A place for newcomers to be placed on the rack and elongated. Err. No. I mean, a place to introduce oneself and possibly acquire some posting and critting sea legs. (Those unfamiliar with the rigors of a critical poetry forum may want to post their first few poems here.) As always, 3 crits per posted poem applies.

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.

Poets and poetasters of the Internet, unite! If you're new to poetry and criticism, post here after testing the warmer waters of the Newbies Stretching Room first. And please read the New Posters' Orientation thread before you dive in.

The next step for intermediate-level poets desiring constructive critical commentary. Please read and respect these groovy C&C guidelines.

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

There's a reason April is called the cruelest month - the 30 poems in 30 days marathon known as National Poetry Writing Month. Read the rules of engagement, then go ahead - we dare you.

Seven poems in seven days starting on the seventh of the month starting in 2012. What have you got to lose but your dignity? If you're new, here's what you do.

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.

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.

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.

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

2005 - 2010 Forums

I, II, & III

I & II

I & II

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. (Forum is currently closed.)

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

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

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.

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”