Digital poetry is a form of electronic literature with a wide range of approaches to poetry that all have in common prominent and crucial use of computers. Digital poetry can be available on the World Wide Web or Internet (via email lists, for instance), CD ROM, DVD, as installations in art galleries, in certain cases also recorded as DV or film.

A significant portion of current publications of poetry are available either only online or via some combination of online and offline publication. There are many types of 'digital poetry' such as hypertext, kinetic poetry, computer generated animation, digital visual poetry, code poetry, experimental video poetry, and poetries that take advantage of the programmable nature of the computer to create works that are interactive, or use generative or combinatorial approach to create text (or one of its states), or involve sound poetry, or take advantage of things like listservs, blogs, and other forms of network communication to create communities of collaborative writing and publication (as in poetical wikis).

Digital computers allow the creation of art that spans different media: text, images, sounds, and interactivity via programming. Contemporary poetries have, therefore, taken advantage of this toward the creation of works that synthesize both arts and media. Whether a work is poetry or visual art or music or programming is sometimes not clear, but we expect an intense engagement with language in poetical works.
Some pioneers of e-poetry in Europe, developing Italian and Russian Futurism, concrete poetry, visual poetry, performance, interactive art, hypertext include:

- Joan Brossa (E)

(Barcelona 1919 - 1998) In 1977 the Catalan poet, playwright, graphic designer and plastic artist Joan Brossa experimented with a computer in order to compose sestinas, one of his favourite forms. After inputting the formula of this poem and the six rhyme-words, the computer composed hundreds of sestinas. However only one interested the poet, and so has been published under the title "Cybernetic sestina" (Brossa, Joan. Viatge per la sextina. Barcelona: Quaderns Crema, 1987, p. 116).

- Gianni Toti (I)

(Rome 1924 - Rome 2007) In the early 80 the Italian journalist, poet, writer Gianni Toti begun an experimentation where he mixed poetry, cinema, and electronic art. He called it “poetronica”. Many of his works were realized in the 90s in collaboration with CICV (Centre de Recherche Pierre Schaeffer - in Montbéliard-Belfort, France). He is considered the father of electronic poetry. Among his long electronic video-poem-operas: Originedite (1994), Planetopolis (1993), Tupac Amauta (1997).

- Caterina Davinio (I)

Italian poet, writer, artist, she realized computer poetry animations since 1990, exhibited in Rome since 1992. In 1997 in the Venice Biennale, in VeneziaPoesia. Since 1998 she created in the Internet Karenina.it, the first net-poetry on line, a conceptual art project where network e-communication is assumed as material for art and concrete poetry. Net-Poetry was exhibited for the first time in the Venice Biennale in 2001 (Bunker Poetico on line event).

- Lello Masucci (I)

Italian artist, writer, computer poetry. From 1990 it works to the creation of an art electronic. Since 2000 she created in the Internet lellomasucci.net a conceptual art project.

- “Alire“ (experimental e-poetry review) (F)

Founded by Philippe Bootz, Frédéric Develay, Jean-Marie Dutey, Claude Maillard et Tibor Papp, it is considered as the oldest digital-review in Europe.

- “Doc(K)s” (Experimental art review, Ajaccio, F)

Founded by Julien Blaine. New series (since 1990) directed and edited by Akenaton (Philippe Castellin, Jean Torregrosa) and Julien Blaine, focalizes on new media poetry. "Doc(k)s" is an international multimedia and multilanguage review of experimental art, concrete poetry, visual poetry, performance, new media art. A point of reference for the international avant-garde. In this review have been published representative samples of experimental poetry, new media poetry, digital poetry. Paper and then +CD/DVD in the 90s. Since 1997 on line.

- Jean-Pierre Balpe (F)

In the 90s utilizes sound, text, imagege digital generators.

- Reiner Strasser (Be)

Net-artist since 1996. Poetry related works since 1998 (involving picture, word, sound, hypertext): r.i.c. (reflection, imagination, communication), Weak blood (1999), Amour and conscience (1999).

- Alexis Kirke

British hypertext poet. Editor of first UK internet poetry magazine "Brink" (1995/6), which featured two early internet Hyperpoems he wrote, as well as his article "The Emuse: Symbiotics and the Principles of Hyperpoetry".