Hi everyone,

It's a while since I launched a new feature, so I've sneaked this one out in time for the holidays.

You can now choose which notifications you see by default on your My Updates page and the summary on your My Home page. You'll notice a cog icon on both these pages, which links to the settings page. Here's the direct link: https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/feed-settings/

You will still be able to see a full feed of everything by using the drop down navigation on your My Updates page . If you don't choose any settings, the default view will show you everything.

Our next Poet of the Week catchup is with cheesa.

Why did you choose Deep Underground Poetry? Do you think social media contributes to the well-being poetry?

I was introduced to deep underground by a friend, and I definitely think social media helps anything to help promote will help. More platforms, the better.
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Who is or are your greatest poetic inspirations? What inspires you personally to write?

I enjoy reading Shakespeare and I'm inspired to write, mainly when I'm feeling down basically it saves my life.
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How important is the accessibility of meaning? Why do you recommend Deep Underground Poetry?

For deciphering the meaning of poems--it all depends on the poem and poet, and I recommend DUP because it's a friendly place to meet like minded people and poets.

https://www.facebook.com/DUpoetry/posts/10157585753823665

https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poets/cheesa/

Our next Poet of the Week catchup is with Stoney223.

Why did you choose Deep Underground Poetry?

I use to be on GOOGLE until they shut that part of the site down, so a friend of mine subject I check your out so far I enjoy being here and I have meet alot of talented writers and artists here at deep underground. For I was searching for a place were I can be myself and let my mind and thoughts be free to create, for to me if one is truly looking for a place to test the waters here is a good opportunity, for each and everyone of us have the ability to be a writer whether its as a story teller or as a song writer or a artist of artwork for life gives you a story everyday to tell.
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Do you think social media contributes to the well-being poetry?

Yes for it created a outlet that most would not have access to showcase there art or craft for it bough artists together that would never have meet, bringing different ideas and thoughts to a new height of meaning of true expression of thoughts and feelings of ones soul.
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Who is or are your greatest poetic inspirations?

NIKKI GIOVANNI, MAYA ANGELOU, LANGSTON HUGHES, TUPAC SHAKUR.
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What inspires you personally to write? How important is the accessibility of meaning?

What inspires me is to see my words come to life from my mind heart and soul for we each have journeys to tell about life as each step became our footprints within the sands of time, and I get a deep joy to see that my words had an impact upon someones life that to me is the greatest thing in the world to be able to touch someones mind and heart through mere unspoken words to change a thought and create inner feelings.
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Should one have to work hard to solve the poem?

Yes and NO That's the whole thing about writing words you as the writer are in control with the pen to paper, for I find that a good story teller is someone who has the ability to hold your attention creating a beginning a middle and an end, for you as a writer you want the person reading to take the journey travel and walk with every word spoken.
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Why do you recommend Deep Underground Poetry?

Its a nice place and site if you want to learn and grow as you create and see other styles of writings, you will meet staff and members that are here to encourage you and inspire you to reach your true potential as a writer for someone asked the question can anybody be a writer? And the answer is yes for we all have something to say, for poetry is like a letter that we use to write to someone expressing our thoughts and dreams in life for we all have a story to tell through UNSPOKEN WORDS.

https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poets/Stoney223/

https://www.facebook.com/DUpoetry/posts/10157585710803665

Our next Poet of the Week catchup is with Lozzamus.

Why did you choose Deep Underground Poetry?

It seemed a very welcoming site open to all, yet professional with the option to receive feedback.
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Do you think social media contributes to the well-being poetry?

Yes and No. I think it's great that anyone can be a published poet through the internet, but I think the easy access to publish online can sometimes mean publishing poetry that isn't as good as it could be.
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Who is/are your greatest poetic inspiration/s?

I tend to go for novel reading that itself is poetic with rich imagery and an implied poetic rhythm, but I enjoy following a number of poets online and watching structures and themes develop. I, of course, often feel inadequate when reading the poems submitted here.
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What inspires you personally to write? How important is the accessibility of meaning?

