Its sad. I had published over 100 poems on the website poetry.com starting about 15 years ago. Many were just bad poems. They exposed negative aspects to my character, my attitude, my writing process. I had to work hard on those things and quit publishing over a decade ago.
But last week I went on poetry.com and found my entire profile deleted. They didn't even bother rolling my old profile over and a poem to let everyone know I'm part of this community. Instead they excommunicated both me and my entire output.
Its one thing to not like me or my poems but its an entirely different dynamic for a platform to decide what qualifies as art on their platform.
It does not show a deeper instinct for understanding. Just because poetry.com doesnt value my work doesn't mean my fellow poets dont. It say to me that poetry.com doesn't really care about the community they claim to serve. And I knew that over a decade ago. Thats why I kept a lot of poems and have published them elsewhere.
Honestly, the people who manage poetry.com are fools. They only believe in the timelessness within the public domain. The artists who have already established themselves now long dead. That way the sponsorship gives poetry.com a sense of free prestige without actually contributing anything in return.
What they should be doing is elevating the poets who have contributed on their website. They should be encouraging their poet community to start workshops and publish books that they support and market on their platform. That's a way more respectable approach to this type of business.
I have no issue with the platforms making a profit but to demoralize the artists craft to a cute hobby regulated by cold calculations does not show any long term value for poetry.com moving forward. It exposes their short term gains at the detriment of the artists long term pains.
Now if you utilize poetry.com in the short term and contribute back to the community, it'll help everyone become a better person and poet. And then take those works and seek financial success elsewhere because obviously poetry.com is a roach motel. They don't want you seeking publication elsewhere and even if you placate to their demands. Theirs a good chance they'll delete your profile to save room on their servers.
Ironically, the only way for poetry.com to honor your poetry long term is for the poets to reach Robert Frost, T.S. Elliot level of success once its in the public domain.
