Hello, digital dreamers and pub-posting poets. I’m Joe Hesch and I’ll be tipping bottles and twisting the taps for dVerse Poets Pub’s Open Link Night tonight. I’ll also serve some grog, if you’d like.

While digging my way out with a spoon from under “real” life in order to put together today’s Open Link Night intro, I recalled the first time I linked a poem to the online poetry community. It was at good old One Stop Poetry. I had been convinced by a friendly poet from Germany who I met via Twitter to start a blog upon which to post my new poetry. Her name? Claudia Schoenfeld. That was almost 14 months ago.

The first poem I posted was something I had written about my hesitance to venture from the safety of my home port (a desk at home or a notebook in my pocket) to brave the vast oceans of the poetic WWW. “Adrift on Social Seas” asked and then ultimately answered those questions when so many nice people (Some of whom I will consider close friends for the rest of my days) commented on it that week I linked it to One Stop. I haven’t missed a week since then. And I’ve got the windburn and callouses to prove it.

I recall this because, after a year, the supportive Internet poetry community has boomed with the dawn of dVerse. The curtains were pulled aside for us to enjoy that light by Brian Miller and, yes, Claudia Schoenfeld. Its been an honour to be a member of their crew since the beginning. Each Tuesday now, something like 150 poets cast away the lines and allow their verse vessels to drift the Web and be “ahoyed,” encouraged, and joined by a fleet of other such mariners.

I’m glad you could join us tonight for another voyage. (I apologize for the tortured nautical metaphor, but as I said above, I have a very small spoon and a daunting cave-in of reality lately.)

If you’re new to the pub, welcome, and here’s the drill:

• 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 worry if you don’t see your name right away.
• 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.
• Visit as many other poems as you like or can, commenting as you like or can, as well.
• 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.

Now, can one of you tell me how to make Grog? Or maybe you’d like something with a parasol in it…