The day we’ve all been waiting for is nearly here — April 1, and the official start to Na/GloPoWriMo 2022.

That said, April 1 starts a bit earlier for some of you than it does here on the east coast of the United States, what with that whole earth-spinning-on-its-axis and international-date-line thing.

For those of you who want to get a jump on things (either because it’s already April 1 where you are or, who knows, maybe you’re just a glutton for poetry!), we’ve got a special early-bird prompt, based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson.

Dickinson is known for her elliptical style, unusual word choices, and mordant sense of humor. Over the past year, I’ve experimented with writing poems based on, or responding to, various lines from her poems. Today, I’d like to challenge you to do the same! Here are a few lines of Dickinson’s that might appeal to you (the slashes indicate line breaks):

• “Forever might be short”
• “The absence of the Witch does not / Invalidate the spell”
• “If to be ‘Elder’ – mean most pain – / I’m old enough, today”
• “The second half of joy / Is shorter than the first”
• “To be a Flower, is profound / Responsibility –

And if none of those inspire you, you can find many of her poems here.

For those of you getting a jump-start on April, happy writing! As for the rest of you, I’ll see you back here tomorrow with our first “official” prompt, featured participant and featured online magazine.

We’re so close to April 1! As in prior years, we’ll be posting an optional prompt every day, to help those of you who are having trouble getting started, and to introduce everyone to different forms, themes, and ways of generating drafts! We’ll also be featuring an online poetry magazine each day — we hope you’ll find them to be great resources for discovering new poets/poems, and maybe even places to submit your own work for publication.

We’ll be back tomorrow with an early-bird prompt. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please write us at napowrimonet-AT-gmail-DOT-com.

Today is March 29th, and that means just three days remain until April 1, and the kickoff of National/Global Poetry Writing Month 2022! I hope you are getting in the mood for poetry — you know, getting out your quill pens, your flouncy shirts, and finding suitably lyrical and romantic trees to sit under while penning your newest verses. Or at least getting a blank MS Word document open and ready to type in!

New participants’ sites are being added to our list every day, and we’ll keep those submissions open throughout the month of April. But I’d also like to give a shoutout to all of those who will be writing, but who won’t be posting your poems online. You are also part of Na/GloPoWriMo!

Hello, everyone! April 1 is just half a month away, and that means Na/GloPoWriMo 2022 is nearly upon us. I hope you’re excited for this year’s challenge, and that you’re sharpening your poetry pencils (or, er, your keyboards) in anticipation.

We’ll be back in the three days leading up to April 1, but in the meantime, we have a fun new resource for any of you that are interested not just in writing poetry, but in potentially submitting your poems to magazines for publication. If you’ve tried to publish before, you know that it involves a lot of research — you have to find magazines that you think would be interested in your work, track to see when they’re open for submissions, understand their guidelines, etc. I call it “Poetry Administration,” and sometimes I wish I were a rich Victorian gentleman-poet who could hire a young man of good education and poor fortune as my private secretary, just to deal with it.

Well, I’m not a rich Victorian gentleman — and I suspect that you aren’t either! But here comes a new website, chill subs, which takes some of the angst and guesswork out of poetry submissions. The website lets you search journals by the genres they publish, whether they’re open for submissions, and what their general “vibe” is. It’s not just a good way to find submissions opportunities, it’s a great way to discover journals that may have been previously unfamiliar, and to find new poets and poems as well.

Hello, everyone!

It may be hard to believe that we’re starting March already, but we are. And that means that National/Global Poetry Writing Month is just 30 days away! Haven’t heard of Na/GloPoWriMo? Well, this is your opportunity, whether you’re a published poet, a beginner, or just someone who loves a challenge, to try your hand at writing a poem a day for the month of April.

How does it work? Simple — just write a poem every day from April 1 to April 30. If you’ll be posting your efforts to a blog or other internet space this year, you can submit the link using our “Submit Your Site” form, and your website will show up in our “Participants’ Sites” list.

And if you’re not planning to post your work online? No worries! Na/GloPoWriMo doesn’t require that at all. All you have to day is write a poem a day for April.

As in prior years, we’ll be posting an optional daily prompt to help you get inspired, as well as featuring a different participant each day. This year, we’ll also be featuring a different online poetry magazine each day, with the hopes that you’ll be able to discover new poems and poets that you like, and perhaps even identify some good places to submit your own work.

For those of you that would like buttons/badges to post on your blogs or websites to show your participation, here is this year’s crop!:

And a hint for those of you who would like to communicate with fellow Na/GloPoWriMo-ers — if you click on the title to each day’s post, you’ll find that the title is a link that will take you to a page specific to that day’s post, with a comment section. This is a great place to post links to your daily output during Na/GloPoWriMo, and to find other participants’ poems.

Finally, we hope you’ll allow a little plug for the brand-new (just launched today!) poetry collection written by Na/GloPoWriMo’s founder, Maureen Thorson.

It’s called Share the Wealth, and you can find more information here. There will also be a virtual launch reading for the book on March 8 — more info on that here!

We’ll be back on the 15th of March, as we build up to our count-down to April 1! And if you have questions in the meantime, please contact us at napowrimonet AT gmail DOT com.