Atop the list of most search engine query results for "poetry contests," you'll find poetry.com, one of the domains owned by International Library of Poetry, aka International Society of Poets, a notorious poetry profiteer, referred to by some in the know as poetry.con or poetry.scam. They're one of many who operate in the same fraudulent manner. If you haven't figured it out or read someone else's exposé about it, what you need to understand about these places comes down to this: they're running legal (apparently) scams, capitalizing on poets' aspirations and egos.

Send them the most awful poem you can write, and like clockwork, they'll send you back the form letter that all their entrants get, commending you on the quality of your work and "selecting" you as a "semi-finalist." In 1998, ABC's 20/20 did an investigation on poetry.com in which an entire class of 2nd graders sent in submissions and all received the same congratulations-you've-been chosen-as-a-semi-finalist acceptance letter.

Poet David Taub sent in the following drivel under the pen name "Wergel Flomp" (which inspired the annual free Wergel Flomp Poetry Contest sponsored by WinningWriters.com)...

Flubblebop
by Wergle Flomp

flobble bobble blop
yim yam widdley woooo
oshtenpopple gurby
yip yip yip
nish-nash nockle nockle
opfem magurby voey
Ahh! "Wurby tictoc?"
"quefoxenjib masaloouterp!"
bim-burm nurgle shliptog
afttowicky wicky wicky
erm addmuksle slibberyjert!
Reqi stoobery bup dinhhk
yibberdy yobberdy hif twizzum moshlap
dwisty fujefti coppen smoppen dob
tigtog turjemy fydel
saxtenvurskej brisleywum
swiggy swiggy swug
yumostipijjle dobers!

Here's the first page of the letter he subsequently received from poetry.com:

And here's part of the order form:

Trustful poets become ecstatic upon reading this letter addressed to themselves. They share their pride and excitement with family and friends. Visions of writing careers dance in their heads. They don't care as much about their chances of winning money as they do that they're going to be published in a book. And therein lies the essence of why poetry.com and their equivalents thrive. They know that getting published is any writer's utmost aspiration. They bait you with the advertisement of huge prize amounts and "Free Entry," then their we-want-to-publish-your-poem accolades are the hook through your lip. Everything seems official and legit, so most poets never suspect they're dealing with con artists, and readily place their orders for the anthologies that are made to sound elegant and luxurious but in reality are cheap, poorly edited, and have multiple poems crammed onto each page. When you've been published, you want to actually see your work in print, after all, and since these anthologies aren't available in any stores where you could go and browse through them, and it's not like you're going to know anyone who collects them, what choice do you have? Back up... what was that? Are you saying only the contributors and their loved ones buy the books?  Exactly. Now you're catching on. The anthologies are not marketed to the public. Which is why the prices are so inflated ($50 or more, in most cases, and more on top of that to include a very short bio)-- because the only people who'll pay that much (or anything at all, really, for what we're talking about here) are others who simply want a keepsake of a perceived achievement. Most of them will read little more of the contents than the page containing the poem that was the reason for their purchase. Furthermore, according to information found on poetryNOTcom, poetry.com doesn't even publish the poems of those who don't purchase the book. All of this speaks volumes to the fact that these companies care nothing about poetry or helping you gain recognition, and are driven solely by the pursuit of profit.

I visited poetry.com's Publications page and added up all the books with release dates in 2002 (they list the books in alphabetical order instead of by years, so the massive volume of books published each year is not readily apparent); I counted 53. One a week plus one! Appalling.

And that's not even the worst of it. Poetry.com takes their scumminess to an all-time low with their annual conventions, which poets are invited to attend at $595 per person. The price doesn't even include airfare or overnight accomodations for the three day event. Read about one woman's humiliating experience at one of these conventions.

As mentioned earlier, poetry.com is just one of many. To name a few others,...
Noble House (European branch of poetry.com)
The Poem Place (thepoemplace.com - another International Library of Poetry site)
Hollywood's Famous Poets Society
The American Poets Society (poetryamerica.com)
The Poetry Guild
Pen Pushers Publications
Poets' Guild
Iliad Press (Cader Publishing)

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© 2003 Jenestasia