Freedom of expression. Creating something that others might read, experience and picture. I tend to concentrate on sharing images, worlds, and stories through writing and rarely write poems to convey messages of sorts (I would use direct prose for that and do so on blogs or via Social Media).
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Should one have to work hard to solve the poem?

No. I think you can enjoy the rhythm and imagery, even when the meaning is difficult to grasp.
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Why do you recommend Deep Underground Poetry?

I think the site provides countless opportunities to read the writings of others, publish original writings online, get feedback, join in forums. It's perfect.

https://www.facebook.com/DUpoetry/posts/10157553511128665

https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poets/Lozzamus/

Our next Poet of the Week catchup is with Stanhoven.

Why did you choose Deep Underground Poetry?

A couple of friends had told me I should publish my poems but I never really feel my poems are that outstanding so I thought well lets see about posting online and see what comes of it. I searched and came across a couple of sites but the Deep drew me in, I liked the setup of the site and the poems I started reading on here so I thought well here it goes and signed up and started posting.
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Do you think social media contributes to the well-being poetry?

Yes as it gives poets an access to put their stuff out and get it read. Social media is a great tool
to post stuff and even for artists to look for inspiration.
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Who is/are your greatest poetic inspiration/s?

Back in high school in grade 12 English when we studied poetry the teacher asked us to pick a poem and as songs were considered poems I choose The Tree's written by Neil Peart(RUSH) a song about the Cold War between the USA and Russia so that would of been the start of where I was headed. I started out as a musician and still am so all my inspirations are musical as songs are really just poems made musical. Meeting people, and living are great inspirations as well.
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What inspires you personally to write? How important is the accessibility of meaning?

As I am inspired just by living I just write how I feel, what I think and lots of Heavy Metal mixed with some great Pop music. Being a songwriter I tend to write in the same way in that the meaning should be clear and invoke a visual, a memory, or even to inspire. I do tend to like the poems on here that make you think and have to read a few times to understand as that is how we grow and learn so all the power to the poets that make us think and be more reflective.
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Should one have to work hard to solve the poem?

For me personally I would have to say no but then again all my stuff is usually written in less then 10 minutes so keeping it simple and to the point is how I tend to write but I have read some great stuff on here and I do tend to like the ones where you have to think.
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Why do you recommend Deep Underground Poetry?

I would recommend this site and actually already have as everyone one here makes you feel
like you are a part of this community and accept you. It was great to post and to get feedback. As an artist I have found inspiration for even my music on this site

https://www.facebook.com/DUpoetry/posts/10157527125878665

https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poets/Stanhoven/

Why did you choose Deep Underground Poetry?

Initially, I was just an innocent bystander in this Deep Underground movement.
I was amazed by the talent on DUP, so I decided to stay to improve my writing skills.
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Do you think social media contributes to the well-being poetry?

I think it greatly contributes to well-being poetry.
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Who is/are your greatest poetic inspiration/s?

I grew up in Greenfield, Indiana. Everything revolved around the poet James Whitcomb Riley. I think that helped shaped my early childhood. Musically it was Jim Morrison and The Doors.
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What inspires you personally to write? How important is the accessibility of meaning?

Music!
I hope the reader spends a little time contemplating the meaning of each poem. The meaning is not always on the surface. Sometimes you have to dig a little deeper to find the meaning, but it's there.
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Should one have to work hard to solve the poem?

It depends on the poem.
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Why do you recommend Deep Underground Poetry?

I recommend Deep Underground Poetry, because you will read some of the most talented poets of our generation.

https://www.facebook.com/DUpoetry/posts/10157512676128665

https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poets/AndyJHale/

The functionality of the block feature has been improved!

For those who don't know, this feature allows you to block another member of the site, if you no longer wish to interact with them.

More info here https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/question/24/

The following has been added:
- Your comments will show as Anonymous, and theirs will show to you as Anonymous.
- Your forum posts will show as Anonymous, and theirs will show to you as Anonymous.

