Poets and poetasters of the Internet, unite! Post here if you're not looking for extensive critical commentary or if you're new to poetry and criticism.

The next step for less experienced poets desiring constructive critical commentary. Please read and respect these Groovy Guidelines for C&C.

For skillfully executed poems and critiques that aren't quite ready for the rarified atmosphere of Advanced.

For those who are very well-versed in verse and can provide both polished poems and strong, detailed constructive criticism. Read here first! Visible to registered users only.

Are your rhymes wrenched? Your ends stopped? Does your rhythm have no spring? Hightail it to this stress-filled forum for metrical poetry. Please respect the House Rules.

Let's get pithy: A teaching forum. 40 post minimum. Read here first!

Where genius is still 99% perspiration, 1% idle buffoonery, and the rest hard to quantify.

Because self-torture never goes out of style.

To what purpose, April, do you return again?

A special zone for creative juice stimulation. Write and post one poem a day for the entire month of April. Crits are optional.

By PFFA decree, June is officially designated National Poetry Reading Month.

If you feel the need to feed your megalomania by suggesting a challenge which will coerce everyone into writing in a specific form, on a specific topic, using a particularly loathsome phrase, or any such poetic pitfall, this is the place.

As you may have noticed, we maintain a rigid standard of unsmiling compliance to the grim task of writing poetry in all the other forums. Well, that may be open to debate. But decidedly not in this one. Flail away!

If your poems contain only vowels or typographic symbols, or are otherwise incomprehensible (ahem. I mean "experimental"), here's the place for you!

Poems of praise, worshipful limericks, odes to enlightenment, stuff like that. If a higher power features as a main character, you may prefer this category.

If your poems tend to start with "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day, baby?" this is probably the place for you! Erotic poems are asked to remain erotic, not obscene

By response to a raging groundswell of popular demand, here's the place to post your original song lyrics, ideally with a link to a recorded version. Let your muse burble melodiously.

A place for newcomers to be placed on the rack and elongated. Err. No. I mean, a place for newcomers to introduce themselves, get to know the interface and try a few practice posts (posts, not poems. Poems should be posted elsewhere.)

Win friends, influence people, have a beer and chat about whatever drifts across the transom of your mind, poetry-related or not. This is the forum for random nonsense.

Did you just read William Carlos Williams for the first time? Seamus Heaney? Milton? This is the place to share your experiences of new poetry, discuss classical and modern works, trade anecdotes, recommend anthologies, and all that helpful stuff.

A post-free, purge-free haven for handy snippets on poetry and such, generally posted in Voyages and pickled for posterity here by the mods. Don't start or reply to threads.

Hopefully few of the former, some of (what's between former and latter?), and many of the latter. Here's where to suggest improvements, changes, policies, anything else of which you feel the need to unburden yourself.

The Internet poetry world is complex and ever-expanding, with something for just about anyone. This is the place to discuss other venues and to post fair, unbiased reviews of your experiences in the barren, unhealthy lands beyond PFFA.

Sadly, in any forum, there is the potential for horn-locking, often for little or no reason. If you must squabble, take it Outside. The rest of us are here for the poetry.

Questions, announcements and support concerning Everypoet's newest problem child, the Poetry Showcase.

Private area for forum administrators.

A forum for focused exercises of various kinds, designed to help overcome droopy muse syndrome and blocked poetic ducts.

A private forum for intense workshopping. By invitation only. Six to eight week sessions will enable each participant to both receive and offer detailed criticism. Moderators and invitees both benefit -- and it'll only hurt for a second.

On November 10, 2004, PFFA signed its 20,000th member. In honor of this event, one of our oldest members was ritually dipped in liquid nitrogen. The others were asked to each post one example of their finest work for preservation.

Note! The Prose forum is now closed for posting. Please shift your base of prose operations to our new site, EveryAuthor.com.

Exemplary poems spotted at the Poetry Free-for-all and selected by your Minstrels of Merriment. Nominate your favorites in "Voyage of Disco". (Viewable by Registered Users only).

Exemplary critiques selected by your Minstrels of Merriment. Ditto on nominations.

As the PFFA neared the ripe old age of two in the closing days of 2001, participants were asked to each post one example of their best work. The results remain here as a closed time capsule.

In the end, there can be only one: the best, the shrewdest, the most determined—“The PFFA Apprentice”