Poets House

It's at 72 Spring Street in SoHo, and it's one of those little-known great places in New York.

Founded in 1985 by Stanley Kunitz and Elizabeth Kray, its mission is to provide a place for poetry and to document poetry in the culture.

It now numbers over 225,000 annual visitors to its website - poetshouse.org - and bricks-and-mortar location.

The mother lode is a 45,000-volume poetry library, with a reading room full of soft, comfy chairs to while away an afternoon.

I guarantee you no one looking for you will think to look here.

The library's free and open to anyone, and includes books, journals, audiotapes, videos, and ephemera.

There's also a nice children's room with 1,000 origami mobiles and more than 700 children's poetry books.

Each year Poets House produces about 100 literary events.

Perhaps the most valuable resource, though, is its online directory.

It currently provides information on 15,476 poetry titles published between 1990 and Spring 2004.

It's fully searchable by author, title, editor or translator, publisher, publication date, book type, and any keyword from the description.

You can sort your results by author, title or publisher.

It's considered the most comprehensive information about American poetry books and their publishers available anywhere.

Bonus: the directory page also has tons of information and resources regarding how to go about getting your poetry published.