Why not hide the comments and forum posts completely?
Doing this would result in confusing and disjoined comment replies and forum conversations. Having them turn Anonymous replicates what happens when a member deactivates their DU Poetry account.

Our next Poet of the Week catch up is with MartenHoyle.

Why did you choose Deep Underground Poetry?

It seemed a very nice place. That was a few years ago. I don’t think I’ve changed my profile picture. I also have some thoughts about social media contributing to the well-being of poetry.
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Do you think social media contributes to the well-being poetry?

Oops. Got ahead of myself. Um...I can’t say Social Media has done much for the well-being of my own poetry. Its only recently that people have begun to pay some kind of attention to my words. But I see a great deal of poets “making it” due to the influence of social media, so I’ll keep trying.
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Who is/are your greatest poetic inspiration/s?

Sopor Aeternus is my greatest influence as a poet. I know she is a musician, but I find myself drawn to her. As far as other poets, I would have to say, Edgar Allan Poe, Algernon Charles Swinburne Charles Baudelaire and Emily Dickinson are at the top of my list.
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What inspires you personally to write? How important is the accessibility of meaning?

It is beyond important for me to write. Someone much wiser than I once told me art is a “Survival Strategy.” I believe that with every fiber of my being. I write to survive. As far as meaning goes, the poems only mean anything to me as I am writing them: I tend to forget what my poems are about once I have posted the words. And I like it that way. Because then readers can take their own meaning from what I have written and I think that makes it a richer experience for both of us.
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Should one have to work hard to solve the poem?

They say one should read a poem a minimum of three times in order to grasp its full “meaning.” The poem I’ve read the most is Swinburne’s “A Forsaken Garden.” I understand it fully now, but I keep reading it because, like any good art, I can always take something different away with each visit. So, my answer to that question, I suppose would be a yes and a no. It depends all on how invested the composer and the reader are invested in the piece.
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Why do you recommend Deep Underground Poetry?

I recommend it because it is the perfect poetry community. Everybody there is so friendly and has nothing but supportive words for one another. I have never had a problem with it, and I have met some extremely kind people. Particularly a reader under the name MysteriousLady. She reads practically everything I have put out, so I just want to take this answer as a little opportunity to nod in her direction.

https://www.facebook.com/DUpoetry/posts/10157512606753665

https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poets/MartenHoyle/

Our next Poet of the Week catch up is with LokiOfLiterati

Why did you choose Deep Underground Poetry?

Right away DUP had a subversive feel to it that for me highlighted all the reasons poetry is so addictive and necessary to the human experience. If your poetry was self-indulgent, sexually obsessive, angry, that wasn't shamed. That was just class'ed under category and theme, on a value par with observational, or relating to sports. The idea that there was no judgement on topic and theme and members were sooo supportive, of new work, or of extremely vulnerable work was so key to me. That meant the riskiest moves an artist could make were as sacred as the most base.
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Do you think social media contributes to the well-being poetry?

Absolutely. I think poetry is how the hidden self breathes and social media is how the Zeitgeist listens and reverberates. I think that being able to reflect on the lyrics and the messages that we catch from music, from media, from all the daily mediums that inundate us and then have an audience, even for just a moment to listen to our spin is highly elevating of the individual and encourages more people to take risks and expose their works, their struggles. Because of social media people like me who came up through the coffeehouse poetry tours, the underground networks can now reach a wider audience and not give a fuck about selling chapbooks, because we can give it out and know there's anonymity in the audience. That isn't addressed often, but should be. Given the crude nature of my work and the visceral wordplay, the security of reading it on the screen means anyone can access that flavor and message without exposing themselves for their taste or associations. You can like my work and not admit to your friends that you like the groove of my kind. And that duplicity won't have to affect me or slow my ability to reach you.
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Who is/are your greatest poetic inspiration/s?

