As of today, we’re 2/3 of the way through Na/GloPoWriMo. I hope you feel like you’re on the downhill slope, coasting towards thirty days of successful poetic endeavor!

Our featured participant today is Catching Lines, where aliens and bears are only some of the remembered terrors provided in response to Day 19’s prompt.

Today’s poetry resource is a little discussion about poetry in bookstores. There are plenty of bookstores around with good poetry sections (two of my favorites are Bridge Street Books in Washington, DC and Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick, Maine). But did you know that there are also a handful of bookstores that only sell poetry? Check out Boston’s Grolier Poetry Bookshop, Berl’s Brooklyn Poetry Shop, and Seattle’s Open Books.

And now for our (optional) prompt, once more taken from our archives! Have you ever heard someone wonder what future archaeologists, whether human or from alien civilization, will make of us? Today, I’d like to challenge you to answer that question in poetic form, exploring a particular object or place from the point of view of some far-off, future scientist? The object or site of study could be anything from a “World’s Best Grandpa” coffee mug to a Pizza Hut, from a Pokemon poster to a cellphone.

Happy writing!

Happy Wednesday, everyone, and happy nineteenth day of Na/GloPoWriMo.

Today’s featured participant is Elizabeth Burnam Poetry, where the abecedarian poem for Day 18 goes all the way down the alphabet and then all the way back up, while mocking corporate discourse.

For today’s daily resource I’d like to share this article about poetry and TikTok. When I first started writing poetry seriously, blogs were the big thing. That was twenty-five years ago, and now there’s poetry Twitter and poetry on Instagram and, yes, as new technology builds atop the old, poetry on TikTok.

And without further ado, here’s our daily (optional) prompt. For this challenge, start by reading Marlanda Dekine’s poem “My Grandma Told Stories or Cautionary Tales.” One common feature of childhood is the monsters. The ones under the bed or in the closet; the odd local monsters that other kids swear roam the creek at night, or that parents say wait to steal away naughty children that don’t go to bed on time. Now, cast your mind back to your own childhood and write a poem about something that scared you – or was used to scare you – and which still haunts you (if only a little bit) today.

Happy (shivery spooky) writing!

Welcome back, everyone, for Day Eighteen of Na/GloPoWriMo.

Today, our featured participant is words & words, where you’ll find a lovely reminiscence on reeds and the wind in response to Day 17’s prompt inviting you to play with repetition and with correspondences between human life and the natural world.

Our daily resource is the YouTube channel of Harvard’s Woodberry Poetry Room. Here, you can check out more than 100 videos of poetry readings, lectures, and discussions. There’s much to explore!

Finally, here’s our prompt for the day, once again taken from our archives and, as always, optional. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write an abecedarian poem – a poem in which the word choice follows the words/order of the alphabet. You could write a very strict abecedarian poem, in which there are twenty-six words in alphabetical order, or you could write one in which each line begins with a word that follows the order of the alphabet. This is a prompt that lends itself well to a certain playfulness. Need some examples? Try this poem by Jessica Greenbaum, this one by Howard Nemerov or this one by John Bosworth.

Happy writing!

Hello, all, and happy seventeenth day of Na/GloPoWriMo.

Our featured participant for the day is Glenn Mitchell, who brings us a quietly compelling poem in response to Day 16’s “negation” prompt.

Today’s resource is a pair of online reading series. If you’re looking for a regular poetry fix you can enjoy from the comfort of your laptop, why not try the Poets in Pajamas series, which hosts readings every month? Poet and professor Jordan Stempleman also hosts a monthly reading which you can attend online (and you can also access archived videos of past readings). Just click here, and then on “A Common Sense Reading Series” at the top of the page.

And now, for our daily (optional) prompt! Begin by reading Sayuri Ayers’ poem “In the Season of Pink Ladies.” A pretty common piece of writing advice is that poets should know, and use, the precise names for things. Don’t say flower when you can say daisy. Don’t say bird when you mean a hawk. Today’s challenge asks you to write a poem that contains the name of a specific variety of edible plant – preferably one that grows in your area. (That said, if you’re lacking inspiration, online seed catalogs provide a treasure trove of unusual and charming names for vegetables, fruits and flowers. Here’s one to get you started.) In the poem, try to make a specific comparison between some aspect of the plant’s lifespan and your own – or the life of someone close to you. Also, include at least one repeating phrase.

Happy writing!

Happy Sunday, everyone, and welcome back for the sixteenth day of Na/GloPoWriMo.

Our featured participant today is 7eyedwonder, who brings us a sly take on an old French teacher in response to Day 15’s invitation to consider troubling heroes.

Today’s resource is Poetry Northwest’s online collection of essays exploring different poets, craft elements, and styles of poetry.

And now, without further ado, our optional daily prompt, once again pulled from our archives. Today’s prompt is a poem of negation – yes (or maybe, no), I challenge you to write a poem that involves describing something in terms of what it is not, or not like. For example, if you chose a whale as the topic of your poem, you might have lines like “It does not settle down in trees at night, cooing/Nor will it fit in your hand.”

Happy writing!

Today marks the halfway point of Na/GloPoWriMo – I hope you and your poems are going strong!

You all really hit it out of the park yesterday, with your parodies and satires in response to Day 14’s prompt. I couldn’t choose just one — so we have two featured participants today. First up is Poem Dive, with a paean to the ubiquitous smartphone, and second, Orangepeel, with a timely grouse about the Internal Revenue Service (for those of you elsewhere, April 15 is traditionally the day that annual tax returns are due in the United States).

Today’s resource is Where to Submit, a feature of Heavy Feather Review. Updated every few months, this is a good resource for open calls for submission for journals, anthologies, chapbooks, presses, fellowships, and other poetry-related opportunities.

Finally, here’s our (optional) prompt for the day. Begin by reading June Jordan’s “Notes on the Peanut.” Now, think of a person – real or imagined – who has been held out to you as an example of how to be or live, but who you have always had doubts about. Write a poem that exaggerates the supposedly admirable qualities of the person in a way that exposes your doubts.

Happy writing!

Two weeks of Na/GloPoWriMo already? Wow!

Our featured participant today is Lisa Takes Flight, who offers us a quartet of little comic poems in response to Day Thirteen’s invitation to write poems that follow the beats of a joke.

Today’s featured resource is actually more a series of possibilities. Over the past few years – prompted in many cases by the pandemic – organizations that used to host in-person poetry workshops have increasingly moved their offerings online. These range from a few hours focused on a particular topic to multi-week intensives. They’re not always (or usually, even) cheap, but if you’re trying to push your writing in a new direction, or devote serious time to working on a particular issue (like revision, or organizing a manuscript), they can be very helpful. While there are a very large number of organizations that present such online workshops, here are a few to give you a sense of the kinds of offerings you might see: Poets House Workshops and Classes, Maine Writers & Publishers Workshops, and Poetry Barn Workshops.

And now for our (optional) daily prompt. Hopefully, this one will provide you with a bit of Friday fun. Today, I challenge you to write a parody or satire based on a famous poem. It can be long or short, rhymed or not. But take a favorite (or unfavorite) poem of the past, and see if you can’t re-write it on humorous, mocking, or sharp-witted lines. You can use your poem to make fun of the original (in the vein of a parody), or turn the form and manner of the original into a vehicle for making points about something else (more of a satire – though the dividing lines get rather confused and thin at times).

Happy writing!

Happy thirteenth day of Na/GloPoWriMo! While thirteen is often considered an unlucky number, any day that you write a poem has a special luck of its own.

Today’s featured participant is Aakriti Kuntal, whose “meta”-poetry response to Day Twelve’s respons features a host of unusual images.

Our resource for the day is Poets & Writers’ “Craft Capsules” feature. Here, you’ll find essays on craft elements ranging from revision to using narrative to the lyric “I.” While some of the essays are focused on fiction, their lessons are widely applicable across genres and writing styles.

Last but not least, here’s our prompt for the day (optional, as always). Start by taking a look at these three short poems by Bill Knott.

Dear Advice Columnist

I recently killed my father
And will soon marry my mother;
My question is
Should his side of the family be invited to the wedding?

To X

You’re like a scissors
popsicle I don’t know
whether to jump back
or lick

Quickie

Poetry
is
like
sex
on
quicksand
therefore
foreplay
should
be
kept
at
a
minimum

Now, try writing a short poem (or a few, if you’re inspired) that follows the beats of a classic joke. Emphasize the interplay between the form of the poem – such as the line breaks – and the punchline.

Happy writing!

During the twelve days of Christmas, you collect rings, partridges, pears, leaping lords, and other bizarre items. The first twelve days of Na/GloPoWriMo don’t offer anything so complicated, but twelve new poems is nothing to sneeze at!

Our featured participant today is Laura McGinnis, who brings us a charming little joke (in rhyme) in response to Day Eleven’s “overheard” prompt.

Today’s featured resource is another podcast: A Mouthful of Air. In each episode of this relatively new series, a contemporary poet (generally from the U.K.) discusses one of their poems or, alternatively, host Mark McGuinness discusses a classic poem, like Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “The Windhover.”

And now for another (optional) prompt from our archives. Today, I challenge you to write a poem that addresses itself or some aspect of its self (i.e., “Dear Poem,” or “what are my quatrains up to?”; “Couplet, come with me . . .”) This might seem a little “meta” at first, or even kind of cheesy. But it can be a great way of interrogating (or at least, asking polite questions) of your own writing process and the motivations you have for writing, and the motivations you ascribe to your readers.

Happy writing!

Happy Monday, all, and welcome back for the eleventh day of Na/GloPoWriMo.

Our featured participant today is Amita Paul, whose shanty in response to Day Ten’s prompt is as rollicking as the sea itself.

Today, our daily resource is Chill Subs. Since it was first created couple of years back as an easy way to find journals and magazines accepting submissions of poetry and other writing, the site has grown to include software for tracking your submissions, a blog with fun posts about writing, and much more. It’s free to join, and I know I’ve found it very helpful in seeking publication opportunities.

And finally, our (optional) prompt for the day. This prompt challenges you to play around with the idea of overheard language. First, take a look at Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem “One Boy Told Me.” It’s delightfully quirky, and reads as a list, more or less, of things that she’s heard the boy of the title – her son, perhaps? – say. Now,  write a poem that takes as its starting point something overheard that made you laugh, or something someone told you once that struck you as funny. If you can’t think of anything, here’s a few one-liners I picked out of the ever-fascinating-slash-horrifying archives of Overheard in New York.

•             So I asked my priest, and he said “I think you should see other people.”

•             Don’t say “no” to drugs. Say “no, thank you.”

•             You smell like you want to be alone.

•             Oh hi! We were just speaking very poorly about you!

•             I feel so elated! Wait…no, I mean, “violated.”

Happy writing!