Fill out a U.S. Copyright Office TX registration form online or contact the office and request a hard copy. Registration is technically a formality, but it makes your copyright available in public records and will definitely give you an advantage in an infringement suit (see Resources).
Prepare a copy of your work to send with your form to the Copyright Office. For unpublished work, only one copy is necessary. For published work, two copies are needed: one for the Copyright Office; one for the Library of Congress. If you register online, you may also be able to submit your work online. If not, you can print a shipping slip to include with your other paperwork. Hard copy deposits must adhere to the "Best Edition" requirements on the Copyright Office's website.
Pay the nonrefundable processing fee. You can pay with a credit card online, but only a check or a money order is accepted with a mailed submission.
Submit your registration form, deposit and payment in the same package. If that's impossible, number the packages with the total. For example, if you have three packages, write one of three on the first one.
Hire a subsidy publisher (also called a "vanity" publisher) to create a book for you. A subsidy publisher will print and bind your book. It will also assign it an ISBN number and distribute it to sellers such as Amazon.com. You will usually receive royalty payments on every book sold; but often, a larger percentage of the profit goes to the publisher. Check online for subsidy publishers and compare your options.
Submit your work to literary magazines and websites. Look online and in bookstores for sites and publications. Learn their submission guidelines. Sometimes literary magazines have contests with publications as part of the prize, but it usually does not cost anything to directly submit your work, except for postage costs.
Use your own word processing and imaging software to print your work. Bind the pages by hand or take them to a professional press.
Create your own literary website to showcase your poems. Find a website offering free web hosting. Work with the provided templates or design your own visuals. Upload your work.