Emily Dickinson, Bob Dylan, ee cummings, Silvia Plath, Immortal Technique, Jean Grae, Talib Kweli, KRS-ONE, Stic-Man, Guru, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Low Key, Slug, Killah Priest, Diabolic, Noam Chomsky, Ray Bradbury, Aesop (original as well as the Hip Hop MC), Stan Lee, Homer, James Joyce, T.S. Elliot, Georgia O'Keefe, Jean Jelnick (9th grade English teacher), Mick Jagger, Robert Greene, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Walt Whitman, Mary Shelly
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What inspires you personally to write? How important is the accessibility of meaning?

Sometimes it's hard to sleep otherwise. It's the packaging of nuanced thoughts that would otherwise go astray. The links between disparate concepts that momentarily fuse in the mind can be distilled into tools, strategies in real life. Writing arranges those abstract concepts in a sequence that clarifies what that tool is. So, in essence writing is like archaeology to the Akashic Record. Without the accessibility of meaning there is the morass. For an audience member, for a reader, being able to self-define meaning, or being able to take the true meaning is subjective. A writer can at most hope to spend their life perfecting the toolbox and the messages until they're coherent, but ultimately no one will ever know you the way you do, or understand any spot you have to share the way it is to you. Writing is the constant struggle with Hume's Paradox. I think accessibility of meaning to the writer is less important as the most important thing is simply to write. Ground needs to be covered and fluid growth can only occur with momentum. Meaning will find it's way if the writer writes.
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Should one have to work hard to solve the poem?

I think the poem should solve itself. If a writer absolutely needs the reader to invest heavily in deciphering in order to validate their work, then they could prolly better satisfy that puppetmaster fantasy by designing escape room games or becoming a DC supervillain or some shit. I think some poems, such as acrostics and time-loops or stories told from an objects perspective are fascinating and novel and they can really show off a writers hidden talents, but the reward is in how the poem melts in your mouth. It isn't like stirring the tea to sweeten it. The poem is already written. The hard work is the author's onus. The artful perk is the reader's bonus.
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Why do you recommend Deep Underground Poetry?

I recommend DUP because of two extremely important contributions: 1. The value of Family Art, or Art Family. This should be self-explanatory. It's my sanctum. If I didn't have DUP, I'd prolly go back to graff writing. Even my best work wasn't as appreciated then. It required more risk, more work. Sadly there isn't an infinite cache of blank walls. And even then, the work of my so-called "peers" wouldn't be nearly as interesting for me to read
2. DUP constantly uplifts the skill level and craftsmanship of every individual poet I follow. I've watched so much personal evolution that is reflective of the badass feedback loop, the support, from collaborations and comments to the discussion boards and competitions. This espirt de corps of poetry and the poet being so integral, so important to do and grow as, and not in some lame fragile, participation-trophy-for-cutting-yourself-to-Depressed-Mode snowflake way, but in the real distilled, finding your true path avenue is exactly what's needed to shift the needle on tribal sentience. DUP is where your hidden you can go express and refine their view. It's the digital Age of Reason platform. Cats will be saying that in 15 years.

https://www.facebook.com/DUpoetry/posts/10157473292338665

https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poets/LokiOfLiterati/

Our next Poet of the Week catch up is with Harold-Weathervein.

Why did you choose Deep Underground Poetry?

It's been nearly 10 years since I first joined so it's gotten a little bit hazy over that time but I did know that I wanted to self-publish. But was also very shy about my writing. At the time, I hadn't had any sort of constructive outlet or people around me to comfortably share what I was feeling let alone writing about outside of a few people who lived either states or countries away. So to jump over that hurdle in some sort of way I started to push pieces online more often and DUP is the one that actually just seemed to stick with me more and more on a comfort level.
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Do you think social media contributes to the well-being poetry?

I hope I understand this question right...
I don't think it's any mystery that social media can be over bearing at times which is why i've chosen to abstain from the majority of it. So while I can't say if it contributes to the 'well-being', it certainly has helped in the accessibility and opening up of sharing poetry in general. I guess it all lies in what exactly it is you're looking for.
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Who is/are your greatest poetic inspiration/s?

I really don't know haha. For every medium of art (writing, music, movies, painting etc.) i would give you a different answer. For me I think most of it stems from my experiences, relationships, traveling and conversations. From the greatest to the absolute worst. Just trying to process and hopefully reach a understanding of everything from both ends of the spectrum.
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What inspires you personally to write? How important is the accessibility of meaning?

I'm not sure if it's inspiration or necessity. I'm very poor at articulating myself especially when put on the spot (I have a long list of people and ex-girlfriends that can vouch for me on that) so the more I could just slow things down and have time to think to say what I actually meant rather than just blurt out the first thing that came to mind seemed healthier.
As far as accessibility goes...For me I tend to write rather simplistic. I like to set a tone or idea more than using big unnecessary words that can sometimes just muddle the overall piece. I think sometimes it's the subject matter that can make a piece more complex. That being said. Some of my favorite pieces from others on DUP are so far out there that my interest peaks and I have to re-read it over and over again haha.
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Should one have to work hard to solve the poem?

This one is tricky haha. There is really no right answer.
'Solving' a poem is essentially trying to understand what the writer is conveying
and that's up to you to decide if that's what you want out of it.
and sometimes he or she (or at least me) doesn't even really know haha.
If it made you think or feel anything I would consider that a good thing. If you finished and left with 'I don't get it.' That's perfectly fine as well. No one's judging.
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Why do you recommend Deep Underground Poetry?

It helped me sort of fit/grow into my own skin with writing as it has changed multiple times over the years. Especially just the act of sharing it/actually getting well thought out critique rather than the classic 'this sucks' the world of internet can give a person. I've recommended it to others before who seemed to have the same problem as me with sharing their writings in a public forum.
There is SO MUCH you can choose to go through if you want. Sometimes you'll find a winner and it might become one of your favorite things to share and talk about.

https://www.facebook.com/DUpoetry/posts/10157473279358665

https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poets/Harold-Weathervein/

Our next Poet of the Week catch up is with Benzy_420.

Why did you choose Deep Underground Poetry?

I needed a place to share my poetry and song writing with likeminded and passionate people. And after a brisk skim through google results, DUP seemed like the right choice.
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Do you think social media contributes to the well-being poetry?

Without a doubt. Never before has poetry had such a platform to flourish. These are early days, but remarkable advancements for the popularity and “health” of poetry. Give it time, maybe music will be outdated and poetry will become the new norm 🤷‍♂️
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Who is/are your greatest poetic inspiration/s?

Kendrick Lamar. How a mind can be fostered by such a difficult environment and still be able to produce work with the level of depth that To Pimp a Butterfly contains. The flows. The stories. Whether you agree with his points, his penmanship is truly awe inspiring.
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What inspires you personally to write?

Music, anxiety, and powerful, compelling emotions. But mostly music.
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How important is the accessibility of meaning?

Incredibly so. While there is value in the niches of art, the talent lies within captivating a large audience. It’s not a simple task to be relatable, as many poets will know. In fact, it’s easy to assume that we’re misunderstood and outsiders. And we ALL feel that, if not always, then most of the time. So to be able to take a personal truth and have it translate across continents, that’s absolutely sensational.
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Should one have to work hard to solve the poem?

That would depend on your personal position. Poetry is subjective. There is no “should” or “ought” when it comes to poetry. If I want to label this message as poetry, you cannot deny me that right.
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Why do you recommend Deep Underground Poetry?

There is a vast array talented wordsmiths that frequent this site that can inspire, motivate, console, relate, and defy expectations. From the simple to the sublime, there’s something for everyone.

https://www.facebook.com/DUpoetry/posts/10157399632733665

https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poets/Benzy_420/

Sign up to take part in Poetry Month at Deep Underground Poetry. The challenge is to write a poem a day throughout the month of April.

Find out more and sign up on this thread: https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/forum/speakeasy/read/11827/

P.S. Be sure to watch the promo video, put together by the event hosts.