You may use this page to apply for Membership of Poems Please Me
or to use the Poet’s Friend support service
Information you give is in confidence. Poems remain your copyright.
Membership £12 (the 3rd option on the drop down PayPal button below – you do not need a PayPal account. If you prefer cheque/post drop us a line first via Enquiries page.) Benefits include:
1. Free entry to one Poems Please Me Prize competition.
2. Discount on the Poet’s Friend (see below) guidance/advisory service.
3. Share and discuss a miscellany of poems and booklists via Google Drive. Google Drive is a fairly new, easy to use, free service, for sharing documents amongst named friends.
Poet’s Friend
The remaining information on this page applies to this support service for poets.
“Poet’s Friend was respectful of my voice as a poet; lots of thought given to the feedback, but no punches pulled! The e-mail conversations that are a feature of this mentoring model provide a sounding board throughout the editing and refining process. Very useful.” – Annie Fisher, Fire River Poets
How Poet’s Friend works. 1. You answer a few questions (below) and provide 3 or 4 of your poems for personal, one-to-one comment (privately, by e-mail or post). 2. Our editor, your mentor, will also angle some Members’ resources (and/or draw your attention to others) in a way that is of particular help to you. 3. After you have received the first comments/critique, there will usually be some e-mail dialogue between yourself and your mentor. 4. That will lead to your second set of poems, more critique. 5 A final dialogue will close the contractual commitment (but you will still be a Member – see benefits above).
If you have any questions before proceeding, regarding the Poet’s Friend service – or payment method (should you wish to pay by cheque for instance) then please do send a note via our Enquiries page.
Payment: £40 for existing Members of Poems Please Me. £52 for non-Members, which includes your subscription and Members’ privileges. You may make that payment here, using any major card, via PayPal. (You do NOT need a PayPal account.) Your payment will be acknowledged automatically and immediately by PayPal, and later, personally, by the Poems Please Me administrator or editor.
Thank you. Now you can go ahead and draft your answers and choose poems to send. (Or raise any questions first, if you wish.) I really look forward to working with you.
Please react to the points below in whichever way prompts your own thoughts and also helps us understand where you’re coming from and what you might hope to achieve. Send your answers online to the editor at admin @ poemsplease.me, or by post to Poems Please Me, Knapp, Dunkeswell, Honiton EX14 4RN. (It helps if you refer to the numbers of the listed questions.)
1 Give your name and postal and/or an e-mail address. Quote any PayPal reference.
2. Please name two or three poets and/or specific poems you like.
3. Please attach/enclosed at least one poem of your own that particularly pleases you – and briefly say why.
4. Please attach/enclose up to 3 more poems for detailed comment and or discussion. After I have given you feedback (and we’ve corresponded), I’ll invite you to submit 3 more. This is designed as a postal or electronic service, with some dialogue over time, not a one-off set of instant comments.
5. Have you shared (or published) poems already – with, for example, small groups of poets or writers, readings to other groups or meetings, poetry magazines, non-poetry magazines/newspapers… or posted them online?
6. Who would you most like to read or hear your work (over the next few years)? Children, young people, adults, the general public, other poets? – OK, OK, anyone who cares to listen – but you get the drift – do you have some particular audience in mind?
7. Are there any particular subjects you’d like to explore in your writing?
8. Do you feel you want to explore and understand your own feelings, to share feelings, to teach, to share the fun of language… what is it that appeals to you about poetry and how do want others to react? OK, that could generate an essay, but it’s quite legitimate to say, ‘Yes, all that and more!’ if that is the answer.
9. Do you find some aspects of writing especially difficult – and if so, is this or any other aspect something on which you’d like particular guidance?
10. Methods/the mechanics… Do you write frequently? Do you make notes? Do you let ideas for a poem ‘grow’ over time. Do you research subjects? Do you revise recent and/or old work? Do you use paper and/or PC/laptop/tablet? Again, that could generate an essay, but brief answers will help us both focus.
11. Any other comments or questions.
- Tony French, Editor
