Da da da da da - da da!

Why you ask? Well...

There's a new way of browsing the site, which you're going to love. It's called Poet Watching and you'll find it under the experiments section of the site.

Eliot and I thought it'd be nice for you to be able to pretend you're in a Cafe in the arty left bank of Paris, so grab yourself a hot chocolate, celebrate with a marshmallow or two and join us for a bit of people watching on Hello Poetry.

You can now browse on the Poet Watching page by checking out people's profile pictures and deciding whose picture poetry you're intrigued by.

It makes a great addition to the numerous ways you can already explore Hello Poetry — by latest activity in the community, via the word cloud, by collections, by newness, and by individual poets of course.

What we both found surprising was just how large the Hello Poetry community is. It took me a good twenty times of refreshing the page to get someone that I recognised, and I thought I knew a lot of people on here!

Poet Watching randomly selects 9 lucky poets, each just one click away from reading their poetry. The lucky nine are selected only from the people with profile pictures — which is another reason to get yourself a great profile picture.

I have to say, personally, I find it a really addictive way of reading poetry. It's really as though you see a passer-by and all you have to do is click to get a little window into their poetic soul. It's a great way to learn about your own preconceptions — can you tell what someone's poetry is going to be like from the photo they have chosen to present themselves with? Or are your preconceptions way off?

Either way, it's fascinating stuff and a brilliant way to kick start a little reading ramble on Hello Poetry.