It is one thing to write poetry; it is another thing to get it published, poets could not agree more. Poets are just too enamored with words that express their deepest thoughts and feelings, that thinking about how to publish their poetry is only an afterthought. However, you may have decided already that your poems are ready for the world to see. The problem you have now is on how to get your poetry published.

Here are five helpful tips on how to publish your poetry the smart way:

Tip no. 1: Practice your craft.

What practice does is improve your skill in writing poems. The quality of your poems will be enhanced, if you just keep on writing every chance you get. The same is true for other poets who have gone before you, their first works were not at all that impressive. In fact, their very first poems fall short of the beautiful works written by other, more experienced poets. Gradually, however, they developed their own voices.

By practicing your craft, you are sharpening your writing skill, and giving your poems the chance of elegance necessary to get published. If your looking to take your craft to the next level I have written an ebook; The Insider Secrets On How To Write Poetry available from my website.

Tip no. 2: Give your writings the right exposure.

Before proceeding into publishing your own book to display the collection of poems you have made over the years, you should plan to have one of your poems gain recognition. You can do this by submitting to literary magazines and journals, just so you can establish for yourself a publication record and gain loyal readership. With this, you will at least have built a reputation in the world of poetry. Publishing your book of poems then will not be as hard since publishers know that your writings could sell.

Tip no. 3: Self-publishing is an option.

If you don't want to go through the hassles of submitting some of your poems to literary magazines and establishing your name in the world of poetry, you can opt for self-publishing. This can be the quickest way for you to get published. Check the following sites that can cater to self-publishing requirements; lulu.com, createspace.com, authorhouse.com and iuniverse.com. Find one that provides the publishing service at a cost that will fit your budget.

Tip no. 4: Promote your book.

There are many ways to go about promoting your book of poems. You can make use of the power of the Internet to reach a truly worldwide audience. One way to approach this is by creating and maintaining your own blog or website that you can update regularly. Each reader of your blog becomes a potential customer. By providing a link to an online store or by selling your book on your own website will be a great way in making your book accessible. Actively promoting your book will help increase sales and consequently, will make all your efforts worthwhile.

Tip no. 5: Cherish the whole experience.

Being able to write beautiful poetry and getting your writings published are challenging tasks. One must therefore take joy in this whole experience, otherwise, the pursuit will feel more of a burden rather than an opportunity for self-fulfillment.

Poems do provide you with the opportunity for self-expression; publishing your poetry will result in a deeper sense of fulfillment since these become accessible to other individuals whose hearts and minds will be touched by your words.

With the five tips here, you can publish your poems the smart way; publishing won't be such a puzzle anymore. You have learned now the necessary information that can help increase your chances of having your work available to the whole world.

With the right promotions, as mentioned, you will get the chance to earn some money in this not so lucrative market. More so, and the most important tip perhaps, is to learn to cherish the whole experience, and not forget that self-fulfillment is the better aim of all these.

These tips, in essence, point out that publishing your own poetry is not a problem-if you do it the smart way.

David C. Cook hails from the south east region of Australia, about an hour or so from the alpine mountains of the country. He's a husband and father to two adult children and four grandchildren. He is the published author of the best selling 'how to' poetry book "The Insider Secrets on How To Write Poetry".

If you want to learn how to write a poem, consider taking Poetry Lessons. Whether you are an intuitive writer or a writer that needs some concrete help and direction, there are a few steps or pointers that can be of tremendous help.

Read. Read all the various forms of poetry -- ballads, limericks, haiku, sonnets, quatrains, couplets, free verse and more. Read once for pleasure and impression. Read through a second time with a more clinical eye. Watch for simile, metaphor, alliteration and onomatopoeia. Look for hyperbole and personification. Observe how the poet puts these devices to work in his or her poem.

Write. Write without pressure. To this end, most poets and writers employ a journal. In my opinion, the cheaper the journal, the better. A big, thick inexpensive notebook invites creativity. Yes, you are committing words to the page, but there are so many pages that there is room to romp and experiment. If it's hard to get started on this poetry lesson, write 'about' the poem, rather than actually writing the poem itself. Before you know it, a few words or phrases will come to mind, and you can capture them on the page. And off you go.

Rewrite. There are two school of thought on rewrites. Some writers love them -- and many do not. I'm an active fan of the rewrite club. To me, rewriting is an important part of learning how to write a poem. It is so much fun to take a raw poem, look at it with fresh eyes, and then put it into shape. Put in a word, take out a word. Smooth and shape. Make as close to perfect as possible, keeping in mind that only God achieves perfection!

For more information about Poetry Lessons and how to write a poem, go to http://www.Funny-Poems-for-Free.com.

Poetry is dead. There are poets in abundance, but they are amateurs, generally not paid or praised for their chosen art form. The sonnet is gone, mostly forgotten, the words of the epic poem have grown weary, and stale, the entire world of poetry as we know it, as we once knew it, is gone forever.

However it still exists. Maybe it has even evolved, from the mere words and rhyme and measure into something new, something as powerful if not more so.

In the ancient world there were two major lyrical arts. There was poetry, which used words to create emotions riding upon cadences and literary tricks and plays on word and rhyme and tone. Then, there was music, which worked in mostly unspoken terms, merely evoking the stirring of the spirits beneath the human façade.

Today however, these art forms generally do not exist without one another. There is a little music, often electronic, sometimes experimental, which doesn't bother with words; however these songs usually do not gain widespread exposure.

On the other hand there is still poetry; we have the profound works of the great Maya Angelou, as well as the wisdom of Shel Silverstein, yet these two are rare successes in a world which finds such art forms largely irrelevant.

Instead the two practices have melded, forged together to create an entirely new vision of expression. The beauty of words spoken, meaning, profound depth set to the emotional power of song, tone, rhythm, and flow. Together they are an ultimate art, which has largely destroyed the ancestral arts which gave them birth.

It's a natural process. While poetry is based on words, it has always shown truest when those words were spoken well, with cadence, with lilt, with an understanding of the way sounds trill together to form an almost lyrical quality.

The same is true of music on the opposite end. The powerful sounds which blast from voice and horn always meant something, always moved people, giving rise to thoughts, emotions, and ideas that were too subtle to understand amidst the blaring of the symphony. But there were words there; humanity simply did not know exactly how to interpret them.

The change occurred when we started to record sound. It was only then that the written words of the poet could finally come alive, be breathed, be understood according to the living fire that was behind them.

The same again is true of music, which now could flow passionately out of a simple box, sending signals of emotion, power, and passion into peoples ears right in there very homes.

It wasn't an idea to combine the two, it was natural, it was built into the system. Once you started to put words to the emotion of song, once you started combining vocabulary with the movement of a symphony, suddenly both arts became clear in a way that our ancestors could never understand. The two halves of the whole were finally united.

At first this gave rise to great works of poetry. Wordsmiths, now equipped with the power of song in their hearts, could create poems which were that much more profound, that much more powerful, because they incorporated the real time element of rhythm into their every verse.

However eventually, the truth of these bedfellows could not be denied. They are united by purpose, by goal, by the very fact of their own creative existence. They are two halves of a coin finally joined in the mind of the artist by the possibilities of technology and the inspiration of a new world.

Poetry is not dead, it has evolved, into a million songs screaming into the night, into dances and bonfires and movements and a world which could not have existed before, and which will only grow, as the power of the art continues to evolve.

This article was written by Jim Slate on behalf of http://www.RolePages.com - An experimental fictional community, which is trying to push the boundaries of art, literature, and creativity. Using a variety of interactive means, RolePages.com seeks to unite the new technologies of the internet, with the artists of the world, to create something which nobody has ever seen before.