover them, They were written between 2014 & 2017 I only remember one titled( World within worlds) & I believe I wrote one called (Black Gurl) one was titled (Color-Blind) I heard they were published but I don’t know with who….I heard a few were on Amazon, but they also have many books…..If any one finds mines, Can U please email them to me que3nd7@gmail.com it be highly appreciated……Have a blessed day or blessed year I remember telling my friends this online……I had used my nic-names on my profile…..Daysha or Diamond Lancaster or Diamond Yvonne…..Ty
My sister passed away 2 weeks ago and Ive5 been going through some of her belongings. Before she passed she gave several of her books to her granddaughter and I have the rest. The plaque will be sent to her son.
Poems are the doorway to a poets heart and soul. They write what life is meaning to them at that time.
I think it meant so much to her to see her poems in a book. She was published. At least she passed without knowing it was not so legitimate. Books cost money to publish. Plaques aren't cheap and trophies, however can be cheap.
But the reward to many was seeing their name in print, in a book, that they can pick up and read and show family and friends.
I'm not saying it was right to scam people like they did, I'm just saying it did bring some joy to some lives.
i am trying to find a poem I wrote years and years ago and was published on poetry.com and I'm not able to find it any help would be greatly apricated it is called my family is a written by myself Jennifer Falle email me at faller16@hotmail.com
I have a copie of "Forever Spoken", was published in 2007 poetry.com
Has over 200 poems from various artists.
If you feel you may have been published in this book send me and email and I'll check and send you a picture of you poem back to you. hexen1968@yahoo.com
This is the first time I have heard about this I have several pieces of poetry copyrighted by them and one my son wrote that I collaborated on. I also used two names that they would fall on along with my sons. I would love to find them and have them all returned to me.