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John Anderson Biography

I was born under the star sign 'Pisces' and as the saying goes "You can't get over that". I have life-long interests in water, fish, the sea, sailing and everything wet and aquatic. I have a scientific background in the environment and fisheries. I have written extensively on many topics. I have created and manage a gaggle of websites. I have now retired and live in the 'Shark Shack' by the sea near Jervis Bay, on the South Eastern coast of Australia. I sail, fish, walk, dive and swim as much as I can with the motto: 'Diving for Pearls'. My main focus is on didactic poems. I love the poems of Dylan Thomas and my favorite movie is 'Under Milk Wood' (a radio play, made into a film). I also like Les Murray. My website is Poetry Community http://www.poetrycommunity.com. Cheers!

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Does Poetry Soup Need a SPOON?

Blog Posted by John Anderson: 7/29/2017 1:18:00 AM

Is Poetry Soup a depository for member poems rather than a place to read poems? How do you find the lastest poems to read? OK you can scroll way down and find Poems: New (All) Poems: New (PM) etc. and see fearured poems at the bottom of the page, but these items are buried in the soup.

The top of the page is all administration stuff for members. There is no POEMS link at the top of the page!!! It is even worse on mobile devices and for various forms of poetry. I defy anyone to quickly see all the latest haiku poems for example, or sonnets. [your time starts now]

Don't get me wrong I am a lifetime member and fully committed to the site. BUT I believe that the site needs a major makeover so people can come to the site and READ poems. This could be done with a new page for READERS either as the homepage with a link to all the member stuff or as an additional page accessed by a large link at the top of the home page.

Back to my question how do you see all the latest Haiku or Sonnets? It should be a piece of cake, not via digging for carrots buried in the soup!!! On a mobile device it is almost impossible to find. What do you think?

PS to read poems you have to know to click the tiny weenie Read poems link in the blurb at the top of the page and then click one of the trending topics. Otherwise you have to click forms select H, scroll to find Haiku and then click the View all new Haiku Poems link.buried within the page There has to be a BETTER WAY!!!! IMO of course.

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Indiana Shaw

September 12, 2017 at 6:48 PM

Stuff the spoon - But I sure do like "Under Milk Wood" narrated by "Richard Burton" . . . : )

Connie Pachecho

July 30, 2017 at 12:58 AM

I like the title. For a spoon for thought and a ladle for naught. A soup to sigh and a stew to be.

Agnes Krampe

July 29, 2017 at 7:42 PM

If I wanted to see the latest Haiku or Sonnets, I would go to Poems:New(All)and sort by form. I don't find this partucularly cumbersome, but of course, that shows only the haiku within the 200 latest poems. I found the links pretty self explaining.

John Anderson

July 29, 2017 at 7:50 PM

Yes, but it is cumbersome, and you only get 5 haiku currently in the top 200. Bit disappointing!

James Fraser

July 29, 2017 at 4:37 PM

If we're all singing from the same Hymn Sheet, the navigation should be easily enough to follow. Sadly it's not that way. The Soup does it's best to allow such navigation to allow smooth familiarity. To me 'Manage Poems' should be 'Your Poems' linked to the persons account. The Manage prompts should all be accessible via 'Your Poems' or under an Avatar so that one click enters all. This will leave scope, Menu wise for the Soup to use accordingly. Just a thought...

Andrea Dietrich

July 29, 2017 at 4:04 PM

John, I never worry about such things because I am always so busy trying to keep up with all my friends' poetry. However, I do like Brian says below if I ever want to see haiku. I just type it in Search at the top and try the links that suit my purpose. However, the best thing is to simply use the list of the poets you follow and go to their list of poetry and click on Form. From there, you can visit all their work in any form you prefer. If I want New poems only, I go to the New poems All or New Poems PM. then I just scan through it to see who has written a sonnet or haiku or whatever for the day. Yeah, the site needs a youtube tutorial or something!

Andrea Dietrich

July 29, 2017 at 4:05 PM

It took me a good year to become proficient here and there are still things I can't do to this day!

John Anderson

July 29, 2017 at 3:21 PM

Simple improvements would be to => 1. Replace 'Poem of the Day' with the 'Poems' link. 2. Add 'Poem of the Day' to the poems page and improve the page by adding more links for New (All), New (PM), New (1 Per) Best etc. etc. Make it more user friendly ALSO change the search tool so that you can search for a form (Haiku, Sonnet, Ballad, etc.) WITHOUT having to select a category OR keyword. This would list poems for the form beginning with the latest as the *New Poems* link does. Making the site more Reader Friendly should boast hits! Poets like their poems read!

Cyndi Macmillan

July 29, 2017 at 8:04 AM

There are many ways to read, here. If you click on Poems: New (ALL) you can sort the forms by clicking on forms and all the haiku will line up for you. If you want instant poems to read, follow poets and then click on the "poets you follow" and you will have three pages of poems to read. There's even a poem random choice. By going to new poems, clicking the form option, I saw a dozen of the newest haiku poems to read in less than a second. Does this help? The only thing I'd like to see is Member Poets/Poems to be moved ABOVE Soup Social links... then poets wouldn't have to take a millisecond to scroll down to New Poems. This being said, I refuse to spend my time outside on a phone. People who are hooked into electronic devices miss out on conversations (I mean actual face to face, real time conversations,) poetry in the motion of trees, traffic, elders and youth walking side-by-side. Technology can help...or it can make people lazy, demanding and self-absorbed. I find poetry on the streets... did yesterday in a fender bender that happened right in front of me and my daughter and she said, "It all happened so quickly. One minute they were apart. The next they came together, even if they didn't want it. The accident made them meet." Poetry. In real time and off a device. It's like finding a poem on line. We move and then we meet.

John Anderson

July 29, 2017 at 12:46 PM

OK, but imagine how hard it is for newcomers to the site to find that New(ALL) link!

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