The first port of call for most poets is to enter competitions, a simple task you would presume, right? However from my own experience I’ve found that competitions aren’t infact the best way to get recognized within the world of poetry. When I entered into several competitions through various websites, it began to get a little more complicated, some never responded - which didn't deter me much as no response often mean you haven't got through, but there was one website that was determined to keep my spirits up and to get me hoping and wishing for something that seemed to always be just out of reach.

Poetry.com - is an American website that after further research has had many articles and complaints written about. At first I ignored the hundreds of people that warned against this specific website, as many articles just droned on about the high prices of their symposiums. So I continued through the process of the competition entry, all you were required to do was write a poem of your choice and enter it into the website along with you email address and name, your poem is then published onto the website -  this seemed at the time like an amazing accomplishment, I was now published onto a website where many people could read and appreciate my poetry, somewhere I could finally be recognized as an established poet.

 After this I received a letter informing me  I’d gotten through to the semi finals and that my unique and inspiring poem would also be put into a compellation book of poetry if I wished free of charge with my name underneath it. I was also of course given the choice to order a book which I did – my family and friends as well as my self wanted to see my accomplishments. This in itself seemed like the most amazing thing ever, I wasn’t even that bothered about winning the competition, however $1000’s would still be a wonderful prize, but what was to come was then to surprise me further, I was then invited to a symposium in Washington d.c to receive an award and to read my poetry out to a selection of judges to win further prizes. I was very tempted to go yet the articles had been right about the obscene amount of money required to attend a symposium like this if you weren’t to live in the America.

After this I heard little from them, both about the book and about my poems. And since I have heard nothing. I hope in the near future to at least receive the books that I purchased but I won’t be holding my breath about the competition. This experience has taught me that if you wish to be a poet you have to get out their and do something about it, after this I pushed on by contacting publishes by sending them a letter along with a selection of my best poems, as you can imagine from many of them I simply got a general reply that their secretary typed out to me without even looking at my poems, however there were some publishes who sent me proper replies to my poetry that advised me on the best way to get into the poet society and this is to enter into magazines first to help establish yourselves into the world of poetry. This was it is more likely that publishes will look at your work.

If any one who reads this articles is interested in becoming a poet you can email me at emo_da_angel@hotmail.com, also I am happy to publish you poems onto this website free of charge. I hope this article has helped future poets on their way to avoiding websites and organizations like poetry.com.