If it’s Tuesday, it must be Open Link Night here at dVerse Poets Pub, which has, in less than a month, become appointment viewing for the Internet poetry community.

I’m Joe Hesch and I’ll be hosting tonight, which is pretty funny to me because I only started writing poetry a scant handful of years ago and only have posted it online since this past February.

What got me there (and here) was the spirit of sharing and community extended to this unknown writer by Claudia Schönfeld. Her encouraging comments, and that of other poets out here in the rough and tumble Web world, like my dear friend Natasha Head, gave me the confidence to keep writing and posting.  It’s that gracious spirit that one of my literary heroes, the American poet William Stafford addressed in his book “Writing the Australian Crawl.” He said:

“The literary world is a community in that one interchanges with others naturally and becomes an insider, not by deals and stealth, but by a natural engagement with the ongoing work of other writers, editors, and publishers.”

And that’s what dVerse and Open Link Night are all about–we’re all in this together and it’s nice to know what our peers think of our efforts. It’s even nicer to let them know what you think of theirs. Remember, we are here for each other. Engage your fellow poets, comment, let them know their work is being read, and enjoy and grow from the comments you  receive.

So let’s get this Summer block party rocking.

Here’s the recipe:

• Post a poem to your blog,
• Link your poem to dVerse (1 per blog, please) by clicking on the Mr.Linky button below.
• This opens a new screen where you’ll enter your information, and where you also choose links to read. Once you have pasted your poem’s blog url and entered your name, click Submit.
• Don’t forget to let your readers know where you’re linking up and encourage them to participate by including a link to dVerse in your blog post. (Something I too often forget to do, so this is a reminder for me, too.)
• Visit as many other poems as you like, commenting  as you see fit.
• Spread the word on the poems you enjoy if you’d like. Feel free to tweet and share on the social media of your choice.
• Enjoy being part of this community.