Quick Muse (www.quickmuse.com)
Reviewed by Jon Labrousse

I found this website through a write-up in the April/May issue of Edutopia magazine.  Basically, it's an archive of poems in the act of composition.  The Site gets famous poets to agree to go on-line at a specific date and time.  The poet is given a writing prompt and 15 minutes.  The site then records their every keystroke in the 15 minutes.  The audience gets to see the poem in the act of composition.  Pretty cool.

I chose to note this site over some other possible cool sites, because it's such a unique idea.  All of the poems are archived, so you can go back and watch any of them.  Thankfully, they have a fast forward button, as well, because sometimes nothing happens for five minutes or more while the poet is thinking.

What's great about it, where the really cool potential for students (and the rest of us mortals) lies, is the way it demystifies the poetry writing process.  We often place poetry on some kind of untouchable pedestal.  Watching the poem grow and be revised before our very eyes is a valuable lesson: no one gets it right the first time.  Writing, even writing poetry, is a process.  It's valuable to actually be able to watch it happen.