Hi the9crow,

Welcome to the forum.

I've taken a look at LoadsOfOades, though I haven't been able to study the content, as yet (although I have bookmarked it for later - I also visit Poetry.Com). But, I have to agree with some of the previous comment;

It may sound like the rantings of a luddite but; To my mind, if a site is dealing with the written word it is best presented in the traditional way, i.e. black copy on a white background. As I said this may sound like a step backward but the concept of black ink on white(ish) paper has been very successful for millennia, and I've no doubt will remain so for many more.

Certainly dark copy on a light background has been shown to be preferred in survey after survey when it comes to text-based pages. In addition, light on dark can cause problems with page printing on some browsers (and prove expensive printing if background colour printing hasn't been disabled).

Having said all that, your current colour scheme isn't a problem for me personally, as far as readability is concerned. However, on a design/concept level I think it is a tad dark in nature. I know much poetry deals with, shall we say, dark issues (angst, death, sorrow, sadness, etc.) and a dark page may suit such thoughts and remeberings, but there is just as much verse offering more joyous sentiments, and there's the rub. Maybe a solution would be to Zone the poetic content and have colour schemes to suit. However, such a strategy may confuse visitors, as an overall, site-wide design template is always preferable in terms of continuity.

TFC
Nothing is a problem